Bouayache Morocco; Population: 404

I am the 403rd resident.  Its true, I checked the register at the Sbitar(health clinic).  In the next couple of weeks the register will have to be changed, marking the arrival of several new babies who are due to make their entrances here soon.  But I am number 403 and I am fighting my way through meeting the 402 who go before me.  Clearly, I am not meeting them in their birth order, but it does seem to be easier to meet the newer additions as opposed to the older. 

When I first arrived, I imagined meeting 403 people would be an easily accomplished goal.  I gave myself a month.  Well, I’ve been a resident for over a month and am curious if I’ve even met a quarter of the population.   Regardless of the number, each bit of the quarter has been quite wonderful. 

To be honest population of Bouayache is a lot more than 404 people right now, but its only temporary so the Sbitar doesn’t have to chart it.  This is because I live in the land of Apricots.  And this is Apricot season.  And well, someones got to pick the fruit.

I never remember a time in the States where I would have thought “i really would like an apricot right now.” I barely recall ever seeing an Apricot piled up in the produce department of a grocery store.  The only thing I remember Apricots being in were those dried fruit and nut mixes and I hated them.  To be fair, I hated all dried fruit not just the dried Apricots. 

Now I am surrounded by this golden orange fruit.  The past week has been devoted to making apricot jam.  So far we’ve made about 7 gallons.  From what I understand we have another five or so, to go.  I’ve spent hours cutting up apricots and stirring large vats of amber colored syrup until it condenses into a sweet jam (the sweetness could also be because five pounds of sugar, give or take, is added to each pot).

Where do these Apricots come from?  My town is situated at the base of Mountains.  These beautiful mountains are snow capped in the wintertime (well, some just lost those caps last week) and eventually that snow melts into streams and springs.  My town is in the desert.  Imagine a desert like Arizona or New Mexico.  It is red and dry, but prickly plants still manage to grow (and yes, I will make prickly pear jam soon!).  Years ago a spring high up in the mountains was tapped by residents of Bouayache and now that water is brought down the mountain and a large portion of desert has been transformed into a large expanse of farm land. 

Rather than farming crops such as watermellon or tomatoes, my town is full of fruit farmers.  Every inch of available land is covered in trees. The orchards are beautiful; endless rows of apricots, apples, olives, pomegranates, pears and peaches .  We, in the Midelt provence are especially known for our Apples and Apricots. Dirt paths allow me to wander through out endless trees and wild flowers. The irrigation canals babble as if they were natural brooks and the shade makes the orchards a good ten degrees cooler. 

Families generally have farm animals as well.  Usually it is a couple of sheep or goats, chickens, turkeys and maybe a cow or donkey. The animals live in the walled in compounds which also contain peoples houses (multi-generation units which usually has a courtyard at the center for family gardens full of vegetables and fruit trees, animals live in their own little mud brick houses in the courtyard).   The only animals that leave the compound are the donkeys and cows.  The donkeys are used for any and all work.  The cows just eat.  Since most of the compounds are in a more desert like area, cows are taken into the fields.  Men will tie them to these leashes and stake the leashes into the ground.  The cow stays there.  The farmer generally does not. 

The cows only have about five feet (if that) of leash and the paths/trails are not really taken into account by the farmer when he is taking the cow to pasture.  Now, I love cows as any one who has even been to Young’s Jersey Dairy with me can attest. But, I’ll tell you what, I still get startled when I turn a corner and come face to face with a cow.  They.Are.Huge. 

My host sister doesn’t understand my fear of getting kicked by a cow.  I however will go a good ten feet out of the way, even if this means going into a field,  over an irrigation channel or completely backtracking to avoid startling or annoying a hungry cow.  Especially if it is a mama cow and the baby cow is close by.  Being pummeled by a cow would be an endlessly embarrassing way of ending my peach crops service.    I’ll steer clear.

I spend many a days walking though the fields trying to remember if I’m in Morocco or simply on a U-Pick Fruit farm in Ohio.  Only, this isn’t a U-pick farm.  I however, pick enough fruit off the trees to satisfy my wish that it were.  Every where you walk there is always an Apricot tree tempting you with its fruit that literally tastes like sunshine. 

Every morning for the past three weeks or so residents and migrant pickers alike travel out to various orchards and spend the days packing fruit into wooden crates.  These crates will go to markets all over the region.  Some, I believe are even purchased by a jam company and turned into commercial sold jam. 

