On to month 2 as a volunteer!

As I’m waiting for my beans to cook (I swear that spending 4 hours cooking is rarely worth it...) I think I will sit down and finally update my blog.  I have so much I want to share with you!  I hope you’ve looked at the photos I posted the other day, they give you an idea of what my everyday looks like.  I took most of them last Sunday, and it was really sunny here so I think that the result is pictures that make this place look hotter than it actually is.  I’d like to give you a run-down of what a typical week here looks like for me, so allow me to fill you in on what is turning into my routine.  I teach for a few hours for four days, then I get a 3 day weekend.  Sunday is usually my fun day... rather my sit around and do nothing day.  I try to get some cleaning done and get prepared for the week.  I also like to cook on Sundays, so usually I eat good food then.  One of my students comes to help with the laundry and cleaning every other weekend, and she’s really helpful.  So, after a lazy Sunday, I’m ready for work on Monday morning.  Mondays tend to never be predictable.  Sometimes they’re quiet, but this past Monday was a little hectic because we got our final wave of students.  The Senior 1 students finally arrived and we had to get their classrooms in order, which we actually did by the end of the school day Monday!  These students just finished Primary School, so they were waiting for their national exam results, hence the delay.  They are here now!  And they have a really diffucult time understanding me.  Go figure.... Tuesdays are maybe the quietest day of the week and this Tuesday was no different.  Teaching in the morning then a lot of “relaxing” at home (because it’s not like all I do is relax...).  Wednesdays are one of my favorites because not only do I have a full morning of teaching, but it’s also market day.  So, I teach, then I walk down the road to the market (30 minute walk each way).  I always end up finding someone to talk to- whether I know them or not- and I get to be out in the afternoon... it’s just always really nice.  Thursdays mark the end of my work week, and I get to spend some quality time with my favorite class, so I’m having a good day today.  Friday is my day off and I almost always end up doing something fun.  Occasionally end up leaving town and getting a jump start on my weekend, but I really enjoy hanging around here and walking into town, or down the road to a really delicious bakery.  Saturdays are really fun! And this Saturday will certainly be no exception.  I’m going to my first Rwandan wedding on Saturday and I am very excited.  One of the Primary teachers from my school is getting married in a village not far from here and I will be there along with many of the other teachers.  I am excited!  Then I plan to relax on Sunday, then start this crazy routine all over again.  Yeah, I know, my life is really hard over here isn’t it?  My challenges include adjusting to the diet and general lifestyle over here, using my time effectively and finding a way to actually teach these kids.  Not to belittle my challenges, but I just end up thinking about how little I have to worry over here and it’s kind of amazing. 

Last Saturday was spent in Musanze (Ruhengeri), attending a family party of a Rwandan friend/ colleague.  Her name is Jane, and she’s the wonderful woman I share my living space with.  Really, she’s a riot and we have tons of fun together.  She’s the secretary at our school, single mother, weekend student, intelligent, modern.... overall, I am really lucky to have her here.  This party was at her family’s house, in the big town about an hour North of here and it was in honor of her mother (who passed away at the beginning of this year).  I guess it’s pretty customary around here to have a big, happy celebration when the mourning period is complete.  And this party was just that.  They were tons of people, everyone was having a really good time- talking, drinking, dancing, cooking, eating... it was really nice.  Being welcomed into this intimate celebration of family and friends was really quite amazing and I had a great time.  I got to practice my Kinyarwanda, I got to go out on a walk and stare at the volcanoes that litter the skyline, and I had an adventurous ride home with two other teachers (Clementine and Mama D)... it was really nice.  And then, on my lazy Sunday, after cleaning was finished, I was visited by two boys from the village center here.  They are young guys who just graduated from Secondary school (maybe early twenties...) and they came to chat and practice English and just hang out with me.  It was fun!  I showed them my photo album of family pictures (that span many years) and they were a really receptive audience.  After telling me that my pictures are proof that all Americans are “bosses” (rich people), they offered to take me on a walk to the top of one of the surrounding hills to show me “how the poor men live.”  Those were their words, but I don’t know if I would phrase it much differently.  I tried to convey to them the idea of the American middle class, and I think they understood, but they made a really good point.  I see the world through an American lens, despite trying to remain with out preconceived notions or prejudice, and the American lens is rather privileged.  So, these new friends of mine reminded me that even when I say my family is not rich, that compared to how some people live, I’ve gown up like a total princess.  I’m excited to go hiking with them and I feel that if my seemingly purposeless meandering is done with a Rwandan by my side, it won’t appear so strange.  But, even as I say that, I don’t know if I fully believe it... I am resuming this blog post after eating (maybe it was worth the 4 hour process... dinner was good!) and after going out for an evening walk.  I am going to have to do this everyday! It was fantastic.  Not only is the weather perfect at this hour (between 5 and 6), but everyone I meet in the road is so friendly and it puts me in a really great mood.  Since I am met with smiles and salutations, I think that maybe I’m not giving people enough credit.  I’ve been under the impression that if I venture outside of my home to exercise, I’ll be met with glares and confusion... I’ll have to test this hypothesis more, but I’m thinking that exactly the opposite is likely to occur.  Maybe it’s just my community, maybe it’s Rwanda in general, but the folks around here are really accepting and enthusiastic and friendly.  

