My first 10 days in the month of November were spent in the country of Chad in central Africa.  I had the unbelievable opportunity to spend 3 days in ‘the bush’, camping in a village called Roro.  I was there to help document the progress and culture for an international mission organization.  I then spent the remainder of the trip in the country’s capital city of N’Djamena – a chaotic city of  nearly 4 Million people.

It was my first trip outside of the U.S. and as soon as we landed my eyes were opened wide.  From the military patrolling the streets with guns and the condition of the buildings – like the police station we had to register at – it was all so surreal – like I was placed on the set of a movie or video game.  There was an overwhelming feeling of vulnerability.  We didn’t know what people were saying or thinking and clearly 6 white guys stood out like crazy.  But eventually, we made the trek down to the remote village of Roro.

We were able to set up tents in a thatch roof “room” and of course there was no electricity or running water.  The locals went out of their way to give us clean water to drink and warm water to “shower” which was really just splashing ourselves a bit. We had all the food we could eat.  We had so much rice and meat…I even had some camel one night!  With every meal they made sure we had a Coke or a Fanta – that was a special thing for them so they made sure we always had one.  We may have been tired of the sugar by the time we left but it was a very welcoming environment.

Capturing the imagery and stories around me never got old and I came away with some very fun content.  The children of village seemed to like it at least –

I recently spoke on a portion of what I saw and experienced.  Although it was only a fraction of the trip, you can check out the video below to gain a little more understanding.