Making Bread 6-30-14

Many of our recent posts have identified the daily hardships that Chadian people suffer through. In just 2 weeks we have learned so much, felt new "stresses".
Eating is no small task either:
Making bread in Chad

Bread is a mainstay for our family. With local peanut butter, it is an easy breakfast toasted on the stovetop and also a quick dinner as PB&J when you don't want to heat the house any further using the stove or oven.  But, the process of making our bread here has several steps which are a whole new experience.

Step 1: Dress for the market. 

This means changing out of our comfy and preferred shorts or capris into a long skirt or dress.  The girls and I also cover our heads; they prefer bandanas and I opt for a scarf. Though not all the women on the mission team do so, I believe covering my hair is why I received the lowest price on a SIM card to date from an Islamic vendor, Abdullai, over any other mission team member. Of course, it could have also been the fact that Grace is beautiful and only a year away from an acceptable age for marriage. I've been told we could fetch 10 camels for her which Emmie thought reasonable and worth discussing.

Step 2: Find a local guide as many vendors do not speak French and I've yet to learn prices for everything. Yesterday, I found Papa, who is a childless, young teen living on the compound as a semi-adopted child of another mission family.  They provide love & financial support, lodging, school fees and such for him.  Papa speaks English well, along with French and several other local languages. We spent the 15 min  walk to and from the market conversing in Franglais as I tried to increase my French vocabulary.  My first solo trip I hope to be armed with the knowledge of fair pricing for any item I plan to purchase

Step 3: Preview first before vendor selection

Once entering the open market area, you will pass by the tailors and cloth vendors, women selling produce, oil, doughnuts, and other vendors selling a variety of items from hardware, packaged noodles, bar soap, powdered milk, flip flops, plastic bins and cold sodas for the hot walk home.  It is advised when shopping for flour to first make a "window shopping" pass of all the merchants and their flour bowls. Of course. choose the vendor whose flour seems the least buggy. It is also acceptable and advisable to sift with your own hand and smell the flour as well. Once your best option is selected, choose your amount from filled nesting bowls stacked on top of one another (flour, sugar, spices, rice, beans, all dry pantry items are sold in this manner.) Watch as the merchant uses his bare hands to fill your bag with the amount desired. Pay for your buggy, open to dust and dirty hand sifted flour . Voila, we now have flour to bake bread. But the process isn't over... Part two will be tomorrow. We are too hot and tired from our trip to make bread today;)