SNAKE BITE! 
From Ben and Anne Sibthorpe in CHAD
When I think about the people group I find most fascinating the traveling life of the Nomads really has to be up there for me. The thousands of kilometers they travel, on camels and with their goats, horses and donkeys, the ladies dressed regally in their striking red dresses, their brown skin and brown eyes.
I have had the amazing privilege of forming a relationship with one of these families. The head family of a Chadian nomad group which travels from Ati to Mao and onto N’djamena to search for food for their animals.
The first trip to the nomad camp was on horseback and we have visited on other times by car and shared sweet tea, smiles, thoughts and mobile phone numbers! We have taken a translator a few times as their language is Arabic. On one visit we went into their hut and sat on their sturdy bed, admiring the beautiful fabric that lined their tent and the kids played with the newly born baby goat under the bed. The lady, Zeneba, became larger and larger during consecutive visits as she grew with child. I wondered to myself what it would be like to give birth whilst traveling on a camel across hot dusty plains. They are so fascinating but what struck me on our first visit was how the chief of the group kept examining me as if I was fascinating to him.
One of our visits was to buy a goat from them we also got a camel ride, which was fun. They seemed very interested to find out where we lived and had asked to visit our house in Sabangali, N’djamena; this seemed only fair as we had seen their home. We arranged this visit last Saturday as we were already planning a camping trip by the river on the Friday night.
Saturday Morning we woke early as we had a disturbed sleep because of rain falling through our tent, the rainy season is now on us and we were likely to experience a big storm but thankfully the clouds moved off.
We stopped at the nomad camp on our return and there were more people there than usual. I wasn’t appropriately dressed as I had trousers on so I hoped we could just pick up the two men who would join us and leave straight away. They looked anxious and beaconing us into their tent. There on the ground on top of cushions was a young girl about 9 years old, they had strapped up her foot and described, using the sand to draw on, how a snake had bitten her 2 days before then they showed us the remains of a snake. We consulted, by telephone, a doctor friend who works at the SOS clinic in town and he advised we went to the General hospital to get anti venom though he did say that if she hadn’t died already it was a good sign as usually a snake bite gets into the blood quickly. Her foot was very swollen and we had the feeling that she was very fearful. We were sure that the rest of the camp felt that they were merely waiting until she died. The hospital was only a 20 minute drive into town and yet they hadn’t tried to seek help. We loaded up the two cars with all the people that wanted to join mainly older men and the grandma who was in charge of carrying the snake remains. We left the mother, who was sobbing, at the camp.
On the way I asked if I could 
pray though I am not sure they understood, I began to pray and they just observed. I prayed that she would be healed and through all this they would know the love of God. The girl looked very scared but seemed OK and we left the group at the gates of the hospital were they seemed to be a discussion, probably a check point to only allow only the “truly sick” through the gates. (The reputation of the hospital is terrible the treatment not guaranteed) So continuing in prayer we arrived home and began unpacking from our camping trip. Ben was called on his mobile to say that they would like to be picked up, they stopped off here very briefly but they were anxious to get back and the father especially was very tired, having not slept for two nights.
We heard news the next day that she was fine and we trust that she continues to be well as they have now left the city to continue their journey across the country.
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Comments (1 public comments, 0 member comments)
This article is well worth a read. I wrote it so I should know!
...left on Wednesday 19th Mar, 2008
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