“You look like…*a few air punches thrown*..you look like a boxer.”

Yup. My workmate said that to me today. I look like a boxer. Grrrrrreat. Haven’t heard that one before, at least its new.

So, the first week at site, I had pee butt. And, yes, I did milk it and stay home. But, I got all settled in and familiar with the area and that is what we are supposed to be doing for the first 3 months anyway. My boss did take me around one day to meet the local officials and get to know important places like the police station. I mopped my floors and counters with bleach and washed so much laundry that my knuckles were bleeding (which means I do it wrong, btw). I had pork and chips every meal for quite some time because I was waiting for my gas tank to power my 4-stove top oven. Which I now have. Which is flipping amazing. The first night I made butter noodles, with Blueband butter or margarine or some weird stuff nobody really knows what is but is forced to use due to the lack of real butter and the extreme prices of olive oil. But, even though it really didn’t taste that good, it was amazazazing and I had a perma-smile on my face the whole meal. Also, it is so incredibly wonderful to be able to eat dinner when I am hungry at 5/6/7ish instead of waiting until 9/930 and going to bed with a stuffed belly of carbs like sweet potatoes, posho (boiled maize), rice, irish potatoes, cassava and matoke (boiled bananas). I feel like I can breathe again.

My friends came to visit during the weekend and it was fabulous. The couple who is right near the south sudan border came and cooked us breakfast and a delicious Mexican feast that brought tears of happiness to our eyes. The first breakfast potatoes sautéed with onions and olive oil, pankcakes and scrambled eggs literally…we were so happy. After 2.5 months of plain bread or banana (or if your lucky a boiled egg) for breakfast, that meal made dreams come true. I did end up getting in trouble, however, for having guests stay the night. Apparently, the compound I stay in is a deeply religious organization from Italy (doing very good work in the area) and has lots of rules. They did not, however, break any of the rules to me. So, I naturally assumed that my house was my house and I could have anyone and everyone over to make use of my awesome digs. But the second night, on a Saturday around 10/11pm, my neighbors came over and kinda lectured me. Apparently I had kept my next door neighbor up all day and blablabla, but, they informed me we were not allowed to have guests stay the night. Good thing I had 7 people crashing on my floor that night, and also good thing I had just purchased 2 mats (not cheap, btw) for my couple to use every weekend. So naturally, I was embarrassed and wanted to move far, far away. But the next day I talked to my neighbors and they explained that we can have guests, but there is a curfew and they are allowed to sleep on the hostel in the compound. And having men stay over is a big No-No, only if youre married is it allowed. So I was breaking the rules all over the place and cannot have the house parties I was imagining in my head. Boo.

I went to work Monday and had a pretty good day. We went into the field to help a local branch with documentation and also gather xmas cards that children were making for their sponsors in Italy. Once we were done, an old man who was very pleasant and welcoming sat next to me and decided to school me on some Acoli. I did alright here and there, but homeboy was just talking way to fast so I said a lot of, “motmot” (slow slow). But he was very sincere and got a kick out of my attempts. Oh, and—there was one point where he was complimenting me and then stated, “and you are very fat.” The first time, I didn’t hear him so I said, “what?” He clearly repeated, “You are very fat.” I decided to say “what” 5 more times while he tried to “compliment” me until he got tired of saying it and switched subjects. Yes, I am what the men call, “my size”. I am big. And they make sure I know it. **side note: being “big” here is a good thing and attractive to the people. It is a sign that you are healthy and have no stress. So, im sexy. Holla at ya girrrrrrrrl.