The fruit harvest is a busy business.  There is only a small window of opportunity to get all the fruit picked and then sent off.  Since there are no refrigerated trucks (or storage units) in rural Morocco it makes the time even tighter.  During my rambles in the orchards I often run across people working in the fields.  It is the same as if I were to come to your multi-level office building and just walk around, peaking into cubicles and opening doors to closets.  I’m walking through people’s offices.  Luckily I live in a very friendly new town and rather than people getting annoyed at my random office tours, they are kind and often offer me tea.  See, here you don’t go on a walk unless you have a specific destination.  Just one of the many that make me so utterly strange here.  Now I understand how the author of Stuff White People Like got the idea.  I feel like I’m writing my own version here. 

Besides being endlessly beautiful, my new town is full of a great deal of friendly people.   People are busy, everyday fulfilling the mundane but necessary tasks of daily life.  There is no running water so women and children go to the spring, which is on the edge of town and gather water every day.  A trip to the spring can easily become a social engagement depending who you meet along the way!  Rarely are you the only person at the spring.  It still baffles me that half way though the year 2011 women and children are still gathering water.  Just one of many things that makes me feel like a Pioneer.  Seriously, all I need is a covered wagon and a bonnet and then you could just call me Laura Engels.  Then I remember that every Moroccan family has satellite tv. So we are more modern pioneers I suppose. 

I spend a lot of my time at the Sbitar hanging out with my counterpart.  When the Sbitar is slow (read here:  the sbitar is usually slow, with a few mild spurts a day) we usually go next door and hang out at the Post Office with the post man and the security guard.  Here I am usually teased for my poor language skills, but they are patient and therefore I am able to practice at the same time. You see the post man speaks some English, so we make it work.  Sometimes we have tea and I get to use my key to check my post office box.  I’ve come to learn that I am the only person to have a post office box.  Thats not true, but I’m the only person who has taken the key.  Everyone else (all three other people) just leave the key in the lock.  Not that the keys matter all that much.  If you don’t have your key (or you aren’t keeping it in the lock for safe keeping) you can just reach behind and take your mail out the open back.  I really like hanging out at my post office.

I just found a new tutor which is really exciting! He is working on his PhD, speaks better English than I do and so far has been an excellent teacher. My language skills are still a little rough around the edges and since moving to my new site, I am meeting a whole new slew of problems.  The biggest is that I am in a Berber village.  There are four main languages spoken in Morocco.  Well five if you count French.  One is Darija (Moroccan Arabic) and the other three are Berber languages.  The Berber people are the native Moroccans and have endured a great deal of oppression throughout the centuries. Their languages have been preserved, especially in rural mountain communities such as mine.  Darija is taught in school and along with French, is used in all official capacities.  I’m learning Darija, but a lot of people (mainly women) in my village speak mainly a Berber language. 

A lot of women in my village call me “meskina” and no, its not really a pet name.  It means “poor thing.”  Now, its never been made clear to me if this is because I don’t speak arabic well, i wear pants, or I’m unmarried.

So in case it is my lack of language I have a new approach:  I generally can’t understand what is being said to be because it is said too fast or is a completely different language.  I ask the speaker to repeat what they said once.  If I still didn’t understand, well then I just think about a question I know the answer to and respond to that question.  Someone could ask me anything (I mean i don’t know what they are saying, it could be will you be my wife to i need to find so and so, do you know where they are? etc.) and I’ll respond with “My name is grace and I live here.” or “this morning I ate breakfast and drank tea with mint.”  or “I have a mom, dad, two sisters and a brother  (in law) in America.” or “I like Apricots and walking through the fields.  They are pretty.”  or “I will live here for two years, god willing.  Do you know of any houses I could rent?”  Those are my six go to answers. Quality conversations I’m creating, i know, but it beats saying “wait...what did you say??  Can you repeat that?  I don’t understand” every third minute. 

Things I’ve learned so far:

-when in doubt just call every man Mohamed

-wheat flavored yogurt is amazing!!-  do we have that stateside???

-the backseat of a taxi is so much more comfortable than the front, even if four people are smashed back there.

