Happy Thanksgiving from Cam Cam!

Happy Turkey Day from Cam Cam everyone!

I miss the crazy Wednesday night parties, watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade with the fam and, of course, gorging my face with delicious pies and wot not, but I'm making due here in the grand land of papaya trees, nut ballz (a delicious candy recently discovered), and annoying roosters that crow at all hours of the day.

We are having a massive pot luck dinner today and I'm going to attempt to make a squash casserol over the fire.  We also just slayed our turkey and are going to cook it over another bonfire and dance around it.  There's an American football game going on outside on the Peace Corps lawn and I'm happy to say that we are winning....the Cam Cams may beat us in soccer, but not real football!

I hit up the VIP bar yesterday with my buddy Katie and treated myself to an expensive Amstel.  It was a delicius 700 cfa!!!  So expensive!  Do you know how much that is? $1.30.  I'm not kidding on the expensive part either....I'm getting used to living on my meager Cameroonian salary.  It's all part of the acclamation process, right?

I head out to post in only a week, so I have to start packing up my room, which is super bittersweet.  I'm obsessed with the Etoko family and I'm going to miss them terribly.  This past weekend Mama Etoko and I made soy beignets, soy yogurt, and soy milk.  Just wait til I get back with all these cool organic recipes!  I also Let Mama use some of my American spices for the chicken we made the other night.  It actually tasted Italian.  Glorious.

Do you like how all my posts are about food? Yeahhhhh, it's pretty much all we talk about here and Cameroon and I guess I have an excuse today since it is Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone has a great time with fam and friends.  Love and Miss.

Your Cameroonian reporter,
MEg

Happy Sheep Day!

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 1^st, 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 climbed a mountain and visited this ancient village when I was there and ate trail mix on top of what looked like pride rock. Surreal and awesome.

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

Jamna!!! Jam bandu na?

Wowwww so a lot of stuff has gone on since last time I wrote, but
seriously what’s new?

I’ll highlight a few adventures since I don’t have much time before my
Fulfulde class (yes, I’m now learning this sweet dialect spoken in the
Northern Cameroon).

1)      We had an awesome dance party with the chief of my village a couple
weekends ago.  Let me tell you, Cameroonians know how to dance!
2)      I had pattes d’arichides for dinner the other night aka PEANUT
BUTTER.  Yeah, who knew?  After eating cous cous (African style cous
cous…not the same), fou fou and fish for 25 nights straight (an
exaggeration, but it feels like it sometimes) my host mom put down a
sketchy looking bowl in front of me with what looked like some kinda
weird meat in it.  I was insanely skeptical, but when I smelled the
sweet orgasmic fragrances of peanut butter I almost fainted.  Okay,
get this: we had peanut butter and bananas for dinner.  I was SO
HAPPY.  Hey, it’s the little things that count Africa, right?  I was
so excited that people eat peanut butter here that I m I figured out
how to make it and prepared a super American dinner for my fam the
other night: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with bananas for
dessert. Glorious.
3)      Watching somebody eat a watermelon for the first time is an
experience.  I certainly don’t remember the first time I had one since
I was like negative 2, but I’m sure it was something.  So, I had a
mini field trip to Western Cameroon Tuesday and bought a watermelon
for my family as a gift.  I know my host sis loves them, but they are
a little expensive here in Bafia, so they don’t get them much.
Anyway, Mama Martine has never had one before and didn’t really know
how to eat it.  I showed her how you just kinda sink your face into
it, which she did with great enthusiasm.  It was great.  It was like
Watermelon Day in sailing camp; chunks of delicious redness and water
went flying everywhere…and I’m so nasty dirty at this point it doesn’t
matter.  My clothes are all pretty much destroyed anyway haha
4)      And the most important news of all.  I’m going to be living in
Madama in Northern Cameroon for two years!! Yes yes, I received the
grand news last week and am still ecstatic about it.  If you’re
wondering where this little gem is don’t bother looking on the map
because it ‘aint there.  Yeah, I have the most remote post out of any
volunteer apparently because I’m so H core. Haha.  No, not really,
but it is out there: no running water, no internet (obviously),
sketchy cell phone service, and a generator for a couple hours if I’m
lucky a couple nights a week.  I know, paradise, right???  Well, it is
for me.  I can’t wait to get out there in the field and have agency
over my life again.  It’s also supposed to be absolutely gorgeous.
Unlike southern Cameroon, which is hot, humid, and jungle like, I’m
going to be in the harsh beautiful dry hilly region. There are
apparently giraffes and elephants where I am too.  I don’t know, for
some reason I think it will look a little like Utah, but who really
knows.  I’m also really excited because I’m learning a sweet new
language that sounds slightly Arabic and a whole lot of African.  I
will probably be doing a lot of work with Muslim women’s groups and a
health center near by.  I’ll find out in a week when I head up there
next week for my sight visit.

