The Present Moment

My name is Tahani. It was given to me by the refugees in Camp Goz Amer after much laughter at trying to pronounce Trudy. It means “congratulations.” They told me it’s a nice name. I like it.

Here in Chad, the iACT team, Joslyn, and I live a simple life. In the morning, the five of us head to the refugee camp in a white UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) jeep driven by Mustafa, a tall Chadian man who can identify which country all the songs on the radio come from. He has a wide, handsome smile. It’s fun to speak French with the Chadians who’ve learned both French and Arabic in school. There are hundreds of tribal languages across the country. The Darfuri refugees, too, speak many different languages; Arabic is the common one. At Little Ripples, all the children are learning Arabic so they can speak with each other. Hearing the children also count from 1-10 in English and chant their ABC’s here in the Sahel, where many are illiterate, is amazing!

Joslyn and I are now humanitarian mindfulness teachers. Seeing what iACT has accomplished here under unimaginable circumstances is awe-inspiring. It is a privilege to be part of helping the refugees create a cutting-edge pre-school education for their children in a place where everyone lives in grass huts—without electricity, running water, or enough food.

By late afternoon, I