-Moroccans don’t go for walks unless they have somewhere they need to go

-when I met people I nicknamed them to myself based on what they would always wear.  For example “puffy coat” is a man who would always wear a puffy coat.  now that the weather has changed, so have the outfits, my nicknames still haven’t made the change over.

-Apricot trucks generally will take a nice girl to Midelt when there are no taxis available, although sometimes they require a three hour side trip to a well in the middle of the desert to pick up a compressor that doesn’t fit on the trucks jack.  If thats the case a clothes line is produced and the compressor is tied to the back of the truck.  Sometimes you make it five miles outside of the city only to have the tire on the compressor blow.  Sometimes a free ride is totally worth the three hour adventure.

-turkish soap operas are amazing. all of them.

-   marriage proposals and requests for phone numbers are best responded to with “this morning I ate bread for breakfast.” or “ohh, you weren’t asking what I had for breakfast?  I don’t understand.”

-   being a girl and looking for a house to rent is strange to people.  living alone in general is weird.  While I am already weird enough, I am still desperate to find my own house.  So far, no luck.

-   and finally, in honor of Americas Independence....What country was the first to recognize American Independence from England?     MOROCCO!!

Thanks for reading, Team. I’m still figuring out my internet availability,  but I promise to get better about updating this blog! At least I hope to...

Miss you all and hope everyone is doing well in, as they say here:  use-ah (read: USA)!  Keep me posted on everything going on stateside!  I love mail and e-mails! :)  You all are the BEST!!

love love love

gfinn 

check out that new title!

Today is the day!  I have one bus ticket for a bus that leaves in an hour and a half.     My bags, after a very long stressful re-packing which required all of my bags to be emptied and stuffed again, are ready to go!  I have about 8 new technical books from the Peace Corps, a carbon monoxide detector, and a massive medical kit that is about the size of a briefcase somewhere, i'm not sure exactly, in one of my bags.  I have my travel clothes, my ipod, and a packet of tissues at the ready!  And as soon as I put on my shoes I'll be ready to move it on out to my FINAL SITE!!!

Thats right team, as of yesterday, I am no longer a Trainee, but officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!

Our swearing in ceremony was quite nice and we were recognized for our hard work and effort during our training period.  We were also able to recognize our teachers and other PC Staff for all of their help and support.  Then, we held up our right hands and swore our oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It was a nice ceremony held on the rooftop of our hotel in a beautiful tent.  Afterwards, the PC threw us a little party!  We ate delicious cookies and had fresh orange juice and avocado milk to celebrate our success!  We did it!

The past five days all 56 Volunteers have been together again (health and environment volunteers).  We haven't all been together since first arriving two and a half months ago.  It was nice to see everyone and have a couple of relaxing days to get some things done and hang out with my friends before we depart.  Once it is all said and done my friends and I will be spread all over the country.  While I am excited to travel to new places to visit them, I do wish they were closer to me!

Our final night together my close friends and I had a 90's music dance party in our hotel room.  It was pretty silly, but the perfect way to end training!

After these long 11 weeks of training:  school ten hours a day, living with a host family, going to many technical trainings, health trainings and safety trainings- I am ready for this next step!  I cannot wait to meet everyone in my new town, get established and get working! I'm feeling a little nervous to start this new adventure, but I also feel good knowing that it is about to get started. :)

MISS YOU!

xoxo

get me a seat on that party bus

I bought my bus ticket for my site placement visit.  I packed up my little book bag and got on the bus one morning at 8:00am ready for the 10 hour bus ride.  We were off!

At about 10:00am a woman got on the bus with her two year old small child.  She sat down next to me, said "por favor" and threw her small child onto my lap.  Then she got a plastic bag out and proceeded to vomit for the rest of the bus ride.  She couldn't hold onto her child and her plastic bag, so I became the bus babysitter.  Luckily he was exhausted, so he just snuggled in and fell asleep. Every hour or so the mom would talk to me for a couple of minutes before disappearing back into the plastic bag.  At one point she produced a bottle and handed it to me and so I fed the kid some lunch.  At about noon the baby wakes up, cries, and vomits alllllll over me.  This of course caused the mom to vomit even more and the baby just sobbed. Bless that nice man across the isle who handed me some tissues and the grandmother who finally took the baby off my lap.  But for the rest of the bus ride, about six hours, I had to sit in my smelly baby vomit covered clothes.

Welcome to my life in maternal and child health!