So yeah, I guess that’s my life in a nut shell. It’s still pretty
insane and awesome. I miss you guys so much and please if you write me
and I don’t respond please know it’s because I don’t love you….just
kidding.  As you probably know by now internet here is pretty much
nonexistent.

Seyesso!!!!

Meg

Blog entry coming in fashionably late...

Wyyyyyummmbe? Aka what’s up in Bafia language.

Cap’n Megoo here reporting from the Peace Corps training center in Bafia.  How’s everyone doing these days?  I haven’t had contact with the outside world for the past two weeks so I’m super excited to be able to post something on my bloggo.  

I think I’ve gone through every possible emotion you can think of during staging so far. It’s been incredibly awesome, lonely, rando as can be, telescopic, really really fun, grueling, and absolutely hilarious.

As you may be aware I’ve been living in a village with no internet, electricity, or water for the past two weeks.  It’s so crazy to look up at the stars at night and think I’m really here in AFRICA.  It’s all still very surreal, but I’m starting to adjust quite nicely. 

My host family has been so great and Papa Boe and I continue to talk about the meaning of life over fou fou and tapioca into the wee hours of the night (aka 8:45 when I’m usually too exhausted to function).  My host sister Margurite and I are also getting really close; she helps me a lot with my cultural immersion homework and I help her with English…or at least try.  Anyone know what the present perfect tense is because I’m not sure if I actually do. HA, go English major.

I’m finding good ways to stay sane though.  For example, yesterday I taught a Bodypump class for the other health volunteers in my village.  Just imagine a bunch of sweaty dirty Americans lifting water bottles and French dictionaries over their heads overlooked by an entire African village.  Hilarity certainly ensued at this moment.  It felt SO GOOD, though, to work out since I’ve been kind of sheltered and unable to work out outside my mosquito net for some time.

This past weekend was also a cultural adventure.  I went into Bafia with my host sister and Aunt who is the same age as my sister? (who knows the families here are a million plus) to get some sweet fabric to make some sweet African clothes.  After meandering through the market for some time a massive squall rolled through, which left us trapped in a boulangerie with a bunch of other randos for a couple hours.  We finally got a taxi, which was a crappy little compact car, and somehow managed to fit 10 people in it.  What an impressive African feat.  The entire right side of my body fell asleep after being smashed up against a huge dude in a boubou, so I thought I got bitten by some crazy bug or something, but after I tumbled out of the car I was fine.  Anyway, the whole excursion was a success because I a) have some trendy African clothes on the way and b) I got to experience some pretty sweet culture.

Alright, rabid Peace Corps volunteers are drooling over my fast (and by fast I mean my blog page has materialized on the screen), so I better get going lest I be eaten.

Miss you guys and ooooouhhhouhhhh (which means bye bye in Bafia…sp’s all over the place with that one.

Meg

OHHH MY GOSH am I seriously going to get to put another post up?

ps Brian, if you're reading this I don't need you to post for me!!! :D

Wyyyyyummmbe? Aka what’s up in Bafia language.

Cap’n Megoo here reporting from the Peace Corps training center in Bafia.  How’s everyone doing these days?  I haven’t had contact with the outside world for the past week so I’m super excited to be able to post something on my bloggo.  

I think I’ve gone through every possible emotion you can think of during staging so far. It’s been incredibly awesome, lonely, rando as can be, telescopic, really really fun, grueling, and absolutely hilarious.

As you may be aware I’ve been living in a village with no internet, electricity, or water for the past two weeks.  It’s so crazy to look up at the stars at night and think I’m really here in AFRICA.  It’s all still very surreal, but I’m starting to adjust quite nicely. 

My host family has been so great and Papa Boe and I continue to talk about the meaning of life over fou fou and tapioca into the wee hours of the night (aka 8:45 when I’m usually too exhausted to function).  My host sister Margurite and I are also getting really close; she helps me a lot with my cultural immersion homework and I help her with English…or at least try.  Anyone know what the present perfect tense is because I’m not sure if I actually do. HA, go English major.

