pictures of me!

My mom always says that I should post more photos of me! So, here are a few. Well, they're not great, but they're of me! These were from last weekend at my friend Alli's house. The first is of Alli and me and the second of David and me.

We're losing volunteers right and left

I think that volunteers must have a summer itch. In the past two weeks we have lost 4 volunteers, two who wanted to leave and two who did not. (two volunteer were medically separated from the PC over the past two weeks). This puts us at 16 of the 26 we began with in July. We have lost many good volunteers for many different reasons. I just wanted to write about this phenomenon as I struggle to figure out why people leave, how people handle being in another country, and as I approach the 1 year mark of my life here in Cape Verde. It's crazy to think that 10 volunteers have left this beautiful country. Beauty fades quickly and volunteers must be happy with their lives and work to remain so far from what is familiar.

I often have a hard time understanding why people leave because I have been happy with my experiences here. I can't imagine having to make the decision to leave after investing yourself in this country. I have a feeling that another volunteer will be leaving soon, and again, I am sad. I hope they find what they are looking for after this experience.

We have a group of 32 volutneers coming in just over two weeks! I know they are both scared and excited imaging what will be. I only hope they find a country as interesting and welcoming as I have.

Pictures from Santo Antao

Here are two more pictures from my trip to Santo Antao. It's just beautiful and when YOU come visit, you can see it in person.

Also, I mentioned in the previous post that my friend David's videocamera was recovered. A few days after I left, the police found his computer and speakers as well. They recovered all of his possessions that were stolen from his home 2 months ago. Come to find out, they had been stolen by his 12 year old neighbor, who had a key to David's apartment. He had a key because one night he was locked out of his home and David let him spend the night in his spare bedroom. During the night, the boy found a spare key and kept it for several months until the house was empty for the weekend!!!!

Oh, also, July 8th will mark my 28th birthday! I can't believe it either. But, I will be alone here in Cape Verde so anyone who would like to email me on that day would be a SAINT. At least the new volunteers will be here, so I can sucker them into being nice to me!!!!!

my vacation

I just returned from a wonderful 10 day trip to Sao Vicente. It was a great time to get away and just relax. My friend David took me up to the top of Monte Verde, where it was both cold and cloudy. We couldn't see much, but we met an older couple who fed us and hung out with us for a while before giving us a ride back down to the bottom of the mountain. They were really generous and very sweet. Come to find out they live very near David's house, so I ended up seeing them just about every day after that. When I move to Sao Vicente, I'll already know a couple of people!

We looked a some apartments while I was there. It was hard to find places, and we spent a lot of time just walking around chasing leads. Finally, I got to visit a place that David had already checked out before my arrival. It is beautiful. The apartment is on the 3rd floor, has built in closets, 3 bedroom, and 2 bathrooms. The roof has a view of the entire city. It's an amazing place, but might be in a questionable location. I am passing on the details to PC and they will make the decision about safety. In the meantime, David is checking out some more places for me.

On Thursday, after being in Mindelo nearly a week, we headed to the neighboring island of Santo Antao to visit the city of Paul. Paul is a 45 minute boat ride followed by a 2 hour car ride from Mindelo, but boy is it worth it. I have posted a picture here for you to see... A fellow volutneer was nice enough to take us in for the weekend and give us a great tour of the place. We went to school with Alli for her last day of classes, then we rode up to the mouth of the ribera. This is one of the most beautiful places I've been. And as most of you know, I've been a lot of places... This is an amazing island, and it is nothing like the other islands. It's crazy how different each site is. It's what makes traveling here so interesting. When ANYONE decides to come visit me, you'll get to see this place too, I promise!

Well, on an interesting note, when David and I were returning on the boat from Santo Antao, we were talking about when his house was robbed. He lost everything, including a video camera. We were saying it would be likely that the camera would show up at an upcoming music festival on Sao Vicente this summer. Just as we were finished with this conversation, David saw a guy with a camera bag that looked oddly familiar. He asked the guy if he could check out his camera because his was stolen some months ago and he was curious. SURE ENOUGH, it was his camera. David took the guy to the police station where they are holding the camera. The guy with the camera on the boat turned out to have "borrowed" it from a friend. Now they friend has to come talk to the cops, but David will get his camera back. Also, the guy on the boat turned out to be the "famous" Cape Verdean rap star, Mo Green. Weird world.