I don’t know if I have much more to update you on... ask me questions if you’d like to know more about anything particular and I’ll try to be a little more frequent with my updates.  Time to go make some tea and try to find some way to rigg the radio so we can get a signal to listen to some special Rwandan skit that happens on Tuesday and Thursday.  So much cultural exchange happens in this house! Thank god for Jane.  Sending you hugs from Africa! xoxo

ps: we’ve successfully passed the one month mark! I’m not going to say how many more there are b/c I feel that may be counterproductive.... but, this is still good!  If the following months are as crazy as January, I’m surely going to have tons of stories to torture my grandchildren with.

Rainy morning musings

I just had another surprise meeting at school.  Not surprised by it, to be honest, because these impromptu meetings seem to crop up at least once a week.  I suppose that once we get into the swing of things, we won’t have as many, and I sincerely hope that is the case.  In the district just down the road from me, where a fellow PCV lives and teaches, school has been cancelled today because President Kagame is visiting the district for some official sort of something.  I guess this is prime example of the “surprise holidays’ we were warned about.  So, the meeting we had today was about the test results of the students who completed primary school at the end of last year.  They are still not at school, because they have been waiting to see who advanced... now that we know, we’ll soon have students in our Senior 1 classes, and I’ll have a bit more work to do.  I was thankful that the meeting this morning was less than an hour long, because the three previous meetings we’ve had all lasted for 3 hours.  That’s 3 hours in uncomfortable wooden desks, listening to Kinyarwanda that I don’t understand, trying not to stare into space too overtly.  I’m lucky, and have awesome co-workers who fill me in on what’s being said when there is important or fun information, so the meetings aren’t entirely unbearable.  We had a meeting last Thursday afternoon with all of the Secondary students and teachers to talk about 2 points: sanitation and discipline.  The headmaster conducted this meeting and he ended up talking about sex (to a room of 14-17 year olds), talking about cleaning, talking about life in general... it was a bit tedious.  But, it was entertaining overall, and because it lasted so long, by the time it was finished, it was time for us to go home.  I am ready to get into actual teaching and not be interrupted everyday when I’m trying to conduct a class.  I’ve been teaching a bit, and while there have been no train wrecks, it’s not going as well as I’d like.  It’s so hard to illicit responses from my students!  This was an issue in model school, and it’s an issue here.  I think a lot of it stems from my students not understanding me.  My accent is strange, my methods are less than conventional, and I think they’re still trying to figure me out.  At least, I hope this is the problem, and it’s not totally due to any lack of ability on my part.  Who knows.... I hope that once we get into a routine here (and stop getting interrupted by meetings) it’ll get better.  Today, in the one class I taught, we went over titles, introductions and formal versus casual conversations.  Easy stuff, perhaps too easy, but a good foundation for the types of speaking exercises we are sure to be doing later in the year.  Last Thursday I taught the song “Wavin’ Flag” to a class of mine, and I think they really liked it!  I need to find more songs that are slow and appropriate... maybe you can make suggestions and increase my musical teaching cannon.  I am dedicating this week to lesson planning and trying to complete my trimester plan.  I think that the best way to feel more accomplished in my lessons is to have them planned well.  This is new-ish for me because I’m not really a big planner... I like to know what’s going on, and have loose ideas in place, but concrete plans are not my forte.  Anyway, no time like the present, right?  Now is the perfect time to try a little harder at making plans, because it could end up being really beneficial (and I’m sure my students will appreciate it at the very least).  