I’m finding good ways to stay sane though.  For example, yesterday I taught a Bodypump class for the other health volunteers in my village.  Just imagine a bunch of sweaty dirty Americans lifting water bottles and French dictionaries over their heads overlooked by an entire African village.  Hilarity certainly ensued at this moment.  It felt SO GOOD, though, to work out since I’ve been kind of sheltered and unable to work out outside my mosquito net for some time.

This past weekend was also a cultural adventure.  I went into Bafia with my host sister and Aunt who is the same age as my sister? (who knows the families here are a million plus) to get some sweet fabric to make some sweet African clothes.  After meandering through the market for some time a massive squall rolled through, which left us trapped in a boulangerie with a bunch of other randos for a couple hours.  We finally got a taxi, which was a crappy little compact car, and somehow managed to fit 10 people in it.  What an impressive African feat.  The entire right side of my body fell asleep after being smashed up against a huge dude in a boubou, so I thought I got bitten by some crazy bug or something, but after I tumbled out of the car I was fine.  Anyway, the whole excursion was a success because I a) have some trendy African clothes on the way and b) I got to experience some pretty sweet culture.

Alright, rabid Peace Corps volunteers are drooling over my fast (and by fast I mean my blog page has materialized on the screen), so I better get going lest I be eaten.

Miss you guys and ooooouhhhouhhhh (which means bye bye in Bafia…sp’s all over the place with that one.

Meg

gahhhhh INTERNET!!

Oh Hey There!

I finally have a little internet.  I'm in the middle of nowhere and the connection is absurdly slow, so I hope this goes through.

I'm living with a bunch of pretty sweet farmers in village outside Bafia called Lable.  We have a whole plot with every tropical fruit and vegetable you can think of, so that’s sweet.  I actually get to try some new exotic fruit tonight called a cassamonga, which I think is kind of like a red guava.  I’ll report back when I have time. I’m also pretty sure they’re going to slaughter one of their pigs for me this weekend.  What a delicious treat.

Another delicious treat is my daily bucket shower.  I just love them. Because THE CHRIS taught me that navy showers are the way to conserve, I can wash myself with just a little bit of water pretty effectively.  There’s nothing better than waking up at 5:45 am to the cackle of roosters and walking off to the latrine/shower area to pour buckets of cold water on yourself! Okay, maybe there is, but right now that experience is the highlight of my day!

My dad is also one of the only scholars of the native language of this area, Bafia. There are over 230 languages in Cameroon, so most everyone speaks to each other in either English, or French when they are meeting somebody from a different area.  Anyway, I think it’s fascinating that all these languages are only oral.

My host sis is also really rad.  She is one of three girls who actually goes to school.  She also has four brothers, so is super excited I’m there to have “girl talk”.  She is literally the manifestation of what Peace Corps is for me; I want to empower women like her who don’t have the tools to succeed as well as men do.  We’ll see how that works out…it gives me some ideas to work with anyway.

Unlike a lot of the other volunteers, I frickin love my food: Chicken in tomato sauce, crazy fruit, and tapioca, which is not really like what we have in the states; maize, manioc, and water.  Oh yeah, Cameroonian dadeo shared his bowl of tapioca with me, which contained water from the well…,typhoid city here I come!  I’m going to just assume it was sterilized. It’s super rude to refuse a meal with an elder, so there goes health haha. But really, I’m exaggerating.  I think I’ll be fine for now and Peace Corps does a really good job with teaching us about safety…maybe too good of a job sometimes.  I’m getting antsy and want to just get out of the field.  I’ve got to wait three more months for that, though.   It’s actually amazing how structured everything has been at the office, while at home you just go with the family flow.

I’m realizing more and more that my Peace Corps friends are wildly important.  We all need each other a lot right now for comfort because we are basically going through the same thing; super huge highs, crazy lows and everything in between.  Luckily I’ve met some great people who will become bffs.

Language classes should be starting today or tomorrow too.  I’m starting off with some French classes and then hopefully learning this sweet tongue called Fufulde.  They speak it in northern Cameroon (the “extreme north” which looks kind of like the head of a chicken on a map) and in parts of Nigeria, and Chad.  It could come in handy if I ever have to jump the border!  I also want to be in a Muslim area in the middle of nowhere, so I can really delve into a completely new experience….I say that now.  We’ll see where my head is in a couple months when I’m off on my own, though!

What else is there to discuss?  Oh yeah, I constantly compare this crazy foreign land to Madagascar (where I studied in college), but it really is completely different. Cameroonians seem a lot more chilled out about me being here than the Malagasy.  I’m not sure if it’s because there are more Americans here, or if it’s just because the Malagasy are naturally more energetic than the relaxed Cameroonians.  I think Cameroonians may be a little shyer?  Who knows…I still don’t know this land well enough to make any assumptions. 

