Religion Craze

So let me start off by telling you all that my skin infection is gone!!!!!  Everyone has been telling me I look beautiful again.  It's been lovely.  My host family and all my neighbors have noticed it gone too.  Although I did get a lovely parasite in my arm but I got some meds and got rid of it.  My skin is back to Senegal normal!!  The next big thing that happened was our health summit in Thies.  This is where all of the health volunteers in Senegal go to Thies for two days and talk about projects and best practices.  The first day was mainly discussing our baseline survey that my stage has to do starting November 12th.  It is exciting to finally be able to do it.  The second day was a day of presentations from second year health pcv's and other people such as NGO's or people affiliated with Peace Corps.  It was very productive and I came out with many project ideas.  However, I don't think I'm going to start any major projects until after the holidays in January because I will be in and out of village too often.  I am currently working on med record data entry right now in village.  It has been a great learning experience with the health system.  My midwife has explained everything in everyone of her books to me and has even been having me right in the information for her.  It helps so much with my understanding of the information.  I will be doing data analysis once I have it all in my computer. 

After this, I made it back to Affe in time for Tabaski.  Tabaski is a muslim holiday.  In Arabic it is Eid-Al-Adha and in English it is the Feast of Sacrifice.  It is the day that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his first son before God provided a ram for him.  So in honor of this people kill a ram and eat it on Tabaski.  My host dad killed four rams.  They were not all ours but it is common for important men in the village to kill other peoples rams as well.  The day of Tabaski was very uneventful.  In the morning we didn't really do much up until the point my dad killed the rams.  The men went to the mosquee to pray and then my dad killed rams and the women started cooking.  I finally got to help cook without a big fuss from my family.  I just started cutting onions with me sister and slowly the rest of the women came over and mentioned that I was cutting onions but that was it.  After lunch, we got dressed up around 5ish and walked around the village.  That was about it for the first day.  The second day, I wake up and there are my uncles and other men sitting outside on a mat reading out of the Qur'an.  I was very confused but apparently we were having some type of ceremony.  I was called over to cut onions again.  :-)  So they must think I can do it.  The women cooked again and the men sat and chatted.  Then everyone gathered together and some of the men gave speeches or said prayers.  I sat with my 19 year old aunt and she talked me through what was happening.  It was interesting to see the attention of the men as opposed to the women.  The women sat in the back and sometimes chatted among themselves.  That went until about 11:30 and then everyone was served lunch and left!  That evening we dressed up again and walked around to different compounds and drank some soda then went home.  The third day things seemed to be over but my sister was cooking dinner for her husband-to-be and posse.  This was going on most of the day.  I was told to watch them so that when I go home I can cook dinner for my mom.  Mom.....I think you would rather eat your cooking.  ;-)  They cooked pasta with chicken and onion sauce.  We had a different dinner at the normal time but then after dinner I fell asleep and as I was going into my hut to go to bed the husband and group were just getting to my house around 10.  I was then woken up by my host mother at 12:45 am to eat a second dinner, the dinner my sister was cooking  all day.  It was delicious and I got a soda with it but my body wasn't awake enough to really enjoy it.  My host mom, when she gave it to me, told me that I had to eat it now and couldn't leave it until the morning.  I ate it and then went straight back to bed.  After this event though life returned to normal.  Tabaski is an interesting holiday to experience with a Senegalese family.  I then got back to running and working, which was nice to get back to my routine.  Except for a neighborhood Gamou that we had!!  A gamou is a gathering of people where they pray a lot and sing a lot and give alms.  However, the singing is more shouting into the microphone and it gave me a headache.  The Gamou I went to started at 12:30 am!  and I stayed until 3 before my mom told me to go home and go to bed.  But everyone else stayed until it was finished which was the wee hours of the morning.  The next day nobody did much except sleep and lay around.  I enjoyed it.  I then started preparing for my visitors.

I am currently hosting American exchange students that are studying in Dakar.  This was the only way I could get out of village without a big fuss from my family.  At first they were upset that I was leaving and then I told them I was bringing back two visitors and they said that it was ok to leave.  These students live and study in Dakar for a semester and are required to do a rural visit.  So I have two girls hanging out with me right now and tomorrow we will be going to village for them to experience life in the bush.  We stayed in Linguere tonight to watch the election!  There are American missionaries that live in Linguere and they get world cnn for the election and they invited us over to watch for the whole night!  It has been fantastic.  I've gotten caught up on what has happened while I've been out of the world and eaten good food (spinach dip, carrots, and onion rings). 

