Abeche pictures...

I am quickly realizing that photography in Chad is a touchy subject, sometimes literally, and the 'touching' isn't very enjoyable. Twice, in one week now I have gotten into situations due to my even-quite-discreet taking of pictures. Both times made me quite uncomfortable so I need to find an alternate solution. It seems that a majority of Chadians: 1. Hate the French 2. Think I am French 3. Hate French people taking pictures and will turn violent in a split second in the face of photography. 4. One of our local workers here even noted to the agreement of the others, that I look like Im in the CIA and that everyone is already paranoid of being spied upon by the government anyhow.

Great, just what I need. Bad enough that my President is openly and blatantly supporting Israel as they bombard Lebanon (yeah, its been noticed here) but that now I'm possibly thought to be a CIA operative. Just what I need in a hostile Muslim country. I'm suddenly not liking this shaved head thing so much. So here's a couple of mediocre pictures I took that almost cost me dearly...


The only Chadians who consistently love to have their pictures taken are the children. Some of them will find you in the street and ask you to take their picture so that they can see it. It puts a huge smile on my face to take it, then show it to them thus producing their ear to ear smile. Even thru the cultural barriers I have small ways to show I'm not so alien.

All that being said, its usually not even those whose pictures are being taken that make a fuss, its someone that seems to be looking for a reason to make a problem against a skinny white guy like myself...theres always one in a crowd.
Like this example. I took this picture of the old man handmaking woodsnake skin shoes after I had the nod of approval from him. Afterwards a late teens punk took it upon himself to get in my face about the matter even though he was not the picture's subject. I wrote it off until last night as a freak testosterone induced event.

Old man making snake skin shoes in the market...



Have you ever gone to take a picture and found that someone walked right into it...then just stayed there...thinking obliviously that you were taking a picture of them, not the surrounding setting. Yeah. Thats Frederic, our 'French' Chief Pilot. I say again, our FRENCH Chief Pilot.



Finally, heres the wondrous bar that Darcy and I went to this evening. Its amazing what good friends you can make over a few beers and even fewer words(aah, the wonders of alcohol, huh?). I had one guy tell me he would sacrafice his life for mine in broken English and French. I asked him to please retract his last comment but that I really appreciated it. But his friendship did prove useful when two beligerent drunks got the nerve to storm our table demanding in a quasi French-Arabic, that I destroy my camera for the pictures I had taken nearly 1/2 hour earlier. Talk about delayed reaction time. I pleaded the Fifth, which seemed to confuse them even further.