Big Brother Mouse

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English Practice

Big Brother Mouse opens its doors six days a week, from 9-11am for local Lao, Hmong, and Khmu students to practice their English with willing Western tourists. We planned to attend the English practice almost every day of our trip. Although we have never taught anything, let alone English, and considering we could not speak more than two words of Lao (we could say hello and thank you), we were optimistic in this feat. The students were older, generally around 17-22. There were anywhere from five to twenty students there each day, which sometimes allowed us to speak more directly with a single student, and sometimes we spoke with a small group of 3-5 students at one time. Most of them were studying in one of the local universities or schools, either the University of Economics and Tourism, the Teacher Training College, or the Foreign School.

The Foreign School is taught by Western teachers, and the students say the teachers are better than the Lao teachers, because they have better pronunciation. I have also been told there is a teacher at the Foreign School named Amber, from the US. Most of the students we saw were not from the Foreign School, because there is less need to practice their pronunciation. The real need is for the students who have Lao teachers who cannot teach proper pronunciation. The Teacher Training College focuses on English and Math, but it seems many of the students do not want to become teachers, but instead want to be tour guides or work at hotel reception because there is better money. Generally, the students have been learning English for anywhere from one to four years. Some of them that were more advanced were more aggressive in speaking with us, whereas the newer students were more quiet and it took time to get them to open up and speak. The more advanced students sometimes have to translate, which takes away the fun and defeats the purpose. We learned a great deal about Lao and Hmong culture through speaking with the students. I think we learned as much from them as they from us.

I have been surprised that few of the students have shown any interest in or prior knowledge of the US. I know it is fairly ethnocentric to assume that they know about the US and are dying to hear about Obama. One student remembered Obama’s name, and confirmed with me that he is dark skinned like him. Another student, when we talked about Washington, D.C. thought that Washington was the name of the politicians who work there, as in “Washington went to work today to draft a bill . . .” There was often a copy of the English paper the Vientiene Times on table at BBM, which had articles about the US. For example, there was a story about Obama and Geitner and the bank bailout and AIG. But, the students had very little knowledge of the US.

For the most part, the students all asked very similar questions about whether we are married, have kids, what we do for a living, etc. With respect to weddings and marriage, they were surprised to hear that after we were married we lived on our own rather than with Eric’s parents. They were even more surprised to know that we did not kill an animal for our wedding party. If we did not kill an animal, then did we have only vegetables at the wedding party? Rather than explain about our wedding at the Westin and the concept of caterers, I only replied that we had meat, but we did not kill it. The student understood, saying, oh you bought it at the market. Although we want to explain to them the differences between our cultures, we are also very careful not to make it seem that we have too much in comparison. Most of the students seem very impressed that I am a lawyer because in Laos lawyers make a good salary. One student in particular, Lee, even asked me how much salary a teacher makes in the US (I replied not enough) and how much I made as a lawyer in the US (I replied more than a teacher, because it is the same in Laos). I also had about a twenty minute conversation with Lee about our cat. Not only did I explain the concept of having a pet, and that in the US there is a distinction between animals that we keep as pets and animals we eat, but I had to explain the concept of pet food. Lee said he has not eaten cat, but he does not like them because he “bores” them. At first, I thought he meant boils them, but realized he meant that they are boring to him, which necessitated a distinction between bores, bored, and boring. As for pet food, in Laos, people will feed neighborhood cats rice or soup or whatever is left over at the end of the meal. Dogs, I gather, take on a higher status and actually seem to be more like pets. When Lee asked what we feed the cat, I replied cat food, and needed to explain where we bought it, how much it was, how often we bought new food, what was in the food (I don’t even know and probably do not want to know), and what the food looked like. He recognized my description as similar to bird food, so apparently birds have special food, but not dogs or cats. We also discussed that the word pet is both a noun and a verb, and Lee recognized it as an irregular verb. I was a bit stunned with how long the cat conversation lasted. Most students were very surprised to hear that we had no children despite being married for seven years (I gather there is no real notion of family planning in Laos) and that we only had a cat, but Lee was the only student to understand that we actually “have” a cat, asking all of the questions to understand the relationship better.

The students were also in tune to the differences within Laos between living in the city and in the countryside, where most of them are from. In the city, there are more opportunities for both men and women to continue their education and at least complete high school, and possibly attend university. In the country, there are no opportunities, so often women in particular will end their education early to get married. It is not unheard of for girls as young as 15 or 16 to be married and have children because there is nothing else for them to do in the country. One student, Ba, has a 17 year old sister who was just married, and he thinks she was too young. In Luang Prabang, people will wait until school is finished to get married, at least waiting until they are 20 or even 25. I asked several students if they have girlfriends, and they replied they were too busy with school, studying, and work for girlfriends. Girlfriends take too much time. That said, I did not have much the opportunity to ask about boyfriends because almost all of the students were boys. One girl came to BBM and sat in Eric’s group. He tried to ask her questions to encourage her to talk, but she was very shy. She responded to each question with a giggle. During our second week, a group of four girls came to BBM at least four times. We spoke at great detail with them and encouraged them to speak up, even when they come to BBM and there are a lot of boys there. We found out that one of the girls has a boyfriend who works for BBM, which is how she found out about BBM. Three of the four girls were so quiet I could not hear them. I was trying to encourage them to speak loudly, like Western women, and to be heard over the boys. I don’t know that I was very successful.