I will be back on thanksgiving for dinner at the missionaries and then head to Dakar for my Italy trip!!!  I'm so excited to go to Italy and see Cathy Kaye.  It is a much needed break and I've only heard great things about Italy.  I will be staying mainly in Florence.  The election is exciting and a little nerve racking but I'm glad I get to watch it. and I voted by absentee a couple weeks ago!!!! Also, we were walking down the street in Linguere today and a Senegalese man chanted OBAMA!!  OBAMA!!  with his hands in the air.  It was wonderful!   Everyone should go vote!!!  Good luck and Good night. 

fun, friends, and frustrations

Jigeen Gem sa Bopp....Girls Believe in yourself!  That was the cheer of my team at our wonderful girls camp.  The week started off with a bus ride from Dahra to St. Louis.  The girls didn't talk with each other at all and were looking at the crazy volunteers in the back singing and dancing.  We got to the University and proceeded to stay up until midnight playing name games and such.  I was exhausted on the first day!!  The next day was our business theme.  The Peace Corps staff member that is in charge of our small business sector came and played a game about making and saving money with the girls.  They seemed to love it.  Oh!  and everyday before breakfast we did about half hour of zumba!!!  and we also danced to Beyonce because she's great and everyone here loves her.  We also had a panel of college students that day.  The next day was environment day.  We took a field trip to a PCV garden and they learned about composting, planting trees, and making nurseries.  After the garden we took them to the beach, which could have been the best part of the whole week.  Most of the girls have never seen any body of water let alone the ocean!  The loved it!!!  they were picking up garbage and finding plastic bottles to have people put ocean water in for them.  and then we let them put their feet in and they freaked out!  Fantastic!  We also played the Lorax for them with translation.  The next day was women's rights day.  We had a speaker that came and talked about going to college and the fact that women have all the same rights men do.  Then it was health day which was a great hit!  We had a mini olympics in the morning and a midwife come in the afternoon for a question and answer session.  The girls loved it!  A volunteer also gave a nutrition talk and played a game with it and it was interesting to watch because the education system here is very different than the education system in the U.S.  Here they just memorize things, so when it is time to apply what they learned it is very difficult.  That night we also had a bonfire, which was insane.  We just ran in circles around it while singing songs and people kept getting closer and closer.  I had a mini panic attack at one point.  Oh speaking of mini panic attacks, we used whistles all week to call girls to do something and it drove me up a wall because whistles have never meant good things for me.  So when girls would just blow whistles for ten minutes straight it drove me up a wall!  But so the last day was gender and development day.  This was another great day.  We watched a movie about women that grew up from similar backgrounds as these girls and have great success stories to tell.  And then we had one of the women in the movie come and talk to the girls!  Awesome.  We also did Theatre with the girls and they are great actors and hilarious!!  Then that night we had a talent show and gave out cake and certificates at two in the morning because things just went so late that night!!  Overall, fantastic week!!  The next day we had a bus ride back to linguere with the girls being much more talkative!  The girls just blossomed over the week and it gives me so much hope that they will do more with their lives.  I wish there was a way that we could keep up with all of them but its up to them now.  :-) 

So that was the fun and friends part......infections and PC doctors are frustrating!  I have had a skin infection for the past monthish and tried to see a doctor two weeks ago but couldn't get in.  So I finally sent pictures and description to one of the doctors and she was like you need to come to Dakar asap.  So I got on the night bus, which is by far the easiest way to get to dakar from linguere, after a lovely birthday party for one of the missionaries daughters.  She turned five.  We had delicious lunch with homemade cake and ice cream afterwards.  But so I get to Dakar and I settle into the med hut and one of the doctors comes gets me to go to the dermatologist.  I went with two other girls and we were waiting outside and they asked me if I was going for a mole removal too.  In my head I was like seriously!!!  Do you see my skin??? Do you really think I'm going for a mole removal.  but to their faces I was just like nope I have this lovely skin thing going on.  and they were like oh ok.  If you all could have seen this infection you would think the same thing I did.  I had bumps all over my face and chest and shoulders and neck.  It was a ridiculous question.  But one good thing that came from this was that I got to spend the week in the med hut with AC, internet, hot showers, and good food!  I also got to skype with so many people and it was wonderful.  I also got to run along the ocean and I don't want to leave.  Dakar is wonderful with the ocean and I don't want to go back to where everything is about to die.  But I will get through and get reacquainted with the desert.  It will be nice to see my host family again.  Oh and the PC doctor told me that this whole thing started from a bug bite and told me to see how I could avoid bug bites in the future and I was like I live outside!  I can't avoid bugs. lol.  But real work is starting now which is very exciting.  Hope all is well in the good ole U.S.A.  until next time.