My week at my final site was a great introduction to my future two years.  My town is a lot smaller than I was anticipating.  It is about 400 people, most families are farmers and grow apples, apricots, almonds, olives, figs and pomegranates.  It is a beautiful town which is right at the base of a mountain and next to the desert.  If you turn in a circle you see everything from fields, to mountains, to desert.  It is an interesting combination.

My town has a health clinic, two small stores and a mini-post.  My counterpart is the health clinic nurse.  He speaks arabic and french and I speak, well, I speak english, but am working on arabic.  He and I cannot communicate much yet, but all in good time I suppose.  I also met some teachers (one of whom speaks some okay english!) and other towns people.  We don't have running water, so every day my host mom and I would walk to the spring to collect water.  That is going to take some getting used to.

My host family at final site is just my host mom.  Her husband passed away last year and her three daughters live in Midelt.  The oldest daughter is married and the other two are going to high school.  So my days were pretty quite, just hanging out with my host mom.  I helped her feed the chickens and the turkey and watched her cook.   her and her friend are already trying to marry me off.  I may not know much in arabic, but I do know my name, the word for marriage, and the name of this fella in my community.  Finally I told my host mom that the only way I could get married was if I was given 538 camels, 25 chickens and an olive tree for everyday of the year!

Speaking of marriage, I did go to day two of a five day wedding.  My host mom dressed me up, as in went into my room and picked out my outfit and then put three scarves around my shoulders, and then we went to a neighbors house.  There, we sat in a room with 54 other women.  Now, the room we were in was about 6ft by 12ft, so really not that big!  We made it work!  For about four hours we sat, sang, clapped, drank sugar with a little tea and ate wedding cookies.  Since this was the first time I had ever met or seen any of these women, they were just as curious as I was.  I consider myself lucky...I made it though two hours before I was dragged up and forced to dance while everyone stared at me.  For twenty minutes I was the wedding entertainment and everyone was whispering "look at the white girl dance!  is she french?"  Luckily, Tim's taught me how to dance without caring, so that is just what I did!  Then after the dancing we were taken into different rooms and fed roasted chicken(literally about half a chicken per person) couscous with chickpeas and raisins and lots of bread.  Then we were given oranges.  It was a strange six hours, but it was a great way to be introduced to my new community!

 It was really very cold and windy in my town.  One morning I woke up and the mountains had a lot more snow on the caps than they had the day before.  I'm dreading the winter time....luckily that is not for a while.

My town is about 25 miles from a bigger town.  That is where my bank, big post office, weekly market and supermarket (which sells nutella and cheese) are located.  I have grand visions of biking there for the market every sunday.  I told another volunteer that and he told me when I was exhausted and unable to petal my way back home, I could crash on his floor.  So at least there is a backup plan!

During my week I also got to meet a lot of current PCV's in the area.  It was nice to meet some current volunteers and get to know the area a bit.  The Midelt Provence is beautiful.  When you all come to visit we can have a photo shoot in front of the apple fountain.  It is pretty awesome.   And by awesome, I mean it gets painted so sometimes its a red apple, sometimes green, and occasionally yellow.  You can plan your visits accordingly.

So I officially swear in as a PCV on May 25th and on the 26th I travel to my site for good!

lovelovelove,

grace

p.s.  I have a post office address now!!!  Only, I'm not supposed to post it on the blog, so I will e-mail it to my mom.  If you would like it, just let her know and she will give it to you!  Cindy Currell:  cindycurrell@hotmail.com

:) I love letters and will write to you too!

appleutely!

It is apple season in morocco!  To celebrate, several of the girls in my arabic learning group and I made an apple pie (or an equivalent....okay it wasn't a pie, but it was apple and it wasn't covered in oil, with bread or rice, therefore it was amazing.).

animals in morocco:

So we all know about the chickens in the bit lama, Hasak (bathroom, i'm sorry for speaking of dirty things, in arabic), but now it is time for the cats.  So my family has two cats and the mama cat just had kittens! So we have three little kittens that are about two weeks old.  They are pretty cute, but I'm glad I'm leaving my host family relatively soon and will not be forced to adopt one!

Anyway, Spring is in full force over hear which is really nice, but it means one thing....animals.  There have been many more critters around and I just do not love that.  For example, the other day I had a lizard in my room.  It was on the wall by the light switch and it made it very tricky to turn off the lights to go to sleep.