Today I was a bit intimidated at first as we entered a village behind the market and all eyes focused on the munu (what the Acoli people call an mzungu). I am used to the turning heads and fixed eyes, but it’s a little more intense outside of town. But, the people were lovely and greeted me with big smiles and laughs at my simple Acoli. I met the only other woman in the world with the name Bibiana (for those of you who don’t know, I chose Bibiana as my confirmation name. She was a lady in the bible who did something cool, but I chose her name for its uniqueness and randomness) and was very excited about it. I also encountered an old woman who was so ecstatic to see me, and told me where her home was and that I must come visit her, too. I actually understood most of what she was saying which was pretty exciting. And, we actually ended up going to her house. We were making stops to check adherence to ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs treating HIV-AIDS) and visit with our clients. I saw a baby that I wanted to steal, she was so beautiful and had such personality. And the old woman handed me a bundle of “boo” (a type of greens) to help her pick. Really, she wanted to show me how to pick the local greens so that I could learn to cook her local food. It was really sweet. I encountered two men who randomly thru some Kiswahili at me and were shocked when I responded with force and that it was much better than my Acoli. It was really nice to do a little showing off in front of my workmates who hear me struggle at basic Acoli on a daily basis. I also got to spend a little more one on one time with certain workmates, which was very nice. The people doing this work are amazing and inspiring people. To watch them interact with our clients, and the joy they get out of each other…it is really something to see. We finished our day with one more home visit to a woman called “Santa” whom I had visited on my site visit a while back. She has been bed ridden for the past 3-4 years and is taken care of by her elderly mother, who has such spunk and energy. Santa once again had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us and as soon as she explained where her pain was, she finished with, “but I am happy.” It is easy to see she is my organization’s favorite. She is a wonderful and kind woman, and I enjoy her very much. I can tell she will become my favorite as well. I already want to bring her some goodies next visit.

Anyhoo. I have encountered no more scorpions since the 2 last week. But everyone has been confirming that they are common here and that this is the season. They also inform me that, “there is nothing really to do to prevent.” They did reassure me that I most likely had visitors inside my house and back to back because no one had been living in my house for so long. But as long as I clean and spray bug spray every now and then, I will be ok. Oh, and, to sleep with my mosquito net. So, keep yo fingers crossed! Oh, they also told me, “if you get bit…you go to the hospital right away.” Confirmation: I am living with the deadly scorpions. Also, my lovely friend riannon told me to research scorpions to ease my angst over the little bugers. Ya well, had the opposite affect. Because although I found out only 25 of the 1000+ types of scoprions are deadly, it is the small, brown ones that are most deadly. And yes, that is what my visitors look like. Living my life likes its golden!

Oh, I heard back from the softball/baseball peeps. And they are very eager to have me help and cannot wait for me to teach girls how to pitch!! Yup. That’s whats up. I guess all those years of whack bullpen catching and sitting thru pitching lessons might actually benefit me after all. Coach Sherwood and Coach Martin, thanks homies. I’ll make you proud! I am actually pretty stoked as I have something that I know I can do and will be good at. If I can get this ball rolling, my next 2 years are going to be a breeze.

 I wish all of you a Happy Halloween and will be missing the good ol American tradition of dressing up and trick or treating. And also I will miss yous.

i will be posting pix this weekend because i will have free internet :) any skypers, hollerrrrrr.

Apwoyo ba, wanen!

Getting in touch with my scorpio..

So this morning, I decided to be like the Ugandans and give my porch a good, thorough cleaning after washing my sheets (which, by the way, are a b*tch to hand wash. I thought chonies were my worst enemy, but I thought wrong. It is definitely bed sheets and the agony of training to ring out the water of queen size sheets). I was even considering washing the porch with soap and water but first, I had to sweep all the leaves off. Early in the weekend, I had set an old bath rug and basket that was left for me in my bathroom. It was just kinda nasty and I’d rather clean up cement floors than nasty carpet-ya know? So anyway, I set it on my porch while I did my cleaning and kinda forgot about it yesterday. So when I went to go sweep, I moved the basket and picked up the carpet. Then, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw a frog, or maybe it was a toad, and a creature I had never seen in real life: a scorpion. I froze for a good 10 seconds, first staring at the toad/frog as it did not move. The other dark spot I didn’t figure out right away, then after a while I realized it what it was. The scorpion looked squished so I thought it was dead. I went to poke the toad/frog to shoe it away, but it didn’t move. I thought to myself, wow man, I sure did get lucky with these creatures being dead and not attacking me. Then I went to go push the scorpion away and it moved. It started scurrying toward the broom after I touched it and I freaked out. I kinda just starred for a few more seconds and then shut my door, ran in the house first to call my friend and then to grab my camera to document this scorpion on my porch. I sat staring at the thing through my screen door, not knowing what to do but badly wanting to take a snap to show everyone I know. My friend kept telling me to kill it right then or else it would get away and worse come back and get inside. I waited too long and the thing crawled inside the whicker basket that I had set outside. So after about another 3 minutes of just staring and sitting on the phone, and my friend calling me a panzee, I opened the basket and saw the scorpion. It was just sitting with its tail or stabber thingy curled up in the air. I wonder what my guards thought as I just stood on my porch for a good, solid minute staring into a basket. I found a glass bottle inside, when back out and stared for another minute and finally summoned the balls to attack. And I did, like 20 times. But not before taking a few snaps close up for you all to see. Right after killing the scorpion and saving the compound from his deadliness, my guard dog came to see if I was alright and is still sitting on my porch, protecting me. And that my friends, is the tale of my scorpion encounter. Oh, also: the frog/toad was alive because it disappeared when I first went inside. Clever creature knows how to play dead.