Alright, I'll try to write and post more from my adventures soon.

I'm moving again

No, I'm not changing houses again. I have been asked to move to the island of Sao Vicente, one of the northern islands in September. There is a branch campus of ISE in the city of Mindelo that has requested 2 volutneers. These two volutneers would be teaching and working on helping the English department become stronger. My coordinator at ISE recently visited the Mindelo campus and upon return asked me to move there. I am SOOOOO excited. This is a great opportunity for me to really work on getting our sister department working as well as we do here in Praia. I am also excited about living in a new town, speaking a different Creole, and meeting new people. This is a rare treat to get to change sites in the middle of service, so I feel very blessed. I will be helping with training this summer, and then afterward, I will be moving to Mindelo for my last year of service. I just hope I can do a great job there. I've been told that I probably won't be teaching, rather I will be coordinating workshops for inservice training and assessing the needs of the department and working with the teachers there to make a difference. I am absolutely, completely, totally thrilled. Oh, and I'm headed to Mindelo this week, on Friday, for vacation to check out the school and find a place to live!!!!!!!!!

The other exciting news is that I am getting a dog, Max. My friend and co-worker, Deanna, just left for the states today for 3 months. She will be having her first child there with her family. Her husband will be headed to the states in August and they would like me to take their dog. They feel that having the dog and the baby will be difficult. Deanna chose me to take the dog because she knows I'm an animal lover! I just can't stand to see such a cool dog without a home. Max is an awesome dog. He's fun and playful and he's loyal and sweet. I think it'll be just perfect. I will be getting him August 6th, so I have a little time to prepare for this adventure. A new dog, a new island, a new job.... so many changes and they're all WONDERFUL.

Good morning

This morning was a VERY good morning. After a restless night's sleep and an early beginning, I was walking to the Peace Corps office. In my foggy state, I walked my normal trek through my neighborhood. Two little girls were just in front of me, dressed in their blue smocks (all children in primary school wear cute little smocks to school). One of the little girls turned around and waved at me. I immediately looked behind me because I thought she was waving at someone else, but no one was there. Her friend headed off in the direction of another school and she and I crossed the street and met up. She said hello to me and asked me in portuguese if I was a teacher. I told her, in Creole, that I was a teacher at ISE. We chatted a bit longer, then she crossed the road and said "txau." I crossed the road a little farther up and we met again. This time, we chatted about how old she was. I told her I was an American. I also told her that her Portuguese was very good. She said she learned it in school. Then just before she turned off to go to her school, she looked up and said I was "Linda." I thanked her because "linda" is Portuguese for pretty. I was very flattered. I told her she was pretty too. She smiled and thanked me. I told her as she veered toward the schoolyard, to have a great day and to study hard. She was one of those children who acted very mature with me. She tried to speak her best Portuguese thinking that I too spoke the language. It was a great wake up call. It absolutely made my whole day. So, this is bound to be a great week! Happy Monday!

My weekend

It was quite an eventful weekend. If you are one of my parents, grandparents, or just people who don’t want to know what a dangerous world I live in, please do not read any further…

So, again, it was quite an eventful weekend. On Saturday I went to visit some friends in Sao Domingos. My friend Adi made a bet with a couple of other volunteers that she could drink 1 gallon of milk within 1 hour without throwing it back up. According to lore, this is an impossible feat. Apparently no one has been able to do this, it is physically impossible for the body to do such a thing. Well, Adi, being the adventurous spirit that she is and unwilling to turn down a good bet, took on the challenge. As she was consuming her first liter of milk, people began running down the streets and screaming. Some friends were already outside and witnessed a crazy accident. In Sao Domingos, there is a pretty sharp turn near one end of town. Many cars drive very quickly on this part of the road because it is newly paved. Unfortunately, on Saturday, a pick up truck didn’t slow down enough and bounced from one side of the retaining wall to the next, then flipped over. As this happened, the young child in the back of the truck flew out. The father who was driving jumped from the car shortly after it flipped, then the other child in the passenger seat was pulled from the vehicle. Amazingly, no one was hurt. The truck was flipped over and was drivable even with a completely crushed roof. Even more dramatic than there being no injuries were the people of Sao Domingos. You see, in Cape Verde when something bad happens, everyone runs to see it. Women immediately being “wailing.” This is a very traditional, loud, crying that people do when someone dies. The women of Cape Verde will wail in this sort of instance too, even before they know what has happened. They just see an accident and the wailing begins. We knew no one was dead in this particular accident because the wailing stopped after about 5 minutes. Along with the wailing were all the people present for this accident. Children were running up to the over-turned truck trying to get a look. People didn’t seem to mind that the truck could have exploded or could have turned over further. No one worried about neck or spine injuries. They just dragged the people out of the car. Things are certainly different here. But I am happy to report that the police heard the wailing and made it to the scene of the accident in record time (for Cape Verde).