Thennnnn one morning, at 5:00 am I was woken with a start!  Now, as poor Stephanie Wiezbenski can attest, I am not the best sleeper and anytime there is a noise or movement I wake up, sit up and gasp.   and that is exactly what I did.  At 5:00 am the dad cat from my house was fighting a neighborhood tom cat in my room, right next to my bed!  It really startled me, so much so that I screamed, thinking there was a robber or something in my room.  When I realized it was just cats, I freaked out just as much and dove under my blankets thinking "don't get rabies, don't get rabies, don't get rabies, pleeeeeeease!!"   Now, I have been fully vaccinated, so that is a relief.  Anyway, after all the commotion, I kept waiting for my host family to come to my rescue!  As such a damsel in distress, i thought it would be natural for someone to escort those unfriendly cats back to the great outdoors of the desert.  No one came.  I had to wait, under my blankets, for a good twenty minutes until the fighting (and it was a loud and intense fight) cats found their way back out from under my door.  

In the morning when I went out to breakfast my host father sat next to me and said "meow, meow......AHHHHHHHH"  and then laughed like he had never laughed before.  This happened on repeat until I left for school.  From now on, any time the cats come in the room my host dad laughs and shoos them away.  

Clearly I'm becoming one with nature around here.

Anyway, today I learned some VERY EXCITING news!  We were told where our final site placement will be.  On monday we are traveling to visit our sites for the week!  I will be spending the next two years in a small town in the mountains.   I'm in the Mident province and actually about 20k's outside of a small city named Mident.  My town has never had a Peace Corps Volunteer before.  There are about 1500 residents and most are farmers.  They grow a lot of apples and figs!  ladies of 101: Do you know what that means?? apple day 2011, Morocco!  done.

I'm feeling very pleased with my site.  Of course, I can say that because I haven't been there and know three things about it:  they grow apples, its 20k's from the market town (the small city that hosts a weekly market where people buy all their goods and supplies) and its never had a PCV before.  I'm hoping for the best and will let you know more next week, enshallah.  :)

books read: 2
camels: 4
ankles: 2, but it was in the city
number of times I've embraced my non-existent jewish roots and said Hello as Shalom rather than Salam: 3.  


Missing and loving you all.

xoxo 

who is chicken now?!

Did you know that dates come from palm trees?  No, not the dinner and a movie kind, but the fruit!  who knew?!?  

The town of Oulad Larbia is an oasis town.  In the distance you can see snow capped mountains.  To the west there is nothing but sand and dunes.  To the east there is nothing but a beautiful green space full of palm trees, vegetation and a rive that runs through the middle.  to the North there is a road and other small towns.  It is a small town of less than 300 people (an estimate).  It has two stores (similar to a UDF or other gas station store, minus of course, the gas pumps), a mosque, a school, soccer fields and three hotels/hostels. Most are farmers or potters (not like harry) and most families seem to be related in some way or another.   This is where I live. 

I’m studying Moroccan Arabic rather than a Berber language which I think I’m happy about.  There are 6 other Peace Corps Trainees in my group.  We are living with host families and going to school for 8-10 hours a day.  It has been verrrrrrry busy, but we are all learning a lot about culture, language and customs.  Language classes are difficult.  very difficult.  but we are learning a lot and it is getting better!   Talk to me in a year, i’ll respond in arabic.  done. 

We have two pets at our school.  By pets, I mean stray dogs that hang around and that we’ve named.  One is Simba.  He is a puppy and he doesn’t like us and is scared of us.   I leave pieces of bread outside for him everyday.  Soon he will be my friend!!  Matildo is our other dog.  He (we originally thought it was a she....Matilda) is a gem of a dog.  He walks one of my friends to school every morning from her house.  He stays outside of school and waits for us.  The other day we fed him chicken bones and rice, he loved it!! I keep hoping he will convince Simba to be our friend too.  I’ll keep you posted. 

