Back to work in Uganda

So I thought that I was going to have one Monday morning meeting with my professors and then be left with 3 days to tour around the Kampala area and see some sights. That was certainly not in my cards. The morning meeting lasted all day as we worked on presentations and discussed the agenda for the week. The next morning the team went back to Nakaseke district for a meeting with district officials, health care workers and boda boda drivers. I’m thrilled to be involved in this part of the project and can’t wait to see what will happen when the project is actually implemented. It’s crazy- the project is actually going to be implemented! I guess I didn’t really think that it would be.

Anyway, a meeting and dinner tonight and then I head back home tomorrow. It’s been a whirlwind and a fantastic time. I can’t wait to see all of you back home and for the ones around the world- let’s meet in Dahab, Egypt next summer for a bit of world class diving.

Much love!!!!

I left my heart (and many other things) in Zanzibar

The moment I posted my last entry I realized that I left my ATM card in the machine and someone had already been using it. I ran out of the internet place leaving my camera memory card in the card reader in the computer to call my bank and my Mom (of course- who doesn’t call their Mom in a crisis at age 28??). Everything was cancelled and I had enough money to leave the country ($30 to leave Tanzania? That’s absurd) so I chilled out and played my last night.
The next day I headed to the airport and somehow left my phone at the airport after my last text to friends in Nungwi. 18 hours in Stonetown and three things left behind-
Camera memory card
ATM card
Phone

Brilliant. At least there’s a part of me besides my heart still in Zanzibar. 

Bye bye Nungwi Zanzibar...

pics:

1. Me struggling during my snorkel test. 2 500ml (that's 2/3 of a wine bottle!!) and a glass of wine went down the snorkel. Yuck!

2. So happy to be done with the test! I had been dreading it since I decided to do my divemaster course. :)

I'm currently in Stonetown, Zanzibar for one more night before I head back to Uganda. Wow. It was so hard to leave. I made some amazing friends who I hope to see in SF or elsewhere around the world. The great thing is that the dive instructors/divemasters who work in the field are pretty transient and will constantly be moving to new fantastic dive locations- places that I will want to visit and will likely visit. I already have many promises from friends to meet me in Dahab, Egypt. :)

It was a brilliant experience and I'm so, so happy that I chose Zanzibar, East Africa Dive Company, and everything else. I'm excited to come home and kick off my final year at Berkeley and go to the many amazing weddings!!! I can't wait to see all of you. I love you mucho. I head to Uganda tomorrow and home on 2 Aug. Just in time for my birthday, of course!! ;)

Besos!!!

Almost done! Crazy!!

pics:

Women fishing

Relaxing on a hammock on my much needed and rare day off

Cliff doing the "snorkel test" after passing his advanced course. Not usual for advanced students to do it, but they wanted to haze him.

2 are of me in my divemaster role making sure my divers are ready to do the backroll entry into the water. :) Like my bandana? I'm a pirate here. :)

I’m 8 days from leaving Zanzibar, heading to Uganda for 4 days and then home. Crazy. I’m done with my divemaster course!!! I officially finished and have been signed off so I am now a PADI Divemaster. Aren’t you all impressed and just a bit scared of me?? J All that I have left is the dreaded snorkel test. This is wear the new divemaster puts on a mask and snorkel and is forced to drink whatever concoction is poured down the snorkel into her poor mouth. Since you have the mask on you can’t breathe and you just have to drink until you choke, pull out the snorkel, breathe, and then drink more. I’m terrified.

Cliff came and played in Nungwi – lots of diving and chilling. It was so much fun to have a friend to play with and share the experience here. He did his advanced course and went on eight dives on top of that. It seemed like he really fell in love with diving here. Fantastic! Who else wants to visit me on holiday and give your soul and pocketbook to diving?! J Unfortunately I was completely exhausted most of the time because the dive center here uses DMTs (divemaster trainees) as slaves and manual labor. The skin on my fingers is peeling off and I’m having trouble staying awake past 10pm. I’m thrilled to be doing my divemaster here, but it’s more work everyday than I thought it would be (not to be repetitive, but I feel like I need an excuse!!).

I’m really excited to come home and see everyone. I miss home and all of my family and friends. I can’t wait to give lots of love and kisses!!!