The Rains down in Africa

Just got back from inservice training and Dakar.  Inservice training was much more useful than pre service training.  All of our sessions were much more applicable to what I am going to be doing.  I got a lot of project ideas which is exciting and I am also really excited to start my baseline survey.  However, I can't start that until the end of October because Peace Corps is just now standardizing our baseline surveys so they can actually compare the data we collect.  So because of this D.C. has to approve the questions and they haven't done that yet but I have other things to keep me busy until than.  Before IST was good as well.  Ramadan has finally ended!!  Korite was kind of a let down.  The morning was good.  We made beignets in the morning for breakfast and spent the rest of the morning cooking for lunch which was delicious!!!  My dad slaughtered a goat for lunch and dinner as well in the morning.  But other than that we sat around our compound and people came to say hi and ask for forgiveness for any wrongs they may have done you.  And also to show off their new clothes.  My mom and sister made me a new outfit for Korite which was super nice of them!  However, the next day I did laundry and washed the outfit and my sister saw and told everyone else.  I forgot you aren't supposed to wash new clothes until after the third time you've worn them and so I got a lot of grief for that one all day.  Even my dad made fun of me for it!  I have also decided that I never want to be in a room full of teenage-early 20 year olds again.  My sisters husband came over the night of Korite with a bunch of his friends.  I was settling in my bed outside for the night to watch the stars before dinner and my sister came out of her room to tell me that they all wanted me to go in there and hang out with them.  So I did....bad life choice.  I went in there and the conversation never left me.  The boy I sat down next to decided within two minutes of me being there that he loves me.  He told me in English once he found out I was american and then when I didn't say anything back he was like you don't understand me....then said it in French.  I was like I understood you the first time!  My first language is English!!!  Then they all decided that they wanted me as a wife but I had to break it to them that I'm a selfish girl and I don't want to share my husband with three other women.  They all tried to tell me that they didn't have any wives yet but my sister had my back and told me that all but one of them had at least one wife already and most of them were 18.  Crazy world I live in.  But then one of the boys asked if I could drive a car and I said yes then he asked me to be his chauffeur.  haha!  I told him I didn't know how to drive cars in Senegal...which is technically true because they are all stick shift and I don't know how to drive those.  I then had to go eat dinner which was a nice relief but they told me to come back after dinner.  I sat with my mom and rest of family after dinner for a couple minutes and told them that all the boys want me to marry them.  My mom was like just tell them they don't have any money or they need to have a lot. lol.  Then I got grief the next day as well for that.  I also think my family can have the shortest memories ever when they want to because my family and I talked about me leaving the next day for at least 15 minutes.  The next day when I was sitting on my bush taxi, my dad walked by and asked where I was going.  Then my aunt walked by and asked where I was going.  goodness. 

After spending ten days in Thies for training, I went to Dakar for a few days and it was great!  I got to eat good food and swim in the ocean.  I also stayed with a friend that lives in an apartment overlooking the ocean....great way to wake up.  I didn't want to leave but I am headed back to village tomorrow.  It will be great to see my family again.  And I can't wait to see how my garden is doing. 

I am also going to add a plug for one of my projects again.  I am currently trying to raise money to buy computers for my school in village.  Each computer costs $75 and my school director would like 7 computers.  Computers and the ability to access the internet are becoming more and more important especially for kids in villages that don't have any other access to educational resources.  For these children the internet will help them progress farther in their studies.  So please consider donating...https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1004912 

until next time....

