Monday, October 24, 2011

"This is why Americans are fat"

Here is an example of the conversations I have with my homestay family:
“In America, we eat raw fish with algae wrapped around it”
“Ah! This is why Americans are fat!”
“In America, we mix our spaghetti with sauce”
“Ah! This is why Americans are fat!”
“In America, we eat eggs with the yoke still runny”
“Ah! This is why Americans are fat!”

Nevermind that everything I eat here has been triple fried in peanut oil, and I've gained at least 5 pounds since being here. Eh, it's the name of the game. I did have an eating contest with my 18-year-old host brother the other night – manioc sticks, ndolé, and oranges – and I won. Booya. Amurikka represent.

We also had a new addition to our house – a terrified little kitten that I was given the honor of naming Lady Gaga. Lady Caca in fact since it pooped all over the house. It ran away the other day, though, so no more Gaga.
I've had an interesting time recently trying to discuss dog behavior to my little homestay siblings. Things they do to Diablo and Diablito: pull their tails, pull their hind legs, try to pick them up by their neck fat. I told the 12 year old boy that if pulling their tails is like pulling his arm off, so hopefully I'm enacting some behavior change already. The kids have started petting the dogs which is exciting.

Everything else is going really well. I haven't even been sick yet – although my recent weight gain my lead me to find a way to get on the feca-oral diet. I'll keep you posted. Today might have been the best day ever, though – the internet is working AND I ate cheese from my care package :)

We find out our post announcement on Wednesday!!! So exciting! If you want to know where I'll be, call me then (my number is on Facebook), because I won't have access to the internet until about 10 days later when I get back from visiting my village. I don't have a strong preference for the region I get sent to, they all sound amazing for different reasons, and the most important is that I like my community and the volunteers around me. Learning Pidgin English would be hilarious too. So far I've only learned how to say “I'm full”, which is “ma belly don flop”. I wish I could google translate my life into Cameroonian Pidgin English.


Voilà quelques exemples des conversations que j'ai quotidiennement avec ma famille d'accueil:
“Aux Etats-Unis, on mange du poisson cru avecdes algues”
“Ah! C'est pour ça qu'ils sont gros les Américains!”
“Aux Etats-Unis, on mélange nos spaghetti avec des sauces”
“Ah! C'est pour ça qu'ils sont gros les Américains!”
“Aux Etats-Unis, on ne cuit pas le jaune d'oeuf jusqu'au bout”
“Ah! C'est pur ça qu'ils sont gros les Américains!”

Peut importe que tout ce que je mange ici a été frit avec de l'huile d'arachide au moins 50 fois, et que j'ai déjà pris quelques kilos depuis mon arrivée. Meh, c'est la vie. J'ai tout de même gagné un concours de bouffage avec mon frère d'accueil de 18 ans l'autre soir – des bâtons de manioc, du ndolé, et des oranges – et j'ai gagné.

Nous avons aussi eu un nouvel arrivant dans notre maison – un petit chaton qui crève de trouille et que j'ai eu l'honneur de nommer Lady Gaga, aussi connu sous le nom de Lady Caca puisqu'il a fait ses besoin un peu partout dans la maison. Malheureusement il s'est enfuit l'autre jour, alors adieu Gaga.

Ca fait un moment que j'essaie d'expliquer à mes plus jeunes frères et soeurs comment traiter les chiens. Voilà quelques trucs qu'ils leur font: ils leur tirent la queue, ils leur tirent les jambes arrières, ils essaient de les porter par le gras du cou. J'ai menacé mon frère de 12 ans en lui disant que s'il tirait encore une fois la queue des chiens, je lui arracherait le bras. J'ai entendu dire que les menaces marchent bien avec les gosses. Et depuis les enfants carèssent les chiens!

Sinon, tout va super bien ici. Je ne suis pas encore tombée malade, mais puisque j'ai pris du poids je vais peut-être trouver une façon d'intégrer un peu de matière fécale dans mes repas. Aujourd'hui était peut-être la meilleure journée au Cameroun depuis mon arrivée – internet fonctionne ET j'ai mangé du fromage que j'ai reçu dans un colis :)

Mercredi matin on va connaître nos sites permanents! Je me réjouis tellement! Si vous voulez savoir où je serai, appelez moi Mercredi (mon numéro est sur Facebook). Je n'aurai pas internet avant début Novembre parce que le weekend prochain je pars pour mon village, où je vais rester pendant une semaine avant de revenir à Bokito. Je n'ai pas une forte préférence pour une région ou une autre, elles ont toutes l'air incroyables pour différentes raison. Le plus important c'est que j'aime ma communauté et les volontaires qui se trouvent autour de moi. Mais je dois avouer qu'être dans la région anglophone et apprendre l'anglais Pidgin serait assez hilarant – c'est un peu comme le créole anglais. La seule phrase que j'ai appris en Pidgin pour l'instant c'est « je suis rassasiée ». Soit « ma belly don flop ». J'aimerai tellement pouvoir traduire ma vie entière en Pidgin.  

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Fecal-Oral Diet

“You're on the Atkins diet? I think I'm going to try the fecal-oral diet.” Most cases of diarrhea are caused by fecal-oral contamination. Most Peace Corps Volunteers in Cameroon get diarrhea. Draw your own conclusions. Poop may as well be a food group.


We're having our training here in Bokito (a small town of about 10'000 people near Bafia) until early December. We're mostly having technical training about various health topics and learning French (I can conjugate irregular verbs into imparfait now! SCORE!). I don't know where my permanent post will be yet, but we find out on October 26th so MARK YOUR CALENDARS, Y'ALL! I don't have much of a preference for a region, they all seem to be interesting in different ways. I just hope I get placed in a motivated community.


Two weeks into to Peace Corps Cameroon, things are going pretty awesome. There have been a lot of ups and downs since getting here – feeling pretty bipolar actually – but overall I'm learning a lot, the people are great, my homestay family is really nice, and I plucked feathers off  a freshly beheaded chicken the other day. Skills. I also didn't die when I saw a tarantula eating a cockroach on my living room wall. This is what I call progress.


I have two dogs at my homestay, and I seem to be the only person who pets them. Thus, Los Diablos (they both have the same name) have become my protectors in Bokito. Saturday morning was the first time I left the house by myself to walk to the training center, and the dogs walked with me the entire way, circling around me, and sniffing out anyone who got too close.  Today they tried to again but were chased away by my homestay brother. Since today is market day, they probably would have gotten run over by a car or a moto on the way back from the training center. I love these dogs, especially the three-legged one. Although the other one with its ears half bitten off is pretty cute too. Being a dog here is like being in a war.


Yesterday was a “bring America to Cameroon” day, aka. I fulfilled Peace Corps's 2nd goal (look it up). I made chocolate cake and stuffed cabbage for my homestay family. Neither worked out great but hey, Peace Corps is all about being resourceful and celebrating the little victories in life. The chocolate cake was made with fake Nutella instead of cocoa, and was sweeter than anything I ever want to taste again. But the family seemed to enjoy it. I also baked it out of a oven I created over a wood stove by putting sand at the bottom of a big pot and butting the cake pan in over that. As for my stuffed cabbage – I would not recommend making this over a wood stove with only a few pots available for cooking, and for a large family of hungry Cameroonians. I definitely under-estimated how much everyone would eat. It took me about 4 hours to make 13 stuffed cabbage rolls for 8 people, and within about 3 minutes they were all gone and we were already onto the leftover rice. I really need to get better at this whole Cameroonian cooking shenanigan. French toast this weekend I think. And cinnamon. Cameroon doesn't really use cinnamon. I'm about to change some lives.