Divemaster exams

Picture: I studied at my favorite coffee shop in Nungwi where the best iced lattes and chocolate cakes are made. J The lattes have a drop of espresso and so much other delectable love.

I passed!! The exams were actually harder than I imagined they would be. I took all 8 in one sitting and was very surprised with some of the questions. I assumed that all I needed was to know how to do the questions in the practice book, but they threw in some curve balls. Luckily I survived and passed. My divemaster buddy, Yasmin (the hot one in the pics), is taking hers over the next few days.

Thanks for all the emails of support and encouragement about the exams. J I love school.

Full Moon Party

I went to a full moon party on Saturday night on the beach in Kendwa- a beach about 2 km south of here. It was a crazy time. It's pretty hard to get there and even harder to get back so the night started with an adventure to make it to the beach. I was contemplating not going, but I missed the one in Thailand so decided to check this one out.

A group of about 8 of us bargained with a guy about the price to get us there and squished into a car. A lot of people took boats, but the cost was about the same and I wasn't going to get wet in a car. I did wear a bikini under my clothes because to get home many people walk along the beach and because the tide is pretty high you have to swim in some areas. I didn't bring any electronics or anything valuable so I could swim without worrying.

There were tons of people at the party- we danced, watched fire performers and acrobats, and chilled on the beach. Dancing was kind of crazy because the local guys were completely ridiculous and all over the girls. Not fun at all. We formed a protective circle with guys on the outside so we could dance in peace. The time flew by and I didn't trek home until about 4am (with friends, of course!). We started walking on the beach and prepared to jump in the water, but a Masai tribesman (recognizable by his clothes and piercings) offered to show us the way on the cliffs. I was pretty nervous and hid my remaining money and keys in my bikini for the trek. Everything turned out ok and we made it home safe and sound.

I'm happy that I finally made it to a full moon party. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera, but I think some of my friends took pics.

Love and miss you!

American Love

I went to a housewarming party a couple of nights ago for two dive instructors, Andy and Woody, who work at a resort here. The 20-somethings ex-pat crew was there - some South Africans, Kenyan cowboys (white Kenyans), Brits, Irish, and me, the lone American. We were sitting around, chatting and listening to music and I couldn't help, but be super proud to be an American for our music and movies and such (not our administration or much of our foreign policy the last 8 years, of course). All of the music people were singing to were by American artists and putting many smiles on our faces.

I went on an adventure that night to a dhow building area and the lighthouse- first time that I've seen much of northern Zanzibar outside of the underwater environment and our small beach.

Anyway, just wanted to share. :)

Life at the dive shop

Description of pics:

1. Me and my house-mates cooking dinner in our kitchen

2. Me and the Irish girls- Aoife and Tanya (I need a haircut so badly!!!)

3. Mnemba Atoll- beautiful place

4. Me and the East Africa Diving girls

5. The boat captains relaxing while we dive. Love it!

I’m all settled into life at the East Africa Diving dive shop in Nungwi, Zanzibar. The shop is run by a German/South African couple and is run with a lot of precision and standards. It’s a little less fun and free than some of the dive shops I’ve frequented, but it’s a perfect place to learn to be a very good divemaster because of the structure.

My usual day: Get to the shop around 8am and set up for the day’s dives or open water course. When the divers/students arrive then I arrange the rest of their equipment and then we’re off for the dive or to the pool to practice skills. I am the assistant to the instructor for the courses or whoever is leading the dives. We go out for two dives and then usually make it back to the dive shop around 1:30-2pm. If we go out to Mnemba Island then we get back around 4pm. I head home for lunch (I’ve been cooking a ton recently and LOVE it – I think I’m going to become a very good cook back home) after the dives and spend the rest of the afternoon at the dive shop. Currently I’m studying for my 8 exams next week- 1) dive physics, 2) physiology, 3) dive equipment, 4) general skills & diving environment, 5) recreational dive planner (basically this table telling you about safe levels of nitrogen in your body), 6) how to use the instructor manual, 7) & 8) dive master standards and practices (I think- I’m still a bit unclear about these 2). I also help out around the dive shop when things are needed. We are at the shop until about 6:30-7pm. It’s a long day, but it’s good. I’m getting used to everything and the craziness.