Life Lottery

So not much has been going on in the past month but I do have a few things to write about.  First I'll recap my adventures.  I have mainly been in my village where nothing really ever happens, especially now because we are in the middle of Ramadan.  However, I did get to go to the big city of Richard Toll for a week and then to the ocean city of Saint Louis.  Both were fantastic.  Richard Toll has a beautiful river that you can look across and Mauritania is on the other side.  My friend and I decided that we are going to take a boat across sometime to Mauritania.  We thought about swimming but then decided that that is a sure way to get schisto.  I also got to go to church with my friend Maureen who lives there.  It was wonderful and the church is on the river so we went down there after the service one night and stood on the dock as the sun set.  It was very soothing and relaxing.  I only wish I had a place like that to go in Affe.  Her priest is from Nigeria so he speaks english as well.  He also told me when I left that if I don't come back he is going to blame Maureen for it.  Her apartment is very nice as well with an actual shower which was nice to use. 

We then headed west to Saint Louis for a day.  It is a beautiful french town and it used to be the capital of Senegal when the French were here.  It is right on the ocean and the Peace Corps apartment has a balcony that looks out on the ocean and it was beautiful to sit out there and watch the sun set.  I got to go to a cute little cafe where I ran into a surprising number of english speaking people.  Then for dinner we went to a restaurant on the water and had delicious pizza.  I kind of wished that I was a volunteer in Saint Louis but when I got back to Affe I realized I would rather have my little village experience because I have plenty of time to live in a big city with cute cafes when I get home.  And now I have just spent the past two weeks in village. 

Ramadan started two weeks ago and I have been fasting with my family which is quite difficult but it makes break fast at sundown that much better.  I also really like the idea behind fasting.  For our breakfast we have a cup of cafe first and then drink lots of delicious, cold bissap juice.  My family then prays and then we get bread with butter and more cafe and cold water!!!  Everyone buys ice for break fast during ramadan.  It is so fantastic.  I also have to wake up at 5 am to eat my breakfast though.  but then I just go right back to sleep and sleep in a little.  Ramadan has given me lots of time to think though because no one does anything.  We all just lay around all day.  I have officially been called crazy by my family as well because the rains have come and so my backyard is now green and they want me to dig everything up but I won't do it and they think it is crazy that I want it all back there. lol.  

So I was talking with Maureen one day and we decided that we have won the life lottery for many reasons.  The way this all started was by learning some new information about members of my host family.  I found out that my favorite sister-in-law, who is 19 and already has two kids, is pregnant with her third.  Her current youngest is also only 7 months old.  The other piece of info that I found out is that my 14 year old sister has a husband.  Now she doesn't live with him yet so they may not actually be married but just betrothed to each other but still thats crazy.  It made me think about how I think this would be more ok if these girls at least had the option of doing something else but they don't.  It is what is expected of them, to get married and have kids.  So I decided that I won the life lottery especially as a woman by living in the U.S.    Just by this fact alone I am given so many more opportunities that women here don't even think about.  However, there are plenty of people in the U.S. that do not have wonderful lives, so I have also benefited from having an amazing family that encourages me to do the things I love and pursue anything I want.  Just the fact that I am in Senegal shows the great support system I have back in the U.S.  Many women here never even leave their village for their entire life.  And some women may move when they get married but never leave the city they move to after that.  It is very sad for me to watch my sister-in-law because I know that if she were in the U.S. she most likely would not have three kids at 19.  She still acts like a kid herself.  She acts how I acted when I was a sophomore in college.  That is something that I would like to change here but that takes more than a written grant or asking for money from home.  Even in the states, it took a whole movement to get women to where we are at today.  Senegal is slowly moving towards that but very slowly.  So maybe someday when I come back here my sister-in-laws granddaughters will be able to go to college and it will be a normal thing.  who knows...but we can dream.

Camp Gem Sa Bopp

In the U.S. girls have many opportunities to become and do whatever they dream.  Here in Senegal girls and women do not have that luxury.  If they have grown up in a bigger city then maybe the will create a life outside of the house for themselves.  However, many women in my village of Affe will never leave because they do not have the opportunity.  They also do not have the support system in place that many girls in the U.S. are lucky to have.  Many girls are expected to get married at a fairly young age and begin a family.  These women are some of the strongest women I have met.  They cook and clean and take care of children all day without the modern conveniences the western world has.  However, many girls drop out of school when they are teenagers either by choice or by outside pressures.  Men do not have those outside pressures to drop out.  In fact in most cases they are pressured to finish school.  When asked what they would like to do when they grow up, many girls say doctor, midwife, teacher, or something similar.  They have the same dreams that little girls in the U.S. do but do not have the same liberties to realize these dreams.  In September a group of Peace Corps Volunteers, myself included, will be holding a camp in Saint Louis for 12-15 year old girls.  The camp is named Gem Sa Bopp, which means believe in yourself.  This is an amazing opportunity and experience for Senegalese girls to get outside of their village and meet successful women.  I have included the website of the camp.  Please take a look at it and consider donating even five dollars, every little bit helps.