Over the course of this week I am going to make a concerted effort to take more photos... I do want you all to be able to see what I’m seeing, but I’ve not been using my camera because, really, it can’t capture the beauty of my surroundings.  Every time I step outside, I am invigorated by what I see.  On that note, let me finally answer some questions that my dad asked me in an e-mail months ago.  The landscape and agriculture of this country.... In virtually any picture of Rwanda, you can find terraced hills, full of small fields of crops.  Beans, cabbage, potatoes, maize, cassava and tomatoes are just a few of the plants you can find growing all over the country.  They also grow tons of bananas and pineapples and avocados and (in some regions) mangoes.  The availability of fresh, local produce is quite nice, but I think that the methods used are a little outdated.  I only say this because of what I’ve been seeing... Rwanda is the most densely populated country in all of Africa, and I would say it’s also one of the best in terms of food supply.  But, people are literally cultivating every piece of land imaginable.  Some crops are on mountain faces that appear nearly vertical from a distance.  After growing up with my parents, with weekend outings that turned into geology or forestry or general environmental lessons, I see the agriculture practices here and I think of one word: erosion.  And yes, erosion is a problem.  I don’t know to what extent, but it’s inevitable!  This place gets 2 rainy seasons a year... I’m honestly still trying to figure out when these seasons are, because since I’ve been here, the weather has been pretty consistent.  It will rain sometimes, but usually for no more than an hour or two. I wouldn’t consider the current season rainy or dry... maybe we’re in a transition period.  Anyway, point being, it rains quite a bit and it’s got to be washing off topsoil- why else would the river that runs through my town be a bright, muddy, red color?  However, this is the method that’s been in place for years and years, and it gets people fed, so there is little incentive to change practices.  Part of me wishes I was volunteering in the agriculture sector, but I guess education is a good avenue to talk about these issues too.  

So, the title of this blog... a bit on the contrived side? Well, maybe.  It’s a little anecdote I heard when I was still very new to the country and it just kind of stuck.  “Where there are banana leaves, there are no secrets...” As far as I can tell, this is applicable here.  Granted, I stick out around here, but I’ve had people greet me by name when I’m fairly certain that I’ve never seen them before.  And, I think this little tag-line works well in the cyber world, because here I am, writing a blog that ANYONE could be reading.  Also, I’m in Peace Corps- we have a small family in this country (though it’s probably larger than many other countries) and we always joke about the “peace corps rumor mill.”  Yes, it exists. No, it’s not malicious or bad, we just tend to know what’s going on with each other.  So, I guess you can sum it all up with: whether you’re Rwandan or a PCV, you’ve got a slow life and a big part of that life is talking to other people, and news gets carried along in that manner.  No secrets here, plenty of banana leaves.  

Also, I think this is a neat cultural thing to note: whenever there is any sort of celebration (a wedding, The president coming to your district, a birth) people take stalks of banana trees and put them on the side of the roads.  They either attach them to a tree or post, or they plant them so that they remain upright.  Only small fronds are used (maybe 3- 4 feet tall), but they are noticeable.  The first time I saw them (on a main road) I was so confused, and it took me a few weeks to figure out the actual purpose or reasoning.  But, as far as I can tell, they signify celebration.  

Last little shout-out of the post: I want you all to know that I have the most amazing mother.  Amazing family in general, really.  But, mother dearest is looking out for her baby girl over here and I swear it’s keeping me going.  Life isn’t unbearably rough over here, but it’s no cake walk either, and The e-mails and phone calls and impending care packages from my mama are the sorts of little things that make my day.  The rest of you are pretty cool too (and I love reading your e-mails and facebook comments) but mom takes the cake! (that’s twice I’ve used the work “cake”... that would be great right about now. Maybe I’ll figure out how to make one on a charcoal stove).  That’s all for now! xoxo

Mail (the positive version)

Alright folks, I officially have an address now! Well, I suppose if we want to be technical, I’ve had an address, but I NOW have a PO box to which you can send mail.  Only bad news I have to tell this evening is this: we are still not able to send mail to the US.  There’s been some kind of strange mail embargo that no one has been able to explain to me, but it means that no mail is allowed into the states from Rwanda (and apparently a whole slew of other countries).  Best I can figure is that the US has upped the regulations/ standards for mail and many countries are not able to meet them.  Who knows, but once I am able to send snail mail, you can expect to have some in route to you!  xoxo

