On a bright and dusty morning in Ndjamena, Chad, joyful voices permeate the air, accompanied by drums, guitars, and a keyboard playing on a loop.

The whole scene with the carpets in the dust seemed very Biblical to me. Stately men in robes, reclining at the foot of an elder, bending an ear. But the sight also struck me as a metaphor for the country as a whole. A country at a crossroads. A country leaning in.

Many of the peoples of Chad are still nomadic, and the cattle market is where the many different tribes intersect with each other.

What do you take on a trip like that? Good boots and a Bible. A notebook and an open mind. And, if you dare, an open heart.