http://campgemsabopp.wordpress.com/donate/

 

Greenery

So not much has happened in village except a couple of really awesome things.  The first one was one day when I came back from a run my aunt had on this beautiful blue outfit and so I told her that it was really pretty.  She asked if I wanted it and because all Senegalese people tell me they want my stuff I said yes, not thinking she would actually give it to me.  But then twoish days later she came into my hut with the outfit and gave it to me!  I was shocked but now I have a wonderful new outfit that my mom made me wear when I went into linguere last weekend.  The Senegalese dress up when they travel for some reason.  I normally wear just comfortable clothes but I had to wear this nice outfit because they told me to. lol.  Then the next awesome thing that happened was when I was cleaning my room one day and the same aunt came in and saw my tub for food and asked what it was for because it has a cover on it.  So I opened it and she asked what was in a package and I said macaroni.  Then she asked if I wanted it for dinner and I said yes, once again thinking that I could do it myself sometime but then on thursday she cut up onions and potatoes and mad me a delicious pasta dinner with a potato and onion sauce!  My stomach was bursting afterwards because a different aunt had brought my normal dinner in first so I ate that thinking that was my dinner and then my other aunt brought me the pasta and I ate it all.  So good!  I then headed into linguere to begin our fourth of July trip to Kedougou in the south of Senegal.  It was about a 12 hour car ride including blowing a tire and many bathroom breaks on the side of the road.  But we made it fun and it slowly got greener and greener on the way down!  It was so beautiful.  Kedougou has forests and rivers and fat cows.  I haven't seen a fat cow in Linguere since I've been here.  Then on the 2nd a few of us hiked through the beautiful green forest to a waterfall and went swimming.  The water itself was great to see and be in but the waterfall made it spectacular.  On the hike back it started to rain and we had to hike almost the whole way in the rain which was delightful because I have only had one rain since I've been here.  The next day the same group went floating down a river together. It was wonderful.  The water felt so good.  We got a little freaked out at one point because a man on the shore told us that there were hippos and that the part of the river we were floating to was bad.  However, there was no place to get out so we just had to keep floating.  Guess what....no hippos.  But we did see monkeys playing in the trees!  It was so cool.  Kedougou has hills that look like mountains compared to the flatness of my area.  I didn't want to leave but we eventually had to.  We had a huge party on the fourth at the regional house there where pigs were roasted and delicious food made.  We had fireworks and everything.  Then on the fifth we made our trek back to the north.  This trip was a bit shorter, being around 11 hours.  We also stopped at a great gas station that had everything.  I got chocolate milk, cheese, pringles, chocolate, and pretzels.  It was amazing and I wish we had one in Linguere.  Now it is time to go back to village and work.  until next time....

Five week challenge

Five week challenge is done!  The challenge is to stay at site/not spend a night outside of site for your first five weeks at your permanent site.  Definitely one of the hardest things I have had to do yet especially because my phone broke a week into the challenge.  About two weeks after it stopped working some people tried to help me fix it and I think sometimes they think that because I don’t understand their language I also don’t know how to do other things or I say something but really meant to say something else.  I say this because when these people were trying to help me the first thing every single one asked was well where is the charger.  I would then proceed to tell them that the battery was fully charged and they would take my battery out and put it in their phone to see if it was actually fully charged.  Then a few of them would take their battery and put it in my phone to see if it worked. Lol.  They would then tell me that it was my phone that was bad because the battery and sim card work so it must be the actual phone that is bad.  In my head I’m saying thank you captain obvious…..I can figure that much out on my own.  However, one person finally brought me to my dad who gets things done and he gave me my moms phone to use while they tried to fix my phone but then one of my sisters brought my phone back to me after lunch and said once again that the phone is bad.  So I just have to get a new phone.  Now you must be thinking oh you didn’t have a phone for a month that can’t be that bad right…..wrong.  This meant that I had no one to speak English to except myself for a month.  It wasn’t fun.  The five week challenge is hard enough without having a broken phone. 