In general the dive master course is a lot more work and more challenging than I thought it would be. I think it’s more challenging because my instructors are pretty strict and demand high quality. That’s good, I guess. I’m sure I’ll look back on it and be very happy that I did it here. The last couple of days we’ve been attempting some of the skills and requirements. After 2 attempts Yasmin (other Divemaster in Training) and I mapped a couple of dive sites – the depth, distance, and significant landmarks. We attempted, but haven’t yet succeeded with the “stress test” equipment exchange. We passed with flying colors our swimming test today- 400 meters in less than 6.5 minutes and 800 meter snorkel in less than 14 minutes (no hands, but with fin, mask and snorkel). We have a ton more to do- most importantly this skill circuit where we have to demonstrate 20 dive skills to them at a demonstration level. We completely failed the circuit when we attempted it a couple of days ago. Oh well.

It’s great here. I’m tired, but happy. I’ve made a few friends and love the environment. I miss everyone, though, and am looking forward to seeing everyone soon!!!

Rescue and Dive Master

I just started the rescue and dive master courses and I’m exhausted already!!! Check out the pic of the dive shop from one of the boats that we take out. The other pic is just a random pic of people practicing fire dancing on the beach. :) Pretty beautiful! It’s a full day of work and craziness at the shop, with classes, diving, cleaning, and learning. It’s a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I’m still really happy that I’m doing it. I think living with my instructors might get a bit old, though. We’ll see. I’m too tired tonight to go down to the bonfire at the Cholo’s (bar) and play with peeps. I’m going to bed soon to rest up for another crazy day.

New day (I write these ahead of time so I’m speedy in the not speedy internet cafes),
I assisted my first course today. Three hours in a pool practicing the confined skills. I was freezing! I could barely move my fingers at the end, but it was so much fun. There were two guys doing the course and one of them had a lot of trouble with his mask skills so I helped him a ton. Loved it! Went on a dive this afternoon and had to help the same guy with his buoyancy a bunch. I’m really excited to do this although it’s a ton of work. Tomorrow

Love and miss you!

I'm not

Stone Town- June 14-17, 2007

Stone Town is a fantastic place. I’ve heard a lot of negative things about it, but I really, really enjoyed my time there because it’s so interesting and crazy. It’s almost 100% muslim and the women are completely covered- head scarves and everything. Even the girl children are covered – at a much younger age than I’ve seen. I went to the central market and a women tied a scarf tight around my face and hair, but it fell since I didn’t have a pin. I tried a modified version for the rest of the day. J I spent two days in paradise (Nungwi) before having to head back to Stone Town to do my Emergency First Responder course. There’s a nurse in town that does them.

I met up with Ginger and Matt on Friday (many of you don’t know Ginger- she’s one of Mike and Cliff’s friends and super adorable, fun and cute). I had to wait a couple of days to post this because Ginger wanted to tell people herself, but when she arrived from the monkey forest to our guest house she was engaged!!! Yay! So we spent the weekend celebrating and having fun. They went out that night for a special dinner and I went to my standard Stone Town dinner- the fish market at the water front. It’s so hard to explain. Kebab after kebab of any fish/shellfish you could imagine. Over three nights I had tuna, dorado, marlin, octopus, calamari and lobster. Amazing. J

Ginger, Matt and I went on a spice tour on Saturday and to a fun dinner that night with local musicians playing. We had a bottle of wine to celebrate that night (check out the menu at that place!!) and had an incredible evening. All in all I was super excited to be able to celebrate with the happy couple and crash their first weekend engaged.

Zanzibar- Jambo!

Jambo! I made it to Zanzibar. I’ve been on a quest to find the best dive island that has great diving, beautiful and fun people, white sands, clear waters and fun nights. I have a feeling that Zanzibar might be at the top of my list after I get to know that island a bit more.

I arrived in Stonestown really, really excited to be near the ocean again. I had a big grin on my place when I noticed that I could see the bottom of the ocean from the plane. I met a couple at the airport and taxi’d in to town. They dropped me at my hostel for the evening which was in the middle of the maze of streets for which Stonestown in known. I explored a bit, but only long enough to check out the street meat (mainly fish of all kinds- yummy!) at the water front and to have two Zanzibarian rasta guys try to be my “guide” for my trip. Stonestown is amazing. It’s really beautiful in a forgotten way with colonial buildings falling apart, but with grace. Everyone is muslim and all of the women I saw were wearing head scarfs and long robes. They were stunning in the array of colors. Many were black, but not all. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, but maybe this weekend when I had back to play with Ginger. I retired early that night since my ride to Nungwi left early the next morning.

