I shouldn’t complain, but I’m going to anyway. We made it to Abeche, which–with all the things that can go wrong–is no small accomplishment. We left Bouba behind, though, and that was frustrating. Bouba, instead of waiting to see if he could make it on the plane tomorrow, chose to get on a bus and cross the desert, which will take him something like twelve hours, instead of the hour and twenty minutes it took us flying.
On the descent to Abeche, we could see a huge difference in the landscape around the airport. There is a huge military base just to the east of the runway, belonging the European forces. I am not sure how much of a difference those forces have made on the security of the region. We were here just a few weeks ago, and rebels ran up and down the country, taking and leaving villages and threatening to take the capital. With rainy season, the rebels settle down inside of Sudan. Now, instead of rebels, it is regular bandits that roam the area, and they are becoming more and more lethal.
Bouba should arrive in Abeche tomorrow morning, a little after we fly out to Bahai. He will meet us out there the next day, catching up with us on what will be our first day at a refugee camp in what feels like a long, long time.
Paz,
Gabriel