Allison Snyder

PO Box 47

Musanze, Rwanda

As always, be sure to write Air Mail/ Par Avion somewhere on the envelope, and if you feel like attempting to avoid custom officers and their meddling fingers, make me out to be a nun ("Sister Allison"... bible verses, etc)

Mail

While I’m thinking about it: update on mail.  It pains me to say this, but hold off on sending stuff until I’ve secured a new post box.  Well, that’s the official stance at least.  Peace Corps wants us to stop using their box and get our own (but, if you absolutely can’t wait, I doubt much harm will come from sending mail to the box there).  This is a slow process because the postal system in this country is a bit of a mystery.  I will have to go to one of the close big cities and get a box there, and I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Soon! I also have mail I want to send to you all so I need to figure this out soon.  Thanks for the love, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted.  Also- and this is important- if you have already sent me something, I should be able to pick it up at the PC office, so don’t fret!  And thanks again, you guys really do keep me going over here :) 


ALSO: I just finished uploading a few photos, so check em out: http://picasaweb.google.com/allison.l.snyder/EndOfPSTNewYearSAndSwearIn02?feat=directlink

Saturday Morning

I should probably be getting dressed to go to the market right now, but I think instead I will wait for my floors to dry and write a little update for all you folks back home.  It’s Saturday morning here.  Calm, cool, foggy; like all the mornings I’ve experienced since being at my new house.  I am situated in a valley, surrounded by hills and mountains, in the middle of a gigantic tea plantation.  It’s beautiful here, it’s relaxing, it’s serene, and it’s slow.  This past week has certainly been a week of adjustment, but life is turning out to be quite enjoyable out here.  My actual living quarters are improving daily.  I finally got furniture the other day, so my mattress has a bed, my butt has a chair, my food has a surface, books have a bookshelf and this computer is perfectly situated a top a table.  That all sounds pretty standard, but living here without furniture for the first couple days was, well, rather depressing.  So, this house is slowly but surely becoming a home.  I mentioned that I’m waiting for my floor to dry: I just washed it, after bathing in the living room.  The floors here are all concrete and it’s actually quite common for people to wash themselves then wash the floors (via squeegee) and call it a day.  I think it’s the perfect mixture of convenient and practical- always an excellent combination.  

School started this past Monday.  Well, officially, school started; realistically, I think we held one day of actual classes.  I am exceptionally pleased with my school.  It’s fairly small, which means that even with the Peace Corps regulation that I am to teach no more than 15 hours a week, I will be able to teach all the Secondary students.  I will be teaching a S1 English class, and teaching each level a listening and speaking intensive English lesson once a week.  I also get to teach a section of a class called “creative performance.”  I’m still not entirely sure what the official objective of that last course is, but I can tell you one thing, we’re gonna have some fun during that hour each week.  Basically, my schedule at school is great!  I get Fridays off, which will make any weekend travel feasible, and will provide time for me to concentrate on doing other things around my home (either in my physical living area, or in my community here).  Peace Corps advises that you stay at site for the first three months of your service, in order to promote integration in your community.  Now, while I can see how that could be very productive and beneficial in some situations, I don’t think it’s entirely necessary.  Granted, everyone adjusts at their own speed and in their own ways, so for some, I’m sure that hunkering down and remaining at site for three months is perfect.  For me, I think it is not my preferred method.  I’m not trying to leave my area every weekend, but I do plan on little day trips here and there, and possibly an overnight trip sometime in the near future.  As trainees, we were told to have no expectations (a nearly impossible task, but I tried my hardest to keep expectations down and enthusiasm up) and as volunteers we are supposed to make integration a number one priority.  Ok, I’m on board with those goals, but, I am quickly noticing that Peace Corp’s expectations for us volunteers and the expectations of my community (and of Rwanda as a whole) are rather different.  I really do think that the disparities present in what is expected of me as a volunteer allow for some leeway, and actually cater to personalized integration mechanisms.  As long as I feel that I am being an effective volunteer (being a successful teacher, getting along with my community, happily adjusting to a Rwandan life) then I think the ends will justify the means.  Essentially, I doubt I’ll be at site constantly for the first three months, but that’s not because I feel the need to escape, it’s really due to my personality and how I like to live my life, whether I’m here or in any other country.  I feel at home in this community already and I will soon start visiting my neighbors and spending more time hanging out with the locals.  It’s a slow process, and I’m definitely placing integration at my school at the top of my priority list, but so far, so good: I really feel good about being here.  My mom sent me an e-mail asking how school was going, if I was nervous, if I was a giant spectacle.  Well mom, it’s going well!  I’m slowly but surely teaching all the kids my name, in order to reduce the cries of “muzungu!” (which means “white person”), so I now am nearly constantly surrounded by kids saying “aaallliiiiisone.”  I think it’s fun.  The young primary school students flock to me each time there is a break at school, giggling, talking, staring.  I think I’m still a bit of a novelty (which was bound to happen really) and though it can be a little annoying to be constantly gawked at, it’s not too bad!  One of the best moments around the students is when they actually want to speak with me, actually want to practice their English.  There are some pretty competent and motivated kids at school so I’m hoping that this year will prove to be really enriching and enjoyable.  

