Our first couple of years of traveling to our village in Chad were difficult. In 2004, it took up to 9 hours to drive to Mongo, and there was a long distance in the middle of our drive where the road was reduced to tire tracks in the dirt or sand. During a couple of these drives when we were following these tracks, some veered off in one direction, while others veered off in another, and it wouldn’t be clear which ones to follow. After a short while, we found that the tracks we picked eventually disappeared, and we knew we were lost.
As we looked at the scene before us, it didn’t look good. No road or people in sight, sub-Saharan land scattered with thorny shrubs seeming to stretch on forever. But while contemplating our predicament, out of a shrub would come a local man wondering what we were doing with our car and family there, and us, likewise wondering how this man seemed to pop up out of nowhere. We were relieved and hopeful that, in spite of the usual language barrier, he could point us back to the main “road”.
Then there were times when we knew where we were, but just wanted to stop the Landcruiser to take a break from the long, hard drive. We would find a lonely tree off the “deserted” road with the hopes of enjoying a private rest in the shade. But it wouldn’t be long before a wanderer or two would show up close by and watch us, and sometimes even approach us, usually asking for a hand-out.
As we would drive along these seemingly desolate roads, we started to realize that we were never really all that far away from the growing number of local people. In fact, Chad’s population, as well as several other African countries, has grown significantly in recent years, giving it one of the highest fertility rates in the world. The majority of women marry before age 18 and bear on average just over 6 children each. That is a population increase of 3% per year.
The number of children a family has is a big deal for Chadians. They know children come from God, and that children are a help to a family. In fact, some men may take a second wife if their first wife doesn’t bear enough children. Likewise, when a man has more than one wife, the wives feel competition for who will bring the most children to the family. (A striking similarity to Jacob’s 2 wives in Gen 29 and 30).
Now we both come from large families. (Art’s parents had 11 children and Denice’s had 10). And though we loved growing up with lots of siblings, there are issues in Chad which can make it more challenging than for us in first world countries; namely poverty, poor health care and lack of education.
These in turn lead to malnutrition and sometimes unfortunately the unnecessary death of mother or child. The growing population added to this impoverished nation also has other environmental concerns of overfishing and desertification, not to mention rivalries between clans over land for grazing and farming.
But what do you do in a country like Chad, which is one of the most undeveloped countries in the world with an adult literacy rate of only 22.3%? One that faces frequent droughts and floods, with Lake Chad (which 30 million people rely on) having shrunk to a tenth of its size in just 60 years.
We don’t have answers. But we still can’t help but congratulate and rejoice with friends in Chad on the birth of their children. Art even has a namesake in Chad for the help he offered to a needy family during the birth of their son. Children are a blessing. And we are so thankful for the people who are scattered throughout Sub-Sahara to rescue those of us who find themselves lost in the middle of “seemingly” nowhere.
https://www.ft.com/content/8411d970-7b44-11e6-ae24-f193b105145e