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Photo Gallery #73-
Evacuation Take One , Part I
We'd begun to hear rumors of a rebel offensive while we were at Dougia- we always knew that something could happen, but nobody really expected it to until the morning of April 13th, 2006, when Chad began to fall apart...
Part
II
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At 5:30, we were woken up and ordered to have our things ready as soon as possible- it was more than a little shocking, and in the rush, we tended to concentrate on the more trivial things, like making sure the boxed wine made it out with us.
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We were fortunate to have Brownie Lee, official Peace Corps legend, with us- she would prove to be our guide through the whole evacuation nightmare. Naturally things were a bit thrown together, and some things were more thought through than others- after planning on taking all the water we had, Brownie decided that we could just as easily get more in Cameroon.
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Dougia's canoe, the same one we took to the island, which would prove to be our way out of Chad. |
Any boat trip would be short though, maybe 200 meters across the river into northern Cameroon.
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Despite the shock, most people managed to get their stuff together relatively quickly, and head down to the riverbank where we planned to cross. |
Zach, making sure he has everthing ready to go. |
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Danielle, our new APCD, seemed to be constantly on the phone with either N'Djamena or Washington, and did a heroic job of keeping us as informed as anyone possibly could in the midst of absolute chaos. |
One of the most interesting things about the evacuation was the way that it quickly turned into an almost fun event, as if we knew it wasn't going to happen right away. It meant that we had time to mug for photos, put on sunscreen, and generally be unaware of what was really happening. The contrast between day one and day two was dramatic... |
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Getting ready to evacuate, or so I thought. Had I realized the real impact, I probably wouldn't have been smiling. |
| Same with Josh- he probably wouldn't have been joking about it either, had he known. |
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The first evacuees, or so we thought. It turned out that Chad still had one more surprise for us. |
| After heated arguments between a representative of the Chadian national security agency and the military, the government decided we weren't permitted to leave. Although it seemed hard to believe, we were forced to stay behind, pending further approval, which didn't come until the next day. |
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As part of IST, we'd originally planned a 'Peace Corps Prom' as a celebration. The reality of the evacuation was beginning to sink in though, and to lighten the somber mood, we decided to go ahead and celebrate anyway, turning into a prom/goodbye party. Here, the ladies of Peace Corps Chad show off, most of them in hand-sewn, original dresses. |
| Folowed by the guys, who didn't put quite as much effort into looking presentable... |
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After a brief debate, we decided that Houroumtcho & Danielle deserved top honors as 'Prom King & Queen,' in honor of all that they were doing to streamline a process that was tough, to say the least. |
| Emily, a talented seamstress, put together a great-looking combination for her and Aaron, something that could actually be worn in the States. |
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Part II |
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