Another student wanted to explain to me the difficulties he had growing up before he came to LP to study English. He lives in a Hmong minority village over 200 km north of LP. He is the oldest of 5 siblings. Although school is free, families must pay for the children’s books and for clothes to attend school. This, often, is too much for the family to send all children to school at the same time. Once he was old enough, he left school to help with rice farming and to hunt. He would hunt pheasant, boar, and deer both to feed his family and to sell for money to help send his younger siblings to school. I asked him if he enjoyed hunting and he replied that although he is good at it, he does not enjoy it - he hunts for necessity. This led to a discussion about hunting and guns in the US and, in particular, hunting for fun versus necessity. It was quite insightful, and he asked a lot of questions about the controversy in the US.

Another student, Ba, attends the Teacher Training College. As part of his training, he received a photocopy of an American or British book, I could not tell, training teachers who speak English as a first language. He was expected to learn from this book how to teach. The section he was assigned as homework discussed the attitude of the teachers and how the poor attitude of a teacher can affect the students. An important lesson to learn, but the complexity of the writing for someone who speaks Hmong as a first language, Lao as a second language, and is now learning English was mindboggling. I had to explain to him the difference between character and personality, the concept of being fed up and overwhelmed. The most difficult was the word methodologists. I told him he will never use that word, as I don’t think I have ever used that world, until now.

In addition to attending English practice each morning, we also helped Sasha, the founder of Big Brother Mouse, with some projects to help in publishing new books. It was nothing complicated, but we spent a few hours in the afternoon on the computer at the office trying to finish some projects that keep getting pushed aside. Sasha started BBM about four years ago, after a trip to Laos. He is originally from the US, and was a publisher in Boston. I think he prefers to spend his time teaching some of the more promising students, and training them in writing, art, and publishing to help move forward on new books. Instead, it appears he spends a great deal of time in non-profit management and fundraising, which he does not enjoy as much. BBM is not a registered 501(c)(3), and therefore, Paypal just pulled the plug on his account. This means that the small donations he has been receiving have hit an enormous roadblock. While we were in town he was heading to the Lao capital to meet with the government and other NGOs to gain more visibility, hoping that NGOs will sponsor publication of new books and order books already published so that their work can continue to be funded. It sheds light on the problem of starting an organization with a passion for literacy and education, to end up being bogged down by administration.

It is not the destination but the journey that is important

During our stay in LP, Big Brother arranged a book party in a local village, outside of Nong Khiew. Book parties are intended to create a fun learning environment to encourage kids to read. They also provide an opportunity to distribute books in Lao and Lao/English to villages throughout Laos. A group of BBM employees was heading on a weeklong book party tour, and we tagged along on their first stop. We arrived at BBM at 8am to meet the group. There was a ton of activity as the minivan was loaded with books, balloons, snacks, and supplies for the book parties. They would be hosting nine parties in five days. The van also housed some tents, a fishing pole, clothing, and food for the group. At this point, there were so many people helping to load the van we had no idea how many were going on the trip, whether they knew we were supposed to drive with them, and where the heck two tall falang were going to sit in this van. It was a clown car in the end. Two girls sat in the third row of the van in a seat for one person, with supplies filling the rest of the seat to the roof. The driver sat in the front row, with someone in the passenger, and someone in the middle on the bench seat. In the middle seat Eric and I squeezed in with two other people, making it 9 passengers in seats meant to hold 7. Not too bad.

We recognize that getting there is half the adventure of any trip, as the van trip to NK is a story unto itself. We stopped at a market in LP on the way out to pick up some breakfast and produce for the rest of the trip. We also stopped a bit out of town to buy some bananas from a woman on the side of the road. The driver started as we left LP by playing Thai pop music, which started us in a conversation with two of the passengers about music, singing, and playing the drums. They told us the rest of the group doesn’t like them singing in the van. Then, several English language pop songs came on. I recognize that we are getting old and don’t pay attention to the music the “kids” listen to these days, so for all I know the music could have been the Jonas Brothers or something, but I doubt it. The first English language pop song we recognized was some Mariah Carey song (Hero I think). By this point five of the passengers were all asleep as we wound our way through the country side and bobbed up and down on the paved, but uneven roadway. I could not have slept in the van no matter how hard I tried. Instead, we kept our eyes wide open, watching the sights stream by including quaint villages and classic Asian rice paddies. All we wanted to do was ask the driver to stop, or at least slow down, so we could play tourist for a moment and take pictures.