Update…So the past weekend, I’ve been cleaning and organizing my new pad. I have finished putting up all the pix I brought of my family and friends, and it already is making me feel at home. I swept and mopped all my floors, cleaned the counter tops and cupboards, washed my sheets, chonies (3 weeks worth) and one load of laundry (and I still have like, 3 more loads to do-yippie). I took this Monday off to finish up and mainly go into town to get my gas tank for my four stove top-oven :) Man oh man, I cannot wait to use that thing. The only meal I have eaten since arriving Friday night is pork and chips. Which is absolutely amazing here, but, not as satisfying as it once was. Also peanut butter sammies, I bought some bread and a jar of PB—always delicious.

Oh another fun fact—the first night I was taking a shower I had another exciting experience. As I was finishing up my AMAZING running water shower, thinking to myself how lucky I am and enjoying every minute of it, I felt something drop beside me. I jumped as much as I could in my small space and saw the cockroach scurry around, not knowing what to do. My first thought was, “holy shit, my shower rains cockroaches?!” But my quick glance up at the shower head proved me wrong as I saw the small holes that in no way could squeeze out that size of a cockroach. As the roach kept running toward me trying to get out of the thunderstorm he just fell into, I had to, unwillingly, step on him (don’t get grossed out, I wear shower slippers). Homeboy must have been trying to sneak a peek over the shower wall and slipped…poor tyke. So anyway, I now semi fear that my life may be taken by some curly tailed scorpions or an army of cockroaches seeking revenge of their fallen homie. Hopefully, word doesn’t get back.

This blog wasn’t very informative but my experience with the scorpion was so thrilling I just had to share. Wudong maber dano na!! **You stay well my people**

Wutye nining??

An Nyinga Jose ento kilwonga ni Lamara. Lamara tye “the most loved”. Abiciro kitgum tiyo tic i Meeting Point. Iya Yom!!

Translation: My name is Jose (because Ugandans, and Afrika as a whole, cannot fathom nor pronounce “joey” and have all re-named me Jose. Not the Mexican Jose with a silent J pronounced as a H, but the Jose close to Josie, but not lame. It kinda sounds like “Jo-zay”. Its actually kinda cute, ive become quite attached to it) but I am called Lamara meaning “the most loved” (uh-huh, I got it like that even in Uganda). I will be going to Kitgum doing work in Meeting Point. My stomach is full. …just have an “Oi? Wtf?” moment? Ya, well, in Acoli, the saying my stomach is full implies that one is happy. Who knew I’d fit so well into this culture…

So, as ive said before, I will be going north to a district called Kitgum and placed right outside of Kitgum town. In the north, the main language is Acoli, which weve been studying for a little less than 2 months. It is in the Luo language family and the language and culture very much resembles the Jaluo people I stayed with in Kenya. So, its been like a homecoming since day one. I’ve loved it. We just took our language exams yesterday after studying the language for less than 2 months…I passed. Woot. Woot. I passed with the minimum score required, and therefore I will make use of the mentor PC will provide and step my game up. Imma speak this acoli by the end of my two years, you just wait and see.