Speaking of police officers….. On Sunday I was on the bus in a busy part of town and all of the traffic stopped. Then I heard a girl on the street yell “sta guera” (it’s a war). Just as she said that and began running toward a crowd of people who had gathered in the street, a gun shot rang out. I looked up and saw a guy running away from the crowd followed by a police officer running with a gun in hand pointed at the other guy. Just as I saw the cop, he shot again at the man. Also, he was shooting at this man on the street with lots of people around. It was crazy, and done with complete disregard of those other pedestrians. The two men turned a corner, so I have no idea what happened next, but I was completely shocked. This is the very first time in my life that I’ve seen another human being fire a gun at someone else. I certainly don’t ever want to be that close again. Being that I was on a bus, I should have felt safe, except that a few weeks ago, some men in a car threw rocks at a moving bus and stopped the bus, a man got off the bus and the men shot him. Praia is getting more and more dangerous all the time. I’m not sure what’s going on in this town, but I am staying inside for a while……

A final faculty meeting

Monday night was our final faculty meeting. We had it at my house and I cooked some good ole' red beans and rice for my fellow colleagues. The food was good, the conversation was good, and the plans for the future are looking bright.

We discussed some of our frustrations and successes over the past year. Looking back, the frustrations were few and the successes tremendous. Deanna, our department coordinator commented on the difference in our department over the last 3 years. When Deanna first arrived at ISE, there had been no graduates of our department, there had not been a successful student teaching program in years, and the teaching staff was not stable. Today, we have a wonderful teaching staff, a fully functioning program, and nearly 25 students scheduled to graduate this summer. It's amazing to think that so much progress has happened in a short amount of time.

I believe that ISE, in particular, our department, have a great future ahead of them. I am happy that I don't feel needed here. I am glad to see that committed people are working with me and that those with a commitment are sticking around to see what happens next. It's an exciting time here at ISE, and just as the summer kicks off, I am thankful to have made it nearly one year in this country doing something so important.

Training of the new volunteers will begin at the beginning of July, making me an official 2nd year volunteer. It will be my turn to help with training the new volunteers. I'll get to see what I must have been like last year at this time! I'm looking forward to all that is to come. I can't believe I've been living in Africa for a year, it's gone by so quickly.....

a moment of bliss

This memorial day weekend I will be house-sitting! A woman who works at the US embassy has asked me if I'd like to stay in her home while she takes a vacation to Sal.

This morning I went over to her house for a quick tour and do's and don'ts of the place. She has a pantry the size of my bed room that is filled with American foods! She has a washing machine and a dryer, which I will be using to wash every piece of clothing I own. My clothes are always handwashed very poorly by me, so this will be a chance to get them clean and the dryer will hopefully shrink some of the stretched out clothes too! Other than that, she has about 46 verdandas that overlook the ocean. She has an entire third floor devoted to "entertainment" including DVD player, big TV, and the works. Finally, and most important to yours truly, she has hot water.... and AC!

This woman is a saint. Knowing that Peace Corps volunteers are poor and need some comfort every now and again, she asked me to stay in her house! God bless her. Really.

For anyone who has considered working in the foreign service.... DO IT! The foreign diplomats from the states get hooked up! They all have awesome homes, they have generators, hot water, AC, secruity guards, and cars. AND, they get to live in foreign countries and see the world. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. If you are unsure what to next with your life, consider taking the foreign service exam and traveling abroad!

Lunch at ISE

The lunch at ISE is great. For 150 escudos, the school serves rice, a vegetable or salad, and some kind of meat or beans. There are a couple of meals that I just can't seem to get into: iska, mao de vaca, and tripe. I'm just not that big a fan of organ meat, as I may have mentioned previously on my blog.