Nungwi is incredible!! Soft, white sand beaches, fun rasta, laid-back crowd, beautiful sunsets, crystal clear waters… sounds good so far! I went on two free dives today with one of the dive shops I looked at for my courses. The visibility was good, not the best, but good. The last few days have been windy so a bit of sediment was in the water. The second dive had a really strong current, but it was ok. We saw a turtle, many blue-spotted rays, fun tropical fish, and colorful coral. The jury is still out about the diving, but I’ll be checking out many different dive sites. I’m really excited to dive at Mnemba, a heart-shaped island near Nungwi.

I found an incredible place and deal. I'm staying with my dive instructor and his wife in a house they are trying to set up as a guest house. Since it's not official yet it's super cheap. $200/month with laundry included. I have my own room with an ocean view, own bathroom and a shared kitchen and roof/deck lounge area. There are two other girls there too. So happy because other places were asking $450/month for just a room and bathroom. Yay!

Love you! Wish you were here!

New phone number

I have a new phone number for Tanzania -
country code: 255 Phone number: 786 159 725
i think it should be:
011255786159725

Try it and call me!!!

Minister of Health - part 2

Wow. I'm done with the Uganda portion of the adventure. We spent our last week in Kampala meeting with a couple mobile phone providers (MTN and Celtel), the regulatory part of Uganda's communication (Uganda Communication Commission) and other NGOs with whom we are interested in looking at partnerships. Our team went back and forth all trip about what we wanted to propose and present at the MOH meeting.
For those of you in policy you'll be happy and proud to hear that I used the 8-fold path (kind of, of course. Who could follow it exactly??). We defined the problem- had to get down to the nitty gritty reason which was basically how remote many parishes are in Nakaseke. We gave options (they didn't like the term "alternative"), did an outcomes matrix, and gave a recommendation. Oh so nice. :)
The presentation went really well. Alison presented the intro and our findings and I presented the options, outcomes matrix and recommendation. I think it went really well. I ended up fielding the Q&A because I was the one standing at the end of the presentation. They were definitely very interested in our recommendation and some other options. Although some of their questions and comments were a little completely ridiculous and not relevant.

So we're all done with the field part of the project. We have to do a bit more research and identify partners and write a proposal this summer. Still a lot more to do. Hopefully Zanzibar will be conducive to working! :)

I'm in Zanzibar now. Just arrived. I'll tell you all about it soon! Love you!

Murchison Falls, Uganda June 1--3

An ugly warthog!! I love them, though. Cute in their own silly, stupid way. :)

How incredible is the sky?? I really feel like it is closer to the ground somehow.

We didn't get too close to the lions. They were so beautiful!!!

Do you see the leopard?

Hippos everywhere!

This elephant literally climbed a hill- straight up. So weird! I didn't know they could do that.

Water buffalo and hippo chillin in the Nile.

Look at the giraffe!

This elephant charged and "yelled" at us!

These cobs are the Ugandan animal. There's a pic of them on their flag. I love flags.

After two weeks in the field both teams met up for a safari at Murchinson Falls, Uganda. We hadn’t seen the other team since our first day in Kampala and we were really excited to play with them and take a break from the crazy, hectic work schedule in Nakaseke.

I didn’t really know what to expect from Murchinson Falls. I’ve always heard about the beautiful and amazing safaris in Kenya and Tanzania, but never Uganda. The landscape where we had been is so lush, green and tropical and all of the pics of African safaris always showed savannas and open spaces. What was this “safari” going to be like, really?

IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!

We arrived Friday night and played with the teams. It was so great to all be together again. The next morning we headed out at 6am (Ouch! What happened to our restful weekend??) for our safari. My goodness did we have an amazing time! We saw countless cobs (Ugandan deer), hartebeest, warthogs (If I was a young warthog!”), a million giraffes, a leopard, two lions, elephants everywhere (one actually charged us!), baboons, pretty birds, hippos, and crocodiles (yikes!). There was never a single frame in view that didn’t have some kind of animal. I loved it. If you’re ever in Uganda you must check it out. I still can’t believe how incredible it was.

love you!

