Back from the land of delicious food and amazing art to take on Camp Cam Cam once again

Heyo,

Just a quick update before heading back to the bush tomorrow morning. I'm actually at the Peace Corps office in Yaounde after an amazing trip to Italia with Brian.  I've never eaten so much cheese, pork (yeah I live with all Muslims), and gelato in my life, which is saying a lot beacuse I'm obsessed with food.  Obh yeah, I also drank "vino de la casa" whenever I had the chance...which was about every five minutes.  The art was also super sweet.  I mean, Italy is like an outdoor museum, so I feel like I got my culture on even out on the streets.  Venice was by far my favorite part.  The city reminded me of a mix between Nantucket, New Orleans, and the video game Monkey Island.  It has this kinda sweet creepy Halloween vibe because of all the crooked streets, old awesome buildings, and murkey canals.  It also smells like the ocean, which was indeed a treat for my sea faring senses. Bri and I found our new house down some back alley that I am going to buy on my super comfy Peace Corps salary.  Keepin the dream alive. Oh yeah, we also randomly saw John Malcovich and Rick Stevens strolling in Florence, which was pretty rad.  Yes, seeing John swagger down the cobblestones with his cane was pretty unreal, but Rick Stevens was even cooleer because we were in the midst of studying his tour book on Italy when we saw him.  We even got his signature in our travel book and I got a great picture of him with Bri.  So hilarious.

I'm in a serious state of culture shock right now, but I'm not sure if it's because I am still soaking in the fact that I was in the developed world where literally everything is at your disposal, or if it's because I'm back out of it so quickly. The trip just feels like an awesome methloquin dream at this point. It is kinda cool, though, that when my plane landed back here in Cam I felt like I was coming home...I feel like my vacation is over and it's time to get back to work.  I guess that means I'm really starting to get used to my new life here.  Apparently, I'm also getting used to the oppressively hot climate since I found Italy to be insanely cold. All I brought were tank top dresses and sandals.  Thank God, Brian hooked me up with some of my old clothes, which were mucho needed. I also realized while in Euroland that my Cameroonian money is like manopoly cash; aka worthless outside of the boardgame my life has become.  I couldn't find anywhere to exchange my billz in Italy, except for with some sketchy Senegalese dudes selling fake Prada on the street, which Brian luckily convinced me not to dabble in. I mean, I'm used to bargaining on the street at this point.  Thatz how we do here in Africa. 

So yeah, I miss the developed world and I really miss Brian, but it's time to get back into the swing of things.  I'm hoping to get a well built at the health center in my town and a basketball court built at the high school this year.  I have to somehow write another budget and find a geologist to help survey the lands where I want to build, which should be pretty entertaining. More stories to come I'm sure.  I'm also going to continue work on my soy and moringa stuff and focusing on the importance of good nutrition.  I actually got elected for the "food security" committee, which meets a couple times of year here in Yaounde to discuss best practices.  I'm going to Bamenda (a city in the English speaking part of the country) in August to help with a camp a fellow volunteer is putting on sustainable energy and food, so that should be cool.  Apparently, there are also strawberries in Bamenda, which is something to look forward to.

Jocco is coming in June too, so we'll have a grand old time.  It'll be hilarious to see how she reacts to this absurd land.

Alright, I gotta get packing for my massive trip back up north tomorrow.  Stay classy, America.

Meg

Mandadabada

Yo Guys, 

How are we all doing today?  I just got up into internet land and am taking full advantage of the fast connection (aka not snail pace, but turtle pace!) I left at 5:30 am and hit Maroua around 10:30.  Grrrreat time! Usually I have to wait at the Danay bus station in Guider for at least an hour before we actually leave,  in which case I overload on yogurt from the fridge that's there and/or inhale carrots. They're so cheap right now!  People eat them here like fruit.  As a health volunteer this practice makes me tres contente. 

Worko has been nutso this past month in a good way, but also in a very frustrated, stressful, I want to slay a million goats kind of way.  I basically planned the Women's Day activities in Mandama, which means doing a ton of motivating women who don't speak a lick of French to work, organizing massive meetings, getting "grands" to give us money so we can have a real party, making a budget with a foreign currency (the cfa), which I still don't really get, sitting under a tree and listening to Justin Timberlake during massive dry season windstorms while your moto driver looks for a spare tire, and restraining yourself from biting the heads of various government officials who tell you one minute you are permitted to have a parade in Mandama and the next you aren't. 

Despite all the work and lack of sleep, though, I'm super pumped at how well everything went, especially since this was the first time I've organized a massive event in a foreign country.  Yes, the parade was 5 hours late, and yes certain acts for our cultural night didn't show up, but everything still "happened" to some degree.

One of my favorite parts of the festivities was the cooking competition.  I got to try so many delicious new Cameroonian sauces one of which I still can't pronounce...actually I can't pronounce most words in Dabari, but this one is particularly hard.  Try saying Mandadabada three times fast...or one time fast. Hell, it's even hard to write it.  Dabari is an insane language that involves a ton of rolling R's.  I don't know if I'll ever pick it up, but I'm trying.  My neighbors who I eat delish sauces with every night are still trying to teach me, but for now I'm sticking with Fulfulde (another language spoken in Mandama, but is also widespread throughout northern Cameroon).  Actually, I'm now good enough at Fulfulde that I can tell people to stop taking advantage of me and I can tell them to shut up when I know they're talking about me.  It's pretty hilarious seeing the astonished/ashamed looks on people's faces when they realize you understand them.