On Thursday, I was at ISE all day long, so I decided to eat. I always ask what they are serving before committing to anything just in case it's one of the above three things. Well, on Thursday, I asked the man who works there what it was (surprisingly at that moment, no one was eating in the cantina, so I couldn't check out people's plates). He said it was "perna de vaca ku arroz e grao." So I thought, "yes, I'd love some leg of the cow with rice and chickpeas." As it turns out, perna de vaca is actually mao de vaca, cow hoof!!! YUCK! So, I get my plate with lots of rice, potatoes, chickpeas, and a cow hoof. I looked down only to regret not having a better grasp of the portuguese language. You see, what happened I was thinking in Creole, while the man was speaking in Portuguese! Nice mistake! Next time, I'll be more inquisitive!

Well, I didn't end up eating the hoof, although, many, many Cape Verdeans think it's just wonderful. They fry the hoof, they boil it, and they grill it. The little meat that is on it is supposed to be really great, but I haven't gotten up the courage to try it. The peas, potatoes, and rice were top notch, however! Just another day in paradise folks!

Education

I was at a faculty meeting the other day. We’ve been having our faculty meetings at people’s houses, which means that we get to visit with each other, eat good food, and get some business done in a less formal setting. It’s been really, really nice.

This particular faculty meeting was at a woman’s condo right on the ocean. It was really nice. It was new and had all the amenities, including a swimming pool and underground parking garage. Pretty swanky. This woman is pretty amazing. She is Cape Verdean; she got her Master’s degree in England; she was the president of ISE for 4 years; and she is the owner of the English Language Institute here. She is a wealth of information, so the meeting at her house was really inspiring.

I learned while we were there her perspective on education in Cape Verde. We were discussing the student teachers who had just finished their student teaching. We were talking about which students did well and which needed more work. This teacher began reflecting on the teaching history in this country. She pointed out that having education in a country is different than instruction. She said this in reference to the school popping up throughout the countries without qualified teachers. The teachers in this country are not required to have a college education to teach, so often times, the teachers are under qualified, especially in remote areas where teachers are hard to find. The point is that while Cape Verde is finding money to build schools, they simply have teachers who are instructing students, rather than actually educating them. Until we have more teachers graduate from ISE, we won’t have qualified teachers in the remote areas teaching students.
This whole concept of hiring teachers without proper educations seems foreign, but at the same time, I am reminded constantly of why I’m here. I have 3 students finishing their senior thesis projects. They each will graduate this year, adding to the pool of qualified, educated, dedicated teachers in this country! It’s pretty exciting when you think about the fact that I am training teachers….I mean, I know that’s what I’ve been doing the whole time, but for some reason, the other day, I was struck with this notion and understand more than ever why I’m here.

Bafatada

Bafatada in Creole means to slap.

A couple of evenings ago I was leaving the PC office on my usual walk home. Just outside the office three little kids were standing there. Two of the boys, who were about 9 years old were in a fight. But this was the kind of fight were neither boy really wants to hit the other and they are just dancing around taking fake swings at each other. It was pretty funny to watch. I noticed that the kids also had a big pile of clothing that they had clearly stolen from people at the beach. As I was walking I saw one of the house guards come out and pretend to walk past the boys. Just as he approached the boys, he turned and slapped on of them upside the back of his head. At this point I was laughing because the whole situation was hilarious. The guard then smacked the other kid as he was trying to run away. The third kid was long gone by this point. The guard quickly picked up the pile of clothes as the boys were rubbing the back of their heads in disbelief. With the stolen clothes in hand and boys shoes and shirts, the guard went back inside the gate from which he came and locked the boys out. They realized what happened and were yelling at the guard to give their clothes back. He didn't respond and just stood behind the gate laughing at the boys.

It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Those little boys totally desrved to be reprimanded for what they did and for acting stupid in the middle of the street. I really appreciate the way that adults teach children lessons here. In the states, you couldn't really get away with smacking someone else's kid around, but here, it's done for the common good. I hope those little boys got a lesson that day that they won't forget. I know I won't forget what happened!

Holidays!

