This afternoon,
after much planning and preparing, we held our Christmas celebration for the
patients, relatives, staff and local religious and community leaders. A lot of Churches in the UK have supported
the work of Pastor Djibrine here at G2 hospital, thank you.
I thought it
would be good to take pictures throughout the day, so here they are, with some
descriptions as to what’s happening! The
event itself went well, even though to the untrained eye it may at times have
seemed a teeny-weeny bit like mini-chaos!
So without further ado, here are the pictures taken today. Merry Christmas from the desert of Chad J
A group of
ladies who live in the village of Guinebor II did the bulk of the food
preparation yesterday. It took all
day. Not surprising when you’re catering
for 200 people:
This lady is
taking a completed bowl of cooked meat (I forgot to ask what the meat was, it
was likely goat) to the food storage area at the hospital (aka my veranda):
The food that
was prepared was meat, gateaux (small plain doughnuts) and prawn crackers. Here it all is, ingeniously stored in plastic
containers that you may *think* are rubbish bins but aren’t actually used for
that purpose in this case, you’ll be pleased to know!
A pick-up
arrives with the first lot of chairs. We
hired in a canopy, chairs and a sound system (which worked fairly well with only
semi-frequent cuts):
The canopy was
put up in what seemed like the blink of an eye:
Pastor Djibrine
went to the wards to tell the patients and their relatives that the celebration
would be happening this afternoon and that they were all invited:
People started
assembling just after the time we were meant to start, meaning that we actually
started an hour late (not bad!):
A choir from a
local Church sang some songs, accompanied by some swaying:
A few of the
hospital staff did some readings and sang some songs:
There were also
three Bible readings, two in Chadian Arabic and one in French, about the birth
of Jesus. A pastor from a local Church
gave a short talk in Chadian Arabic about the prophecies of Jesus’ birth.
A local lady
who we know well at the hospital (she has a food stand outside where a lot of
the staff eat their lunch) joined us for the event:
As the event
was finishing, it was all hands to the deck to plate up the food and hand it
out along with water and a fizzy drink:
The food was
appreciated, as evidenced by the choir pictured here:
The
food-preparation ladies were around until the very end helping to clear up,
here’s a photo of them heading home:
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