“Wait patiently” doesn’t mean the same thing in Africa as it does in the United States. In America, we might decide to come back later if the line has seven people waiting in it. We might call back if the waiting time is longer than ten minutes. Even 5 minutes microwave cooking time can seem like too long to wait!
And yet, when we wait in line in America, we expect that our patience is rewarded in the end. One of the features of life in the Third World, or where a disaster strikes, is that our patience isn’t always rewarded as we would hope.
How can we learn to make the most of the times we spend waiting for something, even if it ends up being waiting in vain?
Back in September 2010, our family needed to find a place to live in eastern Chad. We had just arrived back in Chad and were living in the capital city of N’Djaména, 14+ hours west of Abéché. A friend in the capital promised that we could rent his home in Abéché.
To start moving in, all I needed to do was to pick up the key from the Sultan, his brother. (more…)
In the four days since we have been on our own in the Aviles home, the town water has only run once, at 4 AM, giving us about 25 gallons (100 liters) of water into one of two plastic barrels in the kitchen. Such conditions push you to use the water to its greatest potential; we are re-using the water for rinsing the dishes in the morning, to wash them in the afternoon. Then we re-use the water for washing the dishes, to flush the toilet. In fact, we are gathering water in basins from the bathroom sink, from our showers (max 2 gallons per shower) and from washing the dishes to flush the toilet. So we use the water 2-3 times before we finish it.