I know that in the U.S. we so infrequently get days off that they are treasured days of relaxation. In Cape Verde, I've come to dislike their love for holidays. They totally screw up my class schedule. This semester I am only teaching on Mondays and Fridays, which are exactly when the holidays fall. We began school in March, we just had a week off for Easter, then just last Monday was Labor Day, then next Friday will be some other holiday, which is a big festival in Praia (which I won't go to because foreigners are prime crime targets at these kind of things). This means that I'll miss another day with my students! Great. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have days off, but so many days off gets annoying when you only teach 2 days a week and the days you teach are inevitably holiday days!

Please, everyone feel very sorry for me because I hardly ever have to actually work! I know, I know, my life is sooooo hard. Really, it's tragic!

student teaching

Much like in the US, students in Cape Verde must participate in student teaching in order to get their Bachelor's degree in a teaching field. In our English department at ISE, the students have been student teaching for a couple of months. The strange thing about student teaching in CV is that nearly all of the 20 something students are already teachers in high schools on the island. So basically we are working with them on teaching and how to do it well, but most of them are as good as we are. I have several students who have been teaching in high schools for 5 or 6 years. This means that we are giving them a grade on a skill they have been steadily improving upon for quite some time.

Being an advisor for this process is great and really inspiring because I know Cape Verde English teachers are good. They are meant to be in the classroom and they all want to be in the classroom teaching English. The best part is that teaching is not a last option here; it's a first option. Teaching is prestigious and valued. It's been a great experience, but I am happy that this semester is winding down! June 9th will be my last day of classes, and I'm not complaining one bit about it!

A gathering of English teachers

Saturday was a great day for English teachers in Cape Verde. It was the first gathering of English teachers to discuss the formation of a national english teacher's association. My roommate, Dianne coordinated the conference along with 11 other Cape Verdean colleagues. They were able to get money to fly in the English coordinator from each high school in the country. They also flew in a guest speaker, Mr. Abadou Abese Sow from Dakar. Abese is the president and one of the founders of the national english teacher's organization in Senegal. He spoke to us about the importance of an association and motivated the high school English teachers to really move on getting a recognized group formed. We had lots of speakers, including the president of ISE, the American ambassador, and the Secretary of State of education for the country. People seemed genuinely inspired and interested in holding another conference soon.

It was so nice to see so many teachers come together to help themselves. I was inspired by their commitment to change and their forward thinking. It was a great day. We had a great conference, great food, and we even sang a song together - "the more we get together, the happier we'll be"!!!!!!

It was amazing. This country is great. I am so appreciative that I could do things to help the confrence run smoothly. I feel like I was able to participate in something that will really change the lives of teachers in this country!

wedding photos

Sorry it's taken so long to post this. I have been trying to get pictures to upload for weeks! Here they are now!

Morgan and Holly are finally married. We worked hard and played hard over the wedding weekend in Destin, Florida! Everything was absolutely beautiful. I am posting there now and will put more up when I get them. I am soooo proud to have a new sister. I know Morgan is happy and that makes me happy. The two honeymooned in Jamaica. Now they are back to the real world. Morgan has a new job with Pfizer and will be spending time between Mississippi and Pennsylvania while he is in training.

The pictures turned out wonderfully. It was definitely a magazine wedding. The boys were straight out of J.Crew and the bridesmaids dresses were just perfect for the outdoor wedding. I'm just posting a bunch of pictures, so enjoy! They all turned out beautifully. The colors were just perfect. The day was just perfect in every way!

Sal at Easter

The pictures are: David and me, Nick and me, and Nick and David

Ever year on Good Friday, I head up to Purvis, MS, to spend the weekend with my family and friends. This year, I missed my favorite celebration, which I was pretty sad about. Well, I was sad until Thursday night when my friends Nick and David convinced me to fly to Sal (another island) for Easter. Even though it was last minute, I said "what the heck" and hopped on a plane Good Friday to enjoy a weekend with two of my favorite people.

David and Nick are the kind of guys who make you laugh even when you don't want to. They are the kind of friends who let you know they care about you all the time. They're just great guys. I got to spend my weekend relaxing. On Friday, we had some beers and dinner then got to hang out at Nick's just goofing off. Saturday we made our way to Santa Maria. The beaches there were amazingly beautiful. The water was perfect too. It was a little too cold to get in for me, but Nick decided to try it out! I wish I had some pictures of the beach, but I was afraid that my camera would get stolen, so I left it at home. I have some other pictures of the boys that I'll put up soon.

