Well Happy Belated Fete de Mouton to you all. I know everyone celebrated their faces off back in the States, right? As many of you may know from my recent Facebook away message I learned how to slay a mouton (aka sheep) this past Wednesday. I even have all the gory details documented, so when I have fast enough internet I’ll post all the ghastly photos and videos. Get excited!
So, I know I haven’t been on here in eons and many people don’t know this yet, but I switched host families a couple weeks ago and am now living in Bafia (the city). Peace Corps does a family switch, so we get to see what it’s like living in the village (no electricity, running water, and all that) and in the ville (also no running water, and not much electricity, but a sweet house). I’m now living with the Etoko’s until I move to post and am looooving it.
Anyway, Papa Etoko is Muslim, which is pretty rad, so he took me to this big open field Wednesday to see the Imam slaughter the official sheep of Bafia. I felt pretty legit pulling up to the prayer site in his Benz sitting along side him and two of his other Muslim buddies. This fete is a pretty big deal, so the mayor and all the officials of Bafia came to watch the prayer and the slaughter and to pay their respects to the Imam even though they aren’t Muslim. Soooo even though I’m a woman and clearly not a “grande” of the village, who do I go and sit next to? Yeah, the mayor….under his little official mayor tent. Mind you, there are about 3,000 people at this event and I’m the only white girl. Thank god, I wore my traditional garb that my host bro, Djibril, made for me (he’s a tailor).
At first I was kind of timid and wasn’t sure I should take pictures of all these people praying because I thought it’d be disrespectful, but when the frickn Mayor gave me the go ahead I got to it. Sooo yeah, just imagine me, with my camera, in front of a sea of about 3,000 Muslims in their beautiful colorful clothes documenting EVERYTHING. I was literally standing right next to the official Imam. It was so cool and cultural that I got really hyper and almost lost it.
Then, I got to get right up next to the holy sheep and watch the imam hack its head off. It made this blood curdling gasping sound when it died. Super cool. I had to stand back a little bit though, so I didn’t get splattered in blood. What is my life?
I then when back to my house and documented my host dad killing our sheep. I’ve got a great up close shot of all the guts pouring out. Aren’t you excited to see it? I ate like a king that day: delicious lamb, fried plantains, cous cous de maiz (yes, believe it or not cous cous is growing on me), pound cake, tomato sauce and rice, papaya, pineapple, and manioc leaves, and folore (this purple drink made out of hibiscus flowers). Deeeelish. Goooo culture.
I leave for Mandama in less than two weeks and swear in as an official Peace Corps volunteer December 1st, so that’s exciting. I have my massive final presentation tomorrow morning on Moringa harvesting, which I hope to promote up north. Moringa is this sweet super plant that grows in really arid environments and has more nutrients than anything I’ve ever seen. You guys should check out moringanews.com to learn more. I love this thing. I’m also going to be doing a lot of work with soy promotion since it’s super abundant here and has an amazing amount of protein. Kwashiorkor is a huge problem in my region, which is caused by protein deficiency, so I want to get people to start putting soy and moringa in their children’s diet (since meat is $$$). Kwashiorkor is that stereotypical malnutrition disease where the kids have the massive stomachs.
There’s so much to say about my post, but my fingers are tired and who knows when the internet will give out. I will say though that my house is in the vast glorious middle of nowhere. It kind of looks like a mix between the land before time and Utah
I’m going to be a crazy hippie kid when I get back I think. I’m learning how to make soap, how to compost, and how to garden. I’m replacing this awesome Peace Corps volunteer who made a huge garden in my back yard (yeah, so I’ll be the second Peace Corps volunteer at my post, so she paved the way for me pretttty good. I’m super lucky in that sense).
I don’t have any running water, electricity, and to make phone calls I have to climb a hill and search around for one bar of service, which sometimes may not come. Yeah, I guess it doesn’t surprise me they put me way out there. I am, however, only 15 minute moto ride from another Peace Corps Volunteer, and an hour moto ride from Guider where there are two other volunteers. One girl in Guider, Karen, is obsessed with Bodypump like me, so I’m sure we’ll have some good times together.
Okay, I gotta run. Miss you all and hope everything is grand.
Much love,
Meg
Ps-My new address is:
Meg Pollak
Peace Corps/Corps de la Paix
BP 102
Guider, Cameroon
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