Anyway, as I’ve said before, Uganda can actually get cold and cause you to wear a sweater. But not where I am going, of course not. Why would I be so lucky? I am going to the place where the Ugandans say is the hottest in the country, right below South Sudan. A couple in my group is placed in the eastern/northern part of Kitgum and can see South Sudan in their backyard.  But anyway, I am going to be working in Meeting Point, an organization started by my supervisor in the early 90s because she wanted to provide emotional support to peoples living with or affected by HIV-AIDS and reduce the stigma of the disease. It was one of the first HIV-AIDS organizations in the north and has been running for almost 20 years, even throughout the war. As I am told, they have been largely supported by Italian doctors and volunteers, as well as other European volunteers, and have a compound for said volunteers called “AVSI”.  That is where I will be staying. And it is like a little Europe inside Uganda. Actually I’ve never been to Europe so I don’t know if its like Europe, but, it definitely is not like living the life of Ugandans. **I am listening to a mix from my best friend dj soso fresh and the song, “I just came to say hello” is playing and I am so happy** My home/apartment is fully furnished with a bed, table + chairs, couch and four sitting chairs. My kitchen has a big fridge, sink (with running water), counter and best of all.. a four-stove top OVEN. I am going to have an oven.. I cant get over it. I also have a running shower and a flush toilet with a functional sink. And, I have the only and biggest closet I have ever seen in Afrika. All these wonderful amenities seem amazing, but they have been causing me a lot of guilt. When ya sign up for peace corps, you do it when the thought and hope, at least for me, to live a different kind of life. My main motive for joining the peace corps was to learn and be a part of a new culture and I had planned on immersing myself in it. With my new, and very fortunate, living situation, I wont really be doing that. Not only do I have pretty much every aside from drinkable water and a wash machine, I am living in a compound with ex-pats… not in the community. So, my thought of living as “one” with the people (even though that could never really happen) and learning the language and culture is not realistic, and its going take much more effort on my part to immerse myself. However, I do have the cool pad that everyone ones to come visit and I welcome any and all with open arms!

When we did our language and future site immersion, we got to tour around the main city, Gulu. It’s a lot like kisumu in Kenya. Its not the hustle and bustle, dirty and compact streets of nairobi but it is a big town with everything that one needs. Including some good old America pizza :) I have a few friends who will be living in gulu, so my excuse to go there will be justified. Anyway, I stayed in my new home for 2 days and observed at my new job. I went on field outreaches with them and saw a small glimpse of what our work is. My new org is a lot like Matibabu in Kenya; it is a clinic providing VCT and home based care to peoples living with or affected by HIV-AIDS and travels to isolated communities without access to such services. The story and passion of my supervisor, as well as my other amazing workmates, is very ispiring and encouraging and I feel so privileged to be in her presence. Also, I very much want to get involved with the peace and reconciliation work taking place here in the north. If any of you remember the “Invisible Children” that was popular the past few years, that is where we are living. So, needless to say, I am surrounded by amazing people and endless opportunities…cannot wait. OH! And, they have baseball and softball here!! They have some camps taking place in January and I am signing up to participate—I cannot wait to get back on the field, my life will be complete once again.

We all were sworn in to the Peace Corps yesterday, on the 13 of October, 2011. It was great, I didn’t think it would be a big deal but I felt myself becoming a little emotional as we took our oath. And I looked at my favorite couple, Bill and Holly, and saw Bill crying which in turn immediately gave me tears. But, tis official—we are Peace Corps Volunteers. BOOYA beetchesssssss. And today, we all moved to our new homes and sites. The Kitgum grew, composed of myself, Mikael, Russ, Aubrey and Patrick all left this morning at 6am to catch the 8am, 8 hour long bus to Kitgum. The drive was great, aside from the part where it was raining and our bus pulled over to let someone off, slide in the ditch and started tipping on my side. As I was against the window, feeling the bus pass a safe balance point and near tipping over, I thought to myself, “Holy shit, its happening…This is how I go.” My rational brain told me that if I moved to the other side of the bus, it would be enough to transfer the weight necessary to stop the tipping. So I yelled at Mikael and unknowingly tried to push her out of her seat. My supervisor and other Ugandans were laughing at us, mainly at me, and said, “its ok, its just slipping. He just has to get out of the ditch.” Nah homies, that shit almost tipped. But, needless to say, the driver had mad skills and got us out of the predicament without a scratch. And we all had a good laugh at the silly mzungu who doesn’t know. Cuddos to people driving on dirt roads that are not big enough for 2 compact cars to pass evenly without swiping of the others side view mirror and have only the option to bail in the ditches on either side of the single lane road. Hot damn, people here are resourceful.