Another one of my favorite moments so far was when we were all dropped off at our host families houses in a big Peace Corps bus and all the host moms on the bus started singing.  It sounded like something you’d hear in the Lion King soundtrack or something (and by that I don’t mean Elton John).  My host mom is a super matriarch in my village, so she started every verse and would scream out some Bafia words throughout.  I did the same, but it somehow didn’t have the same ring to it.  Anyway…

Alright, I think I have a class pretty soon on taboos in the country.  Jut an FYI for anyone who plans to visit, don’t cross your legs (it makes you look closed up and unwelcoming) and sorry lefthanders, you can only use your right hand to do pretty much everything.  C’est comme ca ici.

A+ (aka a plus! Aka until next time!)

In Cameroon FINALLY

Hey Everyone,

A really quick entry since I'm totally beat after three days of travel.  We missed our connection in Brussels to Yaounde because of severe thunderstorms in NYC, but I FINALLY got here.  The country seems really cool, but I still can't say too much because I haven't even ventured outside yet. I'm surprised by all the paved roads here in Douala, but I don't really think lanes exist.  I was also intrigued by the three person motorcycles.  What an impressive feat.

The hotel we are staying in is super luxurious for African standards aka there is AC in our room and a pool!  We all played a big game of monkey in the middle tonight in the water after filling out a gazillion forms.

I'm really excited to speak French here.  The accent is pretty easy for me to understand because it's similar to that in Madagascar, but who is really to say. I still have a lot of exploring to do!

Oh yeah, I also saw a massive brown and orange gecko crawling on the wall of my hotel room. Nature everywhere!!!

I'm still delirious.  I think it's going to take some time for me to be back to normal.  I'm just too excited about everything to sleep well.

Tomorrow I get pumped up with more drugs to protect me from random Cameroonian stuff, I meet our country director, eat fou fou (or however you spell it) and hopefully I'll buy a cell phone. Fun times.

Until next time,
Meg

Philly Fun

Yo Everyone,

I'm about to hit the hay after one of the most exhausting, yet important days of my life. Yes, yes, folks the day hath come when I departed the great land of Connecticut for....Philadelphia PA.

I know I hyped up my departure date a lot, but the truth is I had to come to Philly first to get all the rest of my immunizations, chat about Peace Corps expecations, and, of course, meet the other Peace Corps volunteers.  Everyone seems totally rad and for the first time in awhile I'm the only one from Connecticut.  I'm surprised by the number of folks from the south and out west.

I think we are all in the same boat: the one that is super ready to un-cleat and sail off, but feels like it's going to sink at the same time...okay, that's weird, and I'm clearly loopy.  What I'm trying to say in my absurd state of fatigue is, we are all fatigued, but so ready for Cameroon.  In fact, I don't even know how I'm awake right now.  I should be getting some zzzz's, especially because for the past few nights I've been really anxious aka sleep talking wayyy too much.

I am really excited to get going, though.  There's a lot to be done and I'm going to take on this opportunity from the horns and shake it around!!  (thank you, Lizaroo for the analogy)

Mucho Love,
MEg

ps-I ate the cheesiest cheese steak ever today since I'm going to have to part with my favorite food group in T-10 hours. It was a delicious treat.

berry picking

If you are ever wondering what THE CHRIS, Joc, and I do when we aren't sailing it's this: berry picking.  My dad thinks it's theraputic, even in 100 + degree heat.  Here, we are comparing who picked the most berries. Joc almost fainted AGAIN, so she lost as usual.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that my pictures will upload. Hopefully I'll get some more up there that pertain to Peace Corps soon.

Peace,
MEg

Countdown to Cameroon: 5 Days

Yo Guys,

I leave for Cameroon in just five days, so life has been a little nuts.  Here is the abridged list of current life highlights: packing, more packing, eating cheese, packing, buying a cool light up pen that slays all microbes in my water, packing, consuming massive amounts of Mexican food and margaritas, packing, attempting to teach 6 am spin classes on Fridays, slamming Bertuccis to my face, printing out a ridiculous amount of documents from Peace Corps, and more packing.

This is just my test run, so I really have nothing else I want to blather about just yet, but please please please keep in touch.  If you ever get super bored check out what randomness I have to say here. I'll try to keep you on your toes with my captivating tales.

Keep it real on the other side of the Atlantic...I'll try not to send too many hurricanes your way.

Mucho love,
Meg