I have been trying to upload pics numerous times for hours on end. I finally was able to post two today and a couple yesterday, but definitely not all that I want to include. Hopefully I can find a good internet place in Zanzibar! What do you guys think? Good chance or not... :)
Miss you all terribly! Love you!

other pics- trying to catch up

I met these kids outside of a herbalist health centre near the main town. This health centre has 250 beds which are all full. This is more than both main hospitals combined. Somehow they pay more for these services than they do at other health centres. They treat only with herbs and prayers the following ailments (non-exhaustive): cancers (I saw many obvious late-stage cancers), blindness, malaria, heart problems, cholera, etc. Weird. I dont know what I really believe. I love my natural remedies, but also think western medicine has a role to play in these diseases.

Beautiful girl with the most beautiful eyes. We met her in the front of store where we were buying goods for cooking. Look at me- I'm cooking! Or maybe I've been delegated to clean up after... ;) I definitely made guac. Aren't these eyes beautiful and eerie and stunning?

pic of guac- yummy!

Yummy guacamole!! You have NO idea how excited I wsa for our "mexican" night. We gave a little sampling to one of the guys that works at the hostel and he said he liked it, but he walked away to eat it. :)

Pics for "beautiful home, but without furniture"

Teammate Dennis really getting into the goat. Gross.

I did NOT eat this meat, but I really wanted to take a picture with it.

We cooked dinner in the dark. This is the mutilated fish. :)

hate the internet here

I've been sitting at an "internet cafe" in Luwero- the main town of Nakaseke district fighting with the internet to post pics. Not happening. I'll continue trying, but all my fun pics of guac, village life and african times may have to come later. T.I.A. - This is Africa- as my driver would say.

Guacamole

We’re so burnt out of the local food!!! Matoke (some kind of grilled and smashed unsweetened bananas) and groundnuts sauce. So done with it. We went to the market today and picked up chapati (Indian flour tortillas), beans being cooked roadside, and the fixings for guacamole. We made it all in our little room and ate it all. So delicious! I’m happy, but full and can’t wait for more. :)

Contradictions

This whole project is full of contradictions. One moment everyone in Nakaseke district has mobile phones and another moment nobody does. HIV is not a problem, HIV is a huge problem. Health care workers call in reports to the district office, another time they deliver them in person. One person says the health care center has landlines and the next person says they haven’t had a landline for over a year. And on and on. Our data analysis is completely ridiculous. We’re currently collating all of our findings and starting our report to the Ministry. We have a meeting next Friday at the Ministry with everyone including the Executive Director of the Blum Center (who sponsored the project). More info about our findings and recommendations later. J

Real home, but without furniture – May 26, 2007

We had such a fun night Sat night. Ananias took us to his friend’s house outside of Nakaseke district. Ananias has a great way of not telling us anything and just bringing us to places without preparation. It’s a bit disconcerting and sometimes frustrating, but this time it was like Christmas. We pulled up to a home that was an actual home. Bricks and stone and everything. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any furniture inside. When we were given the tour of the home we passed the kitchen where he said we could cook our food. It was amazing. I’m sure if we didn’t have vegetarians in the group (I’m a veggie for the trip and Meera is too) we wouldn’t have to cook, but without any women there we were given the kitchen to cook our tilapia. It was so much fun! No electricity so we cooked by headlamp. We had one dull knife and a whole fish. We basically pulled out the meat in the fish by hand, tossed it in a pan with tomatoes, onions, beer, oil and salt and cooked it together. It was amazing!!! We all slept on the floor of one of the rooms and had a great next day tromping around his farm. Our first day off. It was incredible. We ate so much fruit from his farm- passionfruit, jackfruit, bananas, some crazy sweet tomato thing, guava, and mangos. Yummy!