As happy as we all were to peace out to training and become real life volunteers and live in our own homes, we are all very sad to leave each other. For the past 2 months, weve been staying in wacky wakiso with homestays, going to training every day and eating food not of our choice, but we have had each other. And now we are divided throughout Uganda. Tis sad friends, tis sad. But thankfully we have things like IST (in service training) and holidays like Thanksgiving to reunite. I will def miss my homies and bitching about all the crazy shit that happens to us on a daily basis. Lucky for me, I am only 15 minutes to my future bestie Mikael and like 20/30 to Russ. I don’t see myself living any type of hard life here in Uganda, as I sit here typing with my music playing thru my speaker, fan blowing on my face and my cold water at my fingertips. (Incase you haven’t caught on, this is my guilt trying to resolve being dealt this amazing hand for the next 2 years…oi)

So, if any want to send some good ol’ fashion snail mail, it would make my life. My address is now the following:

Josephine Daniels PCV

Meeting Point Kitgum

PO Box 96

Kitgum, Uganda

Also, packages are greatly appreciate and valued J My telephone number is +256773127476 and I believe I receive most text messages from the states. It is kinda expensive, about 25-50 cents to give/receive texts.

I miss and love you all.

some pix of my bedroom with the kagembes...my mosquito net with my undies drying inside..

The living room, kitchen and dining room. yes, thats a fridge :)

My front/back/side yard..

for some reason gigantic pix of my shower and clothes washing area. plus the annoying ass chickens that wake me up every morning, starting at 4am. do they know the sun isnt up yet? someone needs to inform them.

my pit latrine. i set my shoe next to it so you all get somewhat of an idea just how small this hole is. you can only imagine how it takes skill to aim and multi-task..if ya know what i mean..

our kitchen next to the rain water collector and the pad locked door to the outside world.

Two months laterrrrr…

Yo. Its taken me quite a while to write anything on this here blog, but here I am. Finally. I have been out of commission due to lack of internet in this town we are staying in, and with the few times I was able to get online I did not want to waste it with the time it would take to journal to you all…no offense. Instead, I skyped with my family and I got to see my precious little babies who are growing up without me. And it is sad but so wonderful to see their beautiful faces. Anyhoo.

So, let me catch you up on some things ive been doing…

1.     ONE. night buckets. Can any of you guess what that is? I would hope not, cause if you can, you got issues. So, here in Uganda, the majority of people have outside pit latrines for going potty. Some special folks, like some of my lucky peers, have toilets inside the house. I, however, do not, and use my outside latrine to relieve myself. Everytime I stand up from a squat I still turn around to flush the toilet…crazy how some things never change. Anyway, so. Another fun fact about Uganda is that once the sun goes down at 7pm, you cant see shit. Literally. Due to that fact, its not very safe; not being able to see what youre doing, dogs, thieves or better yet, night dancers (ya, ill get to that one later). So, once the family has pad locked you in for the night at around 930/10, youre stuck. So anytime you wake up needing to run to the toilet, you instead run to your night bucket and pop a squat. Mhmm. That’s whats up. At first, I was like, “oh wow. Exciting” but not too afraid. I always have to pee during the night so I expected to use the thing frequently but had confidence in myself and believed I would ONLY use it for number one aka “short calls” here in Uganda. The first night at home stay, however, I was having some stomach issues and something close to what we wazungu (whities) call “pee butt” here in afrika. I still had confidence in myself when I woke up at about 2am in dyer need of my night bucket. So, willingly, I got up, took off the lid and situated my squat supporting myself with the wall. I remember thinking to myself, “ya, im using the night bucket. What up.” And that’s when it hit me. For those of you who have had anything resembling pee butt, you know that its not controllable. And so, needless to say, my “short call” turned very quickly into a “long call” without my consent. Into a bucket. Inside my room. I returned to my bed very heated, cursing the universe for what it had just put me through. And that my friends, is the night bucket. Thankfully, the lid actually works wonders and keeps my room so fresh and so clean. DAY ONE