    On the other side of things, I really like my family and my village.  I still don’t know how everyone in my family is related.  I think my dad has two wives but then there are other women that also live with us and have kids so I don’t know how everyone is related.  It’s also very difficult to figure these things out when you just ask because everyone says they are your sister, aunt, brother, uncle, whatever you can think of.  But my dad’s second wife has this adorable little boy whose name is Mabdou.  At first he was quite annoying because he cries all the time but after about two and half weeks we became good friends.  I now can make him stop crying and sometimes when I leave the group he either tries to follow me or he starts to cry until I come back.  He also will come into my room looking for me.  I’ve decided I’m going to teach him English because he is around the age of just starting to talk so it is perfect timing.  I really enjoy playing with him and my other younger siblings because you can interact with them without needing to know a lot of language and they don’t laugh at you every time you say something.  Adults do.

    That brings me to the next subject, language.  I know that I know a lot of language for being here only three months but I still have so much to learn and it is very frustrating at times because depending on who I am talking with they just laugh at everything I say whether it is right or wrong.  That is probably the most frustrating thing I have had to deal with is people laughing or just treating me like I’m stupid.  There is one woman who will the same thing to me five times even when I tell her after the second time that I understood what she was saying or she just mumbles to me and makes hand motions which is kind of funny to watch but frustrating to figure out what she is saying.  My family has been really good though.  They laugh every so often but they are now understanding that I am learning and to talk to me so I can learn.  There is also a woman that lives with us that is a teacher at the school here and she has been very helpful because she is very patient with me and makes me repeat things that she says so I remember them.  She also corrects me when I’m wrong and praises me when I’m right.  Although, She is leaving in July to go home for their summer break for three months.  But she will be back.  She also gave me a desk from the school which was exactly what I needed.  I was going to have one made but now I don’t need it because she said I can keep this desk until I go home.  I had papers and books everywhere and now I finally have  place for everything.  It has made life so much better. 

    I have decided that my family thinks I am a very strange girl for many reasons.  I have started running and working out again and they think running is funny.  And every day that I go before I go they tell me today is hot don’t go running but every day is hot here and every day is too hot for them.  Lol.  Which brings me to another reason I think they think I’m funny because part of the greetings here is asking how the heat is and I’ve acclimated to the heat so it’s not that bad some days so I will say it’s only a little hot and they say only a little? No it’s very hot today and then they ask if the U.S. is hot and I say not as hot as this but my state is actually really cold compared to this and then they say nope it’s really hot I don’t know what you’re talking about.  As I am writing this it is 101°F.  One day I put my thermometer outside in the sun and it was 140°F.  So when I wake up in the mornings now and it is 75°, it feels kinda chilly.  I also wear pants/capris.  Girls in this culture do not where pants unless you are in a bigger city.  One of the funniest things is that I like animals.  We have a whole bunch of cats running around our compound most of them I don’t think I would want to pet because they have funny looking spots or bites but there is one really pretty cat that I have adopted as my cat.  She has also taken a liking to me now too since she has realized that I am not going to kick her or hit her, so she comes to sleep in my room in the afternoons and sometimes she’ll just wonder in for some attention.  When I pick her up to pet her everyone’s reaction is hilarious!  Especially the first time, they all freaked out and told me that she was going to bite me or scratch me.  None of the adults will touch her but the kids have started to try to pet her but then get scared and hit her which makes me unhappy.  She is a cutie though and I’m glad she likes me because I was thinking about getting a dog but then knew that I would want to take him home after two years but since this cat likes to live outside she will be ok to stay here when I leave.    

So now I am having a relaxing weekend in Linguere for a girls camp meeting which is great because it helps me feel like I"m finally working!  Here is also a plug for the girls camp!  Everyone should think about donating to it!  It is a week long leadership camp for girls between 12 and 15.  It is to show girls that there is life outside of their villages and they are capable of doing the same things that men do.  I will get more info out about that when I know it but that is what is going on in the life of Katie/Kine and I will be back in a couple weeks!!!!