Right now I'm also doing a ton of nutrition work with soy and moringa (this super tree that grows really well here and has a ton of nutritional benefits).  I just finished writing up a presentation on how to make tofu that I plan to give at the Mandama health center on Tuesday. Serious hippiness goin on right now. 

What else is new?  Well, I got to see a traditional Daba funeral the other day.  After I went for my casual early morning run my neighbor, Mairamou, asked me if I wanted to climb the mountain to see the "cadavre" aka cadaver aka dead man wrapped in a bunch of old cloths who looks like a supersized vodoo doll.  I figured, why not?  I'm glad I was still in my workout clothes because Mairamou and I (along with about 100 other villagers) had to climb this massive treacherous mountain to get to the funeral site. When I got up there the view was breathtaking...and so was the smell...breath taking/revolting.  But I'm really happy I went because I have a cool picture with this big mummy that I'll try to get up on facebook shortly.  I wasn't really sure if I should smile, or look serious since it was a funeral after all, so I just kinda look bleh. It's one of the sweetest and most awkward photos ever. Stay tuned!

The goats continue to rape and pillage my backyard and crap everywhere, despite my obsessive rock barriers I've constructed to fortify my fences.  Another one walked in on my taking a shower the other day (I have an outdoor shower in the yard), so I kicked the crap out of it.  Serious rage.  It's a war, I'm telling you. I mean, wouldn't you be freaked out if you heard footsteps coming towards you while you're in the shower?  Goat footsteps sound a lot like human ones too, so I was especially in fight mode....I'm going nuts...what is this digression?

What else? Oh, it's mango season!  Mangoes everywhere!  Mangoes, guavas, and papayas are like apples and oranges are for us.  I would KILL for a fugi apple and peanut butter right now, but alas, I shall stick to my mangoes.  Not such a bad thing, right? 

And that's my last rambling though for now, folks.  It's the little things that count, like mangoes, kicking goats, and partying it up with a bunch of Cameroonian women for Women's Day. 

Hope everyone is loving life. I'll be back in a jiffy.

Megz

Emerging from the depths of the north to say Jamna!!

Okay, so this is a spontaneous email I wrote to my college friends (edited down a little bit for the more PG ears).  I'm way too whackado and overwhelmed with this machine buzzing in front of me, so this entry is pretty short and probably not very informative.  I will preface by saying that my life is INSANE and AWESOME. The word random has lost all intensity for me at this point. Chickens crossing the road aren't ironic anymore. And seeing goats saunter casually through the Mandama health center are no big thang.

But I do want to let you all know that I appreciate all the love and support. Keep it coming!  I feed on American energies! I'll eat some delicious folore and cous cous for you all here too, so you can live vicariously through me too. Enjoy the email below:

I miss you guys terribly and I think about all the grand times we've had together, especially when I'm out in the pasture staring at goats and huge ass bulls as I'm waiting for my laundry to dry or something. Also, I hate donkeys. They make the most hellacious sound ever at all hours of the night. I've had some wild dreams about donkeys talking to me the night I have to take my malaria meds....yeah my methloquin dreams are definitely more creative out here in the middle of the desert.  Then I get woken up at 4 am by the onslaught of vultures that use my tin roof as their landing pad. Terrifying. Terrifying and hilarious.  There's also a massive lizard that rolls it's leathery body across my roof at all hours of the day too. The roof is where it's at yo.

Yep, I'm getting stranger and stranger by the day.  Living en brousse will do that to ya. But despite my eccentricities (which were already quite apparent before I got the depths of the EXTREME NORTH) I am lovvvvving it.  My community is super progressive and super not at the same time, so I think I'll still be able to get some stuff done. I just finished reading The Rent Tent (you guys know it?).  Anyway, it takes place during the time of Joseph and all his sons and stuff, but in a lot of ways I can relate, like all the goats. So many goats! Oh yeah, and the fact that all the men have like 500000 wives and 50000000000000 kids. But I'm not really treated like a woman I'm treated like a King. Yes, the evolved Pirate King that I am. Captain Mego, Peg Leg Meg. 

But yeah, my Fulfulde is coming along really well, which is making life a lot easier.  I can now communicate with the women, which helps with work. There is such a need for simple stuff here. Like water.  Literally in this one area of town people get their water from a muddy hole in the ground...they eat mud for lunch.  I'm trying to get some forage projects started, but it's gonna take a lot of time. I'm also doing a lot of microfinance work with farmers, doing health animations on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, and how to treat water. I want to get some funding projects going, but that won't be for the next couple months.  I'll let you guys know what the dealio is.

Okay, I'm babbling. I think I'm going to go to the bank now and take out a crap ton of money because it takes me 2 days to even get to the bank haha. Then I'm going to get a guava smoothie. I'm OBSESSED with delicious guava. Then I'm going to go drinking.  I drink this crappy beer called 33 that is similar to UC. You would all love it. 

Anyway, hit me up friendoz.  I'm sorry if I don't respond for like 3 million years.  It's not because I don't love you all; it's because I'm probably running away from baboons or something on top of a mountain, or trying to climb a baobob tree (true story).

Love and miss. Check out my pix on fb.

Word, over and out.

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