2.    TWO.  now, just as the pit latrines are outside, so too are the showers. Or bathing area for the bucket bath. Whilte the latrines have doors and are inclosed, the bathing area has three walls, thankfully all high enough so no peeping tom can get a peak, and an open area unsuccessfully covered by a drape that is way to small and blown into my face by the slightest gust of wind. But, that opening faces our high, back wall-only the chickens can peep the mzungu. So bucket baths I am cool with, but the fact of taking them outside…I didn’t really know the schedule. The sun doesn’t start rising until 630am and it goes down by 715pm, and due to our terrific schedule, we are on the road walking by 7am and home by 7pm. So the first couple, or so, days I was confused and not knowing when my turn to bathe was. And as I am shy bear, I was afraid to ask anyone. So, I kinda skipped some days of showering, thankfully coming to homestay on a thursday and having the weekend right around the corner. Then finally, one night after dinner, I got the nerve to ask my host dad when I could bathe. He said, “whenever you want?” turns out, I can shower during dark because my amazing brother ben would stay up and protect me. And from that day forth joey has bathed. Kinda. Lol anyway. The first shower outside: weird. I was constantly looking over my shoulder to see if there was any angle someone could sneak a peak. Then the second shower, I was more relaxed and able to focus on getting the job done. And then by the 3^rd shower, I was able to look up at the night sky and bathe under the stars. And it was pretty freaking awesome. But what was even more awesome was the next night when I was able to bathe at night in the rain. Not the pouring down rain, but the nice rain. It was badass. And so peaceful. Now, I very much enjoy my bathing time outside, minus when I turn around and find the cat’s glowing eye balls piercing at me from the roof. I guess there is an angle to sneak a peak.. other than the pitch black, 6am cold weather plus cold water baths, my showers are amazing. BOOYA

3.    THREE.  walking to and fro school. You know how you always hear old people say crap like, “well back in my day, we had to walk miles to get to class” or “I had to walk thru blizzards” blablabla. Well, here in my day, I have to HIKE an hour to class and an hour home from class. And since I have to leave by 7am, before the sun is bright enough to shine in my room and the power is often out, I sometimes have to get ready by flashlight. Guess who has two thumbs and looks sexy? Not this girl. Anyway. By the time I get to class, I am a sweaty mess. Especially since the last leg of our journey is a steep ass hill leading up to the front gates of school. And, we often get to hike in slippery ass mudd or quick sand due to the crazy storms here. It rains a lot in Uganda. Which brings me to my next point. wait for it...

4.     FOUR. Afrika can be cold. Yup, tis true friends. I can sometimes see my breath. Not often, but it happens. And it rains so hard and so much. The thunder and lightening storms are insane, and my favorite is when I get to fall asleep to the pouring down rain on our tin roof. It is so soothing and drowns out the stupid roosters and chickens right outside my window that start at 4am. We traveled to a site in the south west where there are mountains, and there was fog everywhere, just like home. And I even had to wear a sweater (at times). For two entire days, I did not sweat. It was beautiful. Side note; my future home where I will be living for 2 years is in the north, in a town called kitgum. And Ugandans say kitgum is the hottest place in Uganda…yesssssssssssss. Look out kitgum for two years, here I come! WOOO

5.     AND FIVE. Ugandan belly. I knew coming to afrika I would probably gain weight because here, they appreciate their women a little on the thick side. So, they like to plump the skinny Americans or “keep the shape” of those like myself who are already a little plump. But, here in Uganda, they sure do love their carbs. Although I am eating some delicious food cooked by my brother ben (hes the shit, I love him), I eat HELLA carbs. And the carbs are not just potatoes and rice, although they have the most delicious sweet potatoes ever as well as “irish” or normal potatoes. They also have po sho, what I call ugali, and a little something called “matoke”. Matoke, this wonderful discovery, is a big lump of boiled/smashed plaintains—not flavored. Mhmm. And it is bugandan’s favorite thing, EVER.  Don’t get me wrong, its eatable and with some good g-nut sauce (ground nut sauce {also somehow grubtown}), its good. I even crave it now when I travel and stay away from home for a few days. But hot damn, when you have to eat matoke AND rice AND potatoes AND cassava at one sitting…you can imagine my Ugandan belly growing and growing and growing… that’s when you become thankful for pee butt flushing that ish right out of your system! BOO BAM

Alright my lovelies, I have stayed up late writing this and must hit the hay. I hope I have given you all a little glimpse into the amazing life in Uganda that has become my own. When we were driving thru busheni the other day, I was looking outside the window thinking about the elephants we just saw by the road, and I had an epiphany: this is my life. And it was a very comforting, affirming, and reassuring feeling. I feel at home here, and I am so excited for the next two years. So, as we say in my new Acoli language, dong maber!!

Miss and love you all dearly.