Be Mine

Is there anything romantic to do in the midst of all of this chaos?  What do we do for romance?  What do missionary couples do to keep those sparks flying?  

Meeting Gary and Wendy in Lai (half-way to Club Med

Schedule dates is a good answer. 

But go where?  

That’s the problem.  There is NOWHERE to go!  If you have ever been here, you would understand.  If you haven’t, you probably will never understand (sorry).  

Sometimes you just want to get away.  Go to a nice restaurant.  Go for a walk in the park, etc, etc.  

For Valentine’s the lady folk decided to surprise the men folk with an outing.  A date really, but for the whole day.  Make a picnic, go out in the blazing hot sun…..but get away….anywhere!  

Beach Resort for free...just come to Tchad!

This turned out more difficult than we had expected. 

Left to right:  Olen and Danae, Rollin and Dolores, Jamie and Tammy, Wendy and Gary,
Jonathan and Melody

The biggest problem was that we were having issues with our MCD (see previous blogs).  Olen was stuck with meetings scheduled the very morning we were to depart.  Tammy was preparing for a trip.  Gary doesn’t like secrets or surprises.  Jonathan and Melody were planning on being gone.  Nothing seemed to be going well to get this date underway.  It was going to be us and my parents going to the local river.  

Scott and Becky were here, but Scott (a US extremely qualified surgeon) had been banned from the hospital by our MCD.  He also had malaria and was sick.  Samedi was going to cover for any emergency surgeries.

I wanted to go to Club Med Lai, a 2 hour drive away.  

The morning of Valentine’s Day, we had decided not to operate until further notice because of issues with MCD telling people we were killing patients in the operating room.  Olen had meetings the whole morning.  Church people had come to “help” from NDJ.

The lovely ladies:  Wendy Dolores, Tammy, Danae, Melody

I didn’t think we were actually going to be able to leave.  I finished rounding though, and quickly packed stuff for a picnic of hot dogs and watermelon.

Somehow, everyone decided to come!  The wives had to be sneaky, but mostly we had to just tell the men what the stinkin’ plan was.  Olen was home by 11:30 am and said, “let’s go.”

So at that, we left.  We left our troubles for a brief few moments that afternoon...in search of romance on Cupid’s lovely day.   

Gary had to fly the plane to Lai, so we met him on the way.  

2 hours later...Club Med Lai!  

The men: Rollin, Gary, Jamie, Olen, Jonathan

Oh, how blissful.  Just like the Virgin Islands (plus a little cow poop).  So secluded.  Well, at least we didn’t know any of the kids peeping through the bushes.  You can never really get away here without someone watching you.  It’s true.  We live in a fishbowl.  But today it was a romantic fishbowl.  

We ate.  We swam and relaxed in the cool water with the temperatures soaring to 105 degrees out of the water.  We had a good time!  

It was an important bonding time for us all.  For couples.  For friends.  

It’s hard to get away here.  But the times you do are forever cherished.  

Enjoying the cool water at Club Med Lai

(And we also discovered the reason it’s called ‘Club Med’.  You need to see the doctor after swimming in that water!)