We are here.

November 15, 2006, Wednesday

We are finally here and everyone is safe and well. We spent our 9 hour layover in Paris in the airport. We opted not to go into town due to inclement weather and the time it took to get through customs each time. We were disappointed, but this wasn't the purpose of the trip anyway, just a luxury. Jamie came down with the flu on his way here. He wasn't feeling well in Atlanta when we picked him up. We doctored him up with some Airborne and he is feeling well now.

We met Peter in Paris and in that long wait, we all got to know each other well. We arrived in N'Djamena at 4:55 our time Tuesday morning. There is a 6 hour time difference between here and the east coast. It was a miracle that I prayed for when we got all of our luggage and got through customs o.k. We then went to T.E.A.M. which is a hostile for missionaries. I showered and the others freshened up. Jamie, Peter and I took a little nap while the others went and got us registered with the police. After a few hassles with the police, being stopped and having to pay them off we were on our way to Béré. It was nicely paved most of the way. Pedestrians and animals here do not have the right of way. You just honk and keep going. If they don't get out of the way. Oh well.

We arrived here last night at 6:00 p.m., Béré time. We were exhausted. We pitched our tents outside and crashed. It has been an eventful day today. I have scanned three people already, two pregnant women and one man. The first pregnant women they thought she had twins. They were going to do surgery on her and tie her tubes, but when I scanned her, she was measuring only 35 weeks and had 25cm of amniotic fluid (a lot). Due to the babies age, James opted to wait a couple weeks on the surgery. The gentleman I scanned had appendicitis and will be operated on this afternoon. The other woman, a policeman's wife who was with her and had his gun, was unsure if she was still pregnant. I confirmed that she was 12 weeks along. They were both very happy.

Graham, Steve, Jamie, Peter and Rick have been evaluating the new building to see what supplies we will need to get from Kelo. They will go there today and get those so they can get started tomorrow.

I will write more tomorrow. All our love to our families and friends.

Kelli