Novotel Hotel, Ndjamena, Chad

It's wet and raining at Heathrow. A short hop to Paris and a longer hop down to Chad, flying over the Sahara and the Hoggar Mountains sees us arrive in Ndjamena bang on time at 8.45pm. Compared to our last visit in May, we fairly race through the customs procedure. Our fellow passengers on the packed flight from Paris are a curious assortment of charity workers, oil workers (a major source of income for Chad’s current and future economy), and others from a range of Francophone West African nations.
Past a final baggage check and I spot a smiling UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) driver, who is waving a sign labelled “UNHCR SPANA". We have arrived, in more ways than one.

Piling into the UN minibus I recalled coming out of the airport forecourt in May. Peering into the night, Jeremy and I could make out the vague shapes of taxis in the distance, all of which on closer inspection were empty. Most looked fit only for the scrapyard – banana yellow rusting Renault 12’s. Eventually we found one with a sleeping driver, who on being roused from his slumber agreed to take us to the Meridien hotel. After 200 yards, the car ran out of petrol, and our driver disappeared, robes flowing behind him, into the night with a plastic bottle. It was very dark, very hot and very quiet. And still we waited. Moped drivers loomed out of the gloom and peered at us like animals in the zoo. Eventually our driver reappeared, bottle filled with petrol, and we duly limped, coughing and wheezing (and that was just the car) into the forecourt of the Meridien Hotel. The concierge was doubled up with laughter, and we suffered a barrage of angry beeping as our bananamobile blocked the sleek landcruisers belonging to some bigger better known NGO’s.

So this time, blushes were spared. Early start tomorrow – 6am pick up and an early flight east to Abeche, which lies just 150km from the border with Darfur. This is the main provincial town in the east, and home to not just our hosts the UNHCR, but main offices of just about every big aid charity working here – Oxfam, Care International, MSF etc..