fun times

Overall it’s been really fun, exhausting and crazy. Since Ananias is our escort and the Secretary of Science and Tech we have had quite a journey out to the rural areas. We spent the night at the Chairman of Nakaseke district’s house and nicknamed his Chairman Shug (as is Shug Night). They came up with nicknames for all of us (mine is k’bulungi or something like that which means she who is beautiful or something silly like that) and asked us to make up nicknames for them. Shug was the first thing to come to mind. He lives out in the middle of NOWHERE with a million cows around and in something that looks like the typical round hut with thatched roof, but it’s a solid home with a solid roof and solar panels. So crazy. We socialized, they laughed at us, ate some food (I haven’t really liked the food at all), got in a heated argument about gender rights and, and slept in a bed with all four of us. In the morning we trekked out to see and admire his cows. I was designated to pray for the health of the cows. It was a little weird. They didn’t understand anything I said.
More funny things- my name is the same as the word for charcoal. Meera and I climbed to the top of a truck full of charcoal in bags to celebrate my namesake.
After eating only matoke and groundnuts sauce for every meal for two days (seems MUCH longer than that!!) our favorite game became “What ingredients would you have in your…”.
They force-feed milk down your throat whenever they can. Tea is basically warm milk straight from a cow and hopefully boiled with sugar and served everywhere all of the time.

Births!!

One of the traditional birth attendants (TBA) that we met with was super busy and with a woman (otherwise known as a 15 year old girl) that just gave birth. She was beautiful, but exhausted. The baby was struggling to breath so we were going to leave, but the TBA told us to stay. I was trying to give the mama support by playing with her hair/head and being calm. The TBA pulled out the placenta by the cord- just pulled it out without a warning- and out it came. Blood everywhere. The TBA asked me to hand her some cotton behind me and I paused for a second before handing it to her with my bare hands. T.I.A.- “This is Africa”- as our driver would say.
The TBA helped with another birth 15 minutes later

Journey to Nakaseke- May 22, 2007

I thought we were going to die. Nakaseke district is supposed to be an hour and a half from Kampala. We were dying from the exhaust from the cars around and holding things to our nose, but having fun and talking on our journey. After two and a half hours people started drifting off and the sun started setting. Shortly after that we left the paved road and headed down a dirt road. The sun set fully and the villages became more spread apart. I was the only one awake and started getting nervous. Who was this man escorting us to Nakaseke? Yeah, he says that he’s the Secretary of Science and Technology under President Museveni, but how do I really know that? Wasn’t this trip supposed to be only an hour and a half? Three hours deep into the bush in Uganda and I wasn’t doing well. Ananias (the Secretary) was following in a truck behind us, the phone didn’t work, and our driver didn’t know where we were going. When our spare tire fell off we stopped and Ananias came by to see how we were doing. In his right hand was an Uzi. I was scared. He assured us we were close to our destination. Meera was awake now and sharing my hysteria. We finally arrived at a “trading center” four hours into the bush and late at night. Apparently Ananias is who he says he is and from this town so wanted us to start there. He could have told us this. Aren’t we doing a communication assessment??

Ministry of Health- May 22, 2007

We met with the Assistant Commissioner of Health in charge of ICTs on Monday May 21. We were all really excited about the meeting and actually starting the project with a meeting with the Minister. Unfortunately he was in Geneva still so we met with the man in charge of ICTs which is fitting. It was such a frustrating meeting. People were either asking us completely irrelevant things or pushing back due to political reasons. Apparently the minister is from a different district so they were trying to get us to change our plans and go to that district. They wanted us to assess how flat screen monitors could work in health offices in Kampala (the capital) and the district hospitals to relay health messages. That is absurd! These people don’t even have electricity for the most part and he was talking about a technology that would only help him to promote his work.
He also commented on how our team is all women and then proceeded to ask a woman at the meeting who is not affiliated with the Ministry to send him minutes after the meeting.
At least we’ve all had experience with crazy people like this and we dismissed most of what he said, noted a few key words and phrases he kept mentioning and we went off with our plan. Oh politics.

First Day in Kampala...

... and I'm loving it. Ali met me at the airport and we cabbed together to our hotel. We;re staying at the most adorable place owned by a French man. When we're here we feel like we're in an Italian villa! It's beautiful.

http://www.hotelsinuganda.com/bougainviller.html

Unfortunately other people know of its beauty too and there's no room for us tonight or tomorrow night. Hopefully when we're back from Nakaseke district we'll be able to stay here again. We went for Indian food last night with a friend of Meera's from the Peace Corps. I was a little scared about my tummy and Indian food, but so far so good! Currently I'm lounging on a chair besides the pool (in the shade cause it's too hot) and reading. We're taking today off before starting work. It's sooo nice!

Love and miss everyone!