I have three new host-sisters:  a 4, 9, and 12 year old.  My host-mom is a housewife, but spends most of her time knitting/weaving and doing other things.  My host-dad is a potter and makes these neat pots.  We have 6 sheep 1 chicken, a donkey, two cats, and as of Sunday three kittens.   Sometimes I get to help feed the donkey and sheep.  I love those days. :) 

Living with my host family has been an interesting adventure.  The daughters are fun and have been such wonderful Arabic helpers!  They laugh at me a lot.  A lot.   My host dad is pretty funny.  He likes to ask me questions and when I don’t know what he is saying he just says them again......r----e-----a---l-----l-----y---------s-------------l-------------o---------w---------------l--------------y  and I still don’t understand.  :) 

My mom doesn’t like for me to help with any of the housework, so instead she always sends me to play with the girls.  When that doesn’t work, she just takes me around to her friends houses.  So generally I am about two feet behind her, following her like a small puppy.  I tease her and tell her that I am her pet, just like the chickens. 

Speaking of chickens....i’ll tell you a funny story.  the other day I really needed to pee, but our bathroom is in a pretty precarious location.  Also, it is not polite to tell people you are going to the bathroom because it is considered dirty.  Plus, there is no lock on my bathroom door and my little sisters find knocking to be slightly foreign...  So I waited for the perfect time- no one was around so I go to the bathroom door and open the door......and there are chickens in the bit lama.  Now, i’m pretty good at a lot of things, but I do not know how to handle livestock....i’m from the city!!   I didn’t know what to do, so I went to get my host sister and had to tell her there were chickens in the bathroom.  She thought it was so funny so she got our other sister.  Then it was all so funny and they were laughing so hard that the dad came over to make sure everything was okay.  Then I just looked silly because there were chickens in the bathroom and everyone was laughing.  

Now we joke about the chickens.  He met his fate though.  We ate him for dinner the next night.  

strange things PCVs packed- a list, continued:  a piccolo, hair dryer and spatula.  

Camels:  YES, i’ve seen three!!! They are for tourists and not actually used for daily life. 

miss you all! 

xoxo, 

grace

smile you're in casablanca!

There was a sticker with that phrase on each customs office door at the airport.  :)  getting through the airport was easy enough and the customs officer even wished me an early happy birthday!  That and a whistled/fluted version of the beatles, yesterday was playing while i waited in line.  so far so gooood.

My favorite question to ask other volunteers is:  what is the strangest thing you packed?

Here are several answers:  pee cup (it is something very strange for girls to use to pee standing up), rain boots, solar charger for an ipod, dvd's (he didn't say which dvd's they were) a football, a camp shower, and a lot of undecideds because we all have no idea what we packed let alone in which bag it is....sooo i'll update this list as I think of it because i like hearing peoples answers.

For me:   mouse traps.  i'm not taking any chances.

camels: still zero
ankles:  only american.
playgrounds complete with jungle gyms, swings, sea-saws and slides:  two.  moroccans seem to love playgrounds.
women in designer brands:  many, many, many at the airport.  mainly it was the shoes because thats all you could really see.  Oh and purses.  crazyyy

current book:  wind up bird chronicles- because my life isn't strange enough already!

Today I saw many many donkeys, cows and sheep.  Luckily I haven't eaten any of them yet.... little McClukster wasn't so lucky- that was lunch!     I did however eat grain flavored yogurt. There were little chunks of wheat though out the entire dish.  you better believe if you visit i'll be giving some to you to try!

Today was round one of shots and i'm not talking tequila.  Round two is tomorrow.  good thing i don't have to worry about rabies now.  even though i would make foaming at the mouth look good.

love love love and miss you all.

gfinn

And we're off!!!!

helloooo blog readers!  

While my sisters and brother and law are currently the only followers, I thought I would start this blog right now.

I'm in Philly getting ready to board a bus bound for New York Airport.  I had quite the difficult time re-packing all of my stuff.  I'm testing the limits of every zipper on every bag...lets hope I can carry them!

Last night I went to downtown philly and saw the liberty bell!  what up founding fathers!!  It was neat.

We land in Casablanca at 6:30am tomorrow (so, midnight in ohio).  Then we hop on a bus for three hours to meet our medical officer where we will be re-medically cleared.

Camels seen:  0
marriage proposals: 0
ankels seen:  lots, but its in america so it doesn't count.
clogger: met and very strange.
OWL:  also strange.

It was a good thing there was a Target right next to the hotel because I forgot a couple of things:  a razor and chocolate.  Thank you, Target!

Okay, I promise these posts will get better.  Until then, peace out team!

xoxo