The PST wrap-up

Happy new year! I know I’m a little late on the well-wishes, but I mean them sincerely nonetheless.  I’m about to move out of the lovely town of Nyanza and  onto my future residence, the place I’ll be calling home for the next two years: Kiruri.  I’d like to fill you all in on what the end of 2010 brought about and what has happened to me thus far in 2011.  Well, maybe I won’t tell you everything, but let’s hit some of the highlights.  I guess the last post I wrote was all about Christmas, so I have nothing to add to that topic.  Training finished with a flourish.  I don’t mean that to be an entirely sarcastic comment either... I was actually quite pleased with how everything went during our training and I thought the ends perfectly coincided with the means.  There were a lot of little tests and evaluations: both of ourselves and of the way training was conducted.  The most monumental of the “tests” was our language proficiency interview (LPI).  This was a definite stress inducer mostly because you have to achieve a certain level of proficiency (low-intermediate).  I ended up doing just fine with that, and in the interview I had with the training staff they had nothing but good positive things to say to me.  I don’t mean to brag by saying any of this, and please don’t interpret it as entirely self-inflating, it’s just accurate.  And it’s proof that this whole peace corps thing is going really well so far.  I have a tendency to pointedly not finish with a bang, but this time I think I got it right.  Now, that’s not to say that I’m not tired and anxious about moving and immediately beginning the school year, but I know I can handle it.  So, let’s see, after all the final logistical requirements and hoops we had to jump through, we celebrated the new year.  It was different than what I was anticipating, but I had a great new year’s eve, and I think all of us were able to ring the new year in in style.  Not many Rwandans seemed to be out partying in the conventional manner you would expect to see on new year’s, but we did a great job of making our own fun, like always.  Just 2 days later, we were all taken down to Kigali for our swearing-in ceremony.  We arrived to the city Sunday morning, ran some errands (which is never fun with 65 people), went shopping, ate delicious food, hung out in the rooms where we stayed the night, and the next day we became legitimate, official, new peace corps volunteers.  Now I can refer to myself and my colleagues as PCV’s without being incorrect.  The actual ceremony was absolutely lovely!  The day was not without it’s share of hiccups, but that’s the name of the game after all.  We’re all learning how to be a little more patient (at least I am... you know patience isn’t my strong-suit).  Back to how lovely our ceremony was- It was held at the ambassador’s residence in Kigali.  We were taken around to the backyard, where they had set up a few large white tents with chairs, a podium, all the appropriate flags and camera men from various Rwandan media sources.  We all looked great, we were all in a fantastic mood, we had smiling, welcoming hosts and guests and, well, I don’t think it could’ve been much better if I had been in charge of every detail myself.  Some of my fellow PCV’s gave speeches (one in English, French and Kinyarwanda respectively), the ambassador spoke, our country director Mary spoke, as did some officials from the Rwandan government.  Possibly the most charismatic speaker was the Rwandan Minister of Health, whose speech was both appropriate and amusing (not to mention inspiring).  After we talked, after we took the oath (is that correct English? do you “take the oath”? sometimes I wonder why they think I should be over here teaching English) we were served some of the best food I’ve ever had.  At least, it tasted that way at the time.  It was primarily what we would think of as “American” food, and half the stuff I wouldn’t have touched in the states (deviled eggs, quiche, vegetarian lasagna, potato salad with real mayo) but it was so so tasty and rare that I certainly enjoyed every bite.  One of the other PCV’s said it best, I think: “the food is so great because the hot stuff is hot and the cold stuff is cold.”  So accurate!  Also, Kigali (being the land of Oz) has ice! You can get ice in your beverages! What a novelty that has become. So, as you can imagine, we felt like princes and princesses in this extravagant and indulgent city, and I think we enjoyed it for the most part.  The only possible downside to the whole she-bang could be that since we have all been trickling out the site over this past week, we spent most of our time in Kigali buying stuff so that we can survive life on our own.  Electric hot plates, skillets, towels, blankets, buckets, and the list goes on and on and on and on.  After the ceremony, the shopping sprees, the gluttony, the waiting, and incessant bus rides, we were all tired when we returned to Nyanza and the week has been fairly quiet since.  I just ran up to the center, in order to use the free internet one last time before I leave.  I’m all packed, ready to go, all I’m waiting for is the truck to swing by my house and the 4 hour drive to site.  ***Right as I connected to the internet to post this, the truck did arrive and I had to run home.  So, this post is going up about a week later than I intended. Oh well, so it goes over here :)

