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My New Years Indulgence
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Some Things Never Change…
Greetings from Yaoundé, where it seems my life
on med-hold will continue until January 2nd – non-vomiting permitting.
All my tests came back positively negative – whoop! – and my malaria is gone –
another whoop! Sadly, negative test results give me no answers. The Peace Corps
PA told me I likely have IBS, and I’m in agreement with my mom in that my
gluten allergy is probably getting worse due to my frequent indulgences on nice
gluten-filled delicacies such as baguette bread and beignets.
Being on med-hold means no drinking allowed for
me this New Years Eve and a curfew of 10pm, so I’m spending this New Years Eve
like I have spent the last countless New Years Eves: watching TV reruns and eating
ice cream while someone sleeps on the couch next to me snoring. However, unlike
normally, the reruns are not old ER episodes, but Friends episodes, the ice
cream is not caramel crunch from Fresh Market but rather cherry gelato with a
fresh passion fruit on top, and the person sleeping on the couch is not my mom,
but rather the other PCV on med-hold. I guess some things never change!
I’m not normally one for New Year’s resolutions
because I think any day of the year is adequate to start new good habits. It
may be a new year, but I know I’m stuck with the same old me tomorrow morning.
But who said the same old me can’t set a 10 goals for the New Year…it’s not
like I have much better to do! (In no particular order).
1.
Get healthy:
My mom realized from reading over my old blog posts that I’ve been sick since I
arrived in country (remember when I threw up in front of everyone on the first
day?!). This New Year I need to take my gluten allergy seriously, like I did
back in the states. Beignets and baguette bread, you shall not tempt me!
2.
Continue
beginning (nearly) each day with a 5k run and ending each day with at least 30
minutes of yoga.
3.
Visit the
remaining 5 regions of Cameroon that I have yet to visit (and that I’m allowed
to visit): North, Adamawa, Southwest, Northwest, and South.
4.
Continue
blogging – if not for my own sanity, then for my mother’s mental health.
5.
Read at
least 4 books a month.
6.
Begin
learning to speak Zimné (begin with finding a legitimate tutor).
7.
Focus on
quality friends at post, not quantity.
8.
Take part in
at least 1 Cameroonian cultural event (weddings, funerals, concerts..etc) per
month.
9.
Begin some
Peace Corps projects.
10.
Take pride
in my Peace Corps projects.
11.
Bonus goal:
Hike into the Dja Reserve in Lomié (and drag a few of my best friends along
with me) and support the anti-poaching cause while getting some gorgeous views
of the world's second largest rainforest, to which Lomié is a part. Not to
mention it would be one hell of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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