Photo Gallery #71-
Pictures to shock Chadians, Part I
As
a resident of the developed world, these are probably all
normal
things to you, the stuff that is a part of your world on an
average day.
Imagine how someone from the clichéd "Less than
$1 a day" portion of
the world, like Chad, would view it though. I don't mean for
this to seem
condescending, but simply to be a means of comparison.
Part
II
Click any of the thumbnails to
see a larger version in a separate window
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In
Gounou-Gaya, the tallest thing is the new cell-phone
antenna, roughly 60 meters. What would people think
if they knew that the French were building towers almost
five times as high more than 100 years ago?
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N'Djamena
also has a river running through its center, although
it's bordered on each side by mud huts, not 10 million
people. |
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In
a place where travel means 30 people crammed into a minibus
meant for 17, and 100km can take an entire day, is 4000km
+ anything but an abstraction? |
The
Chadian capital is the only place in the country with
anything even resembling an organized power grid, which
can rarely go a day without multiple blackouts- what
would people think to know that electricity in the developed
world is a 24/7, never-think-about-it proposition, and
there's enough left over to make 330 meters of steel
glow every hour?
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Ferris
Wheels, fountains- I tried explaining these when I came
back from my vacation, but there was simply no way to
make it understood- in Central Africa, things like this
may as well be from another planet. |
Your
average villageois rebuilds their mud hut every
year or two- rain, wind, termites and more all make sure
that they don't last. In our world though, houses like
this, which have already passed their 200th birthday,
are normal. |
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Farm
work in Chad is done by hand or by horse- equipment that
we think nothing of in the 1st World could revolutionize
the place. |
It'd
amaze people here to think that a farmer would be able
to stockpile enough food for 100 cows, for an entire year,
inside his house. |
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Cement
is the building material of the wealthy in Chad- what would
people think if they knew that animal pens were built more
solidly than any home they'll probably ever have? |
| Milk,
in Chad, is the responsibility of Arab or Fulbe women, who
carry it to the market in giant bowls on their heads. What
would they think of a machine that can milk 75 cows at once? |
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Snow?
I remember trying to explain the concept to one of my classes-
in return, I received 85 blank stares. |
| People
here would find it amazing that this is typical student
housing. In Chad, about the only building this big is the
presidential palace. |
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Your
average Chadian family lives in a house half the size
of this student apartment, with a roof made of grass or
tin (if they're well-off), a mud floor, and (naturally)
no electricity. |
A
classroom full of computers would be quite a sight in
a place where 80 students is a 'small' class, and books
are non-existent. |
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