Don't you worry, I'm still alive

Not even I thought that my blog posts would be so erratic.  I’m sorry.  A new and exciting update is long overdue, and slowly on it’s way, I assure you.  For the moment, I’d like to post a few things from the prior week.  I began a little blog post last week, right after we received packages, and I never finished it.  So, here it is, in some semblance of coherence... 

Christmas came early

Just when I was starting to plummet into a foul mood/ get a little jaded about this whole training process and my life in general, we were given our packages.  Exactly as my mother predicted, there was a huge mound of packages awaiting the trainees, and it finally made its way from Kigali to our training center in Nyanza.  Let me recap a little before I continue with recent information.  Today is Monday, December 13th.  Exactly 2 weeks ago, half of the trainees began teaching “model school.”  This is nearly self-explanatory: model school is what we call the practice teaching we’re doing.  Since students are on holiday right now, we have a school at our disposal and kids who would rather be sitting in classrooms with us than doing chores at home.  Most of us are teaching English, the others teach Chemistry, Biology or Math, and all of us are teaching lower secondary students.  Translation: 11 to 18 year olds... for the most part.  I’m sure that once I’m at my site, teaching my students, at my school, I’ll be able to make more accurate comparisons between American students and Rwandan students, so I’ll save my speculations til then, but rest assured, the two cultures produce very different students.  One of the things I’m having the hardest time adjusting to is the general lack of student participation.  Kids here are really quiet.  I have to ask them to speak up every time they answer in class.  Many of these students are quite bright, and many of them know English (to some extent), it’s getting them to speak and participate that’s the challenging part.  It’s an exciting challenge, and I love teaching even when it’s “practice,” but man does this practice add a whole new level of stress to our training here.  It’s great to get into a Rwandan classroom and have a bit of trial and inevitable error before going to site, but it’s making for some really long days.  I started teaching last week, and therefore am a third of the way through model school, and I’m learning a lot. So in addition to language class, technical training, cultural sessions and the like, we’ve added model school to the mix.  Long days became longer, homework multiplied and I’m ready for training to be over.  I say that with fondness and excitement, not out of frustration or fatigue.  Being out on my own at site is sure to be a very different experience from training, and I feel completely ready for it now.  

A med session that was conducted last week gave us trainees a great bit of advice: courtesy of Dr. Elite: 

don’t get hit

don’t get bit

don’t do “it”

don’t get lit

don’t eat shit

Wise words, and always a good time in our medical sessions.  Today is Tuesday, December 21st, I’m currently sitting in the back of the classroom, observing another trainee teach model school.  We are nearly done with the whole training shebang, and if I thought I was ready to be done last week, I was wrong.  I’m ready to be done now! :) But I’m still enjoying every minute of this long and tiresome training.  I’ve received some specific questions from my daddy dearest, and I intend to answer them in the form of my next blog post.  Other good peeps and family members have asked equally awesome questions, so hopefully I’ll be able to provide some good answers and further explanations.  Keep the questions coming! They keep me on my feet, they keep me thinking, and I love to try and see from your point of view.  Merry Christmas, happy solstice, and expect to hear from me soon. 

PS: Christmas/ New Year’s skype dates... get em while you can! (e-mail me and we can figure out a good time)

Love, Ally