On Saturday night, I cooked my famous enchiladas. This was quite a process because I had to hand make the tortillas first, which takes some time. But, David and Nick helped with everything, so it wasn't so bad. HOWEVER, a couple of hurdles occurred as we were cooking. First, I was cooking some brownies. This isn't a problem, except the glass window in the front of the oven fell out of place, letting out all of the heat. So, I decide to try to cover it with cardboard. Then, I decide that this would work fine, except the brownie wasn't cooking at all. As I'm trying to figure out what to do, the gas stops. GREAT! Gas tank is empty. Nick and David have to carry the tank to get a new one. Then they have to bring the newer, heavier one back. Okay, mission accomplished and while they were gone, the oven cools down enough to repair the fallen glass. When David returns, he and I use pliers, knives, and teamwork to pull the glass back into place. After about 30 minutes, we were back on track. At any rate, we finally got to eat dinner at about 9:30. I'm pretty sure that my enchiladas were a hit. The boys ate several at dinner, more after we returned from our night out clubbing, and then the rest for lunch the following day! I'd call that a satisfying meal.

So, by Sunday, we were pretty worn out from the events of the previous day. This led to a rather uneventful Sunday, which was nice. We finally made it out of the house for a spaghetti dinner at about 8 at night on Easter. Monday morning came too fast. David had to leave before 8, which was super sad. I had a few more hours with my boy Nick, and then I too headed to the airport with a few other volunteers who were visiting the island and Robert (Nick's roommate).

It was a perfect weekend with two great people. I'll try to post a few photos from the weekend soon. Txau, ti logo.

Poverty

Sometimes in my daily life here in Cape Verde, I'm able to forget that I live in a very poor country. I mean, people go to school. Some people have cars and nice houses. People dress nicely even if they don't have money. In my daily walking to and from places, I tend to see the beauty of the people and the land. However, today, I was caught off guard. I saw something that made me uncomfortable and reminded me of where I am. I saw a little boy standing next to a dumpster. As I approached him, another younger boy was inside the dumpster. This little boy was handing his friend a half full bottle of water that he had found in the dumpster. And it wasn't enough that the children were resorting to this kind of scavenging, but they were doing it right in front of one of the ambassador's homes. This sharp contrast between wealthy and poor saddened me as I walked along the road. I watched the children as they continued to retrieve things from the filthiness of the dumpster, and I wanted to cry. These children need help. The kind of help that other countries should be giving. Unfortunately, the only help these children were getting today was the trash from an ambassador. I am reminded, just as I forget, that there is a reason I am in this country.

Ulisses

A student, a wonderful, sweet, smart, kind, interested student lost his father yesterday. Ulisses' father died of a sudden heart attack yesterday morning. I am overwhelmed by this information. Ulisses came to class today and told me what happened. I asked him if he would like to go home, but he said he'd rather be at school today. He was in shock and barely able to hold it together. It is so hard to comfort and console someone when such a major loss has occurred for them. Capeverdeans want to be with people when someone dies. They like to have large crowds of people around them, making them feel comforted. This society cares about community and togetherness. Ulisses is so special to me that I hate to see him in pain. I hate to think of him as he suffers. I plan to visit his home today with the other second year students. Although I have reservations about showing up at his home, it is the Capeverdean thing to do. And as I learn how to live as a Capeverdean, I do things that remove me from my comfort zone in order to make others feel more comfortable.

Theater

When you think about 3rd world countries, you probably don't think about great theater. That's fair enough, I don't really equate Cape Verde with excellent theater either. However, this past weekend I went to an excellent play at the national auditorium. It was about the history of Creole in Cape Verde.

First, the play began during the times of Slavery. The "Master" spoke in Portuguese and the slaves in Creole. It was pretty cool. As history progressed, Creole advanced. There was a part of the play where a local performance group danced and sang on stage. It was amazing. To watch the history of the country on stage was incredible. I was so impressed by the creativity of people who have so little. They are able to do an unbelievable amount with what they have.

Oh! I was sitting just behind the President of the country, Pedro Pires. He just walked in and sat right in front of me and talked to everyone. This is just slightly different than G.W. walking into a place! People were just saying hello and little kids were playing around him. It is soooo different here than in the states!!!!!!!!!!!!!! txau.