Last week, Kendra was hoping to get a dress and since the best place to find those is at the market, we decided to go the next day.  What does a trip to the market look like in Chad?  Keep in mind that we have never lived in this city more than a week or two.  But, it went something like this…

I woke up and said, “Lord, we want to go to the market today but I’m not sure how to get there.” So I asked around to see what people said.  One lady said go this way, the other said go the opposite way.  I concluded that I felt most confident trusting lady number two, so Kendra, Sarah, and I set out with babies strapped on two of our backs. We tried to leave early which ended up being around 9am.  By that time it was 95℉.  I explained to them that I actually wasn’t sure how to get to the market but that I felt confident we would get there.  The Lord always brings a taxi or a person in our path to help us.  We walked towards the paved road and asked some women along the way if we were headed in the right direction. I flagged down the first taxi for hire I saw, after walking for 15 minutes, and asked him to take us to the “suug” (market).  It’s always tricky trying to figure out what to pay a driver because most of them ask for the moon, but I took a guess and he seemed to be fine with it.

After that we entered into the mélange of people, colors, mud, and movement.

Buying a dress or cloth here is generally an impulsive decision.  You see something and before the other sales guys have time to raise the price you make an offer.  Sometimes I try to barter but I’m really bad at it.  The technique is to ask how much the item costs, raise your eyebrows and click with a sour face and walk away.  The seller then says, “What will you give me?”  And you can make an offer.  Like I said, I’m really bad at that.  On this particular day we saw a man holding 5 dresses on his arm.  I asked how much and Kendra got to look at the different styles.  Within 2 minutes there were at least 10 other guys trying to up the price.  I had to laugh and tell them to go away because they were making “haraka katiir” (lots of noise) and I couldn’t concentrate.  We walked a little ways down and the original merchant followed us.  Kendra was able to choose one of the dresses, which she purchased, and we turned around to head back to the main road.

At about that time, Perpetua and Sophia began to cry.  They were hot, hungry and thirsty.  Within a couple minutes, we found ourselves inside the “dukkan” (shop) that had the cloth Sarah liked.  There sat two women on a mat.  One was nursing her  5-month old baby and the other was the grandma.  As we sat down to nurse our babies, we began to talk to the women, laugh with them, and eventually exchanged phone numbers with them.  Khadiija has already called to chat several times.  I’m hoping that we will get a chance to visit these women this week.

We finally said goodbye, got into another taxi, and headed back home.  You might think that after a two hour trip like that I would be worn out.  While it’s true that I was definitely hot, thirsty and hungry by the end of our time, I actually felt energized from our interaction.  I really enjoy meeting new people and sharing life with them.