Then, Hotel California played. Hotel California seems to be very popular because we heard it play at several bars during our stay in LP. When it came on the radio (which I think was the driver’s mix cd), the driver started blaring it, which immediately woke up the rest of the passengers. After a few more songs, the rap and hip hop started playing. A great American export, with several songs I recognized but could not tell you who sings (or is it raps?). We did hear Snoop Dog, frankly a cultural embarrassment to the US. The change in music started a change in the character in the van. Now, the two passengers in the front started dancing and showing off their hip hop moves. One, had a whistle, and when pretty girls were walking on the side of the road he would whistle to them. We think it was merely a big city slicker from Luang Prabang showing off for the country girls, but I can’t help but think the hip hop had some effect. At one point, a group of school girls walked by and it seemed he was contemplating whether to blow his whistle, and he wisely held off. Everyone laughed at him and I said, good because they were too young for him. They all had a laugh about that one.

Two of the passengers spent the most time talking with us - Dao and Lin. Lin suggested he give us Lao names and that we give them Western names. The latter was more difficult. Lao names translate to something; they have meaning. I know there are baby name books in the US which provide meanings for Western names, but I always thought that was a bunch of malarkey. So, Lin we named Steve, after our friend Steve in DC. Lin was funny and entertaining, similar to Steve. Lin liked it. Dao seemed more quiet, was tall and thin, and appeared very intellectual, almost contemplative. So, Dao became Tom, after Tom Traveler’s namesake. This was amusing. There was suddenly a great deal of Lao discourse and laughing. Dao did not like his name because the only Tom he knew was from Tom and Jerry. The two guys in the front were the dancers and one was wearing giant Hollywood style sunglasses that were too big for his face, and his hair had highlights. We named him Brad, after Brad Pitt. They did not know who Brad Pitt was, though, apparently Angelina has only adopted from neighboring Cambodia and Vietnam and has not made the Lao orphanage circle yet. When we told Brad it was because he looked like a movie star, he said “Like James Bond.” We named his friend up front George, after George Clooney because Brad and George were always together. Regardless of how hard we tried, Brad did not stick - he wanted to be called James Bond. In return, Lin and Dao provided us with Lao names. I became Vi Lai, which means modern civilization. Eric became Som Phon, meaning good wish or blessing. We kept our Lao names for the remainder of the trip, telling them to the students at Big Brother during English class. They all seemed to find it quite amusing, and some of the other Big Brother employees started referring to us as Vi Lai and Som Phon. It was all great fun. Also, by the end of our two weeks in LP, the students and employees had BBM taught us some more Lao. We could say hello, goodbye, please, thank you, count from 1 through 4, say pork and chicken, and a few other words. We were beaming with pride. One of the BBM employees was so sad when we left he said goodbye to Eric twice. Eric told him that next time with come to LP, his English will be so good, that we can spend all of our time together learning Lao.

Nong Khiew

NK is a small river town about 150 kilometers north of Luang Prabang. There did not appear to be any paved roads let alone hotels or ATMs. When we pulled into town, we turned off the main highway and stopped on the side of the road. We all practically fell out of the car and walked the last 50 meters to lunch. On the way a woman set up a stall where you can throw darts at balloons and win a soda. Eric did quite well, impressing the group. He went three for three and won a warm Nescafe canned espresso drink.

One of the girls who works for BBM is from NK. Her sister was hosting all nine of us at her home for lunch. It was a memorable lunch. We all crowded around a wood table with plastic stools and chairs. The table was filled with probably a dozen or more bowls of different foods - green chilis, three kinds of noodles, a meat jerky, grilled fish, and plenty of sticky rice. It was the first time we had been invited into someone’s home in a country like this - eating like the locals do. You grab a hunk of sticky rice from the communal basket and squeeze it in your fingers. Then, you use the sticky rice as a utensil to dab and pick up the food from the communal bowls on the table. It was all very good, especially the chopped spicy green chilies. It was amazing to truly start feeling like you are learning the customs of a society so different from ours.

After lunch, the driver took us to the “main” area of town, which consisted of one road leading to a bridge that crosses the river. The school we were heading to after lunch was on the other side of the river. There were only about five guesthouses in NK, and they dropped us off at one of them. NK is known for its simple riverside bungalows. We checked out one that was so simple I felt the floor shake with every step and was convinced Eric would poke his foot through the bamboo flooring. We decided on a different guesthouse - Chittavang, on the side of the river closest to town. We ate dinner at the guesthouse and experienced our first Lao power outage. The first outage came just at dusk, when it was not yet dark. At that point we could not tell whether it was just our guest house or others in the area that were also affected. We had finished dinner and were enjoying the cheapest Beer Lao we had found to date when we had our second power outage. This time, it was dark - some of the darkest dark I have ever experienced. The power was out for the entire town and we sat in the dark listening to the geckos chirp and bugs buzz. Not only could we not see the lights on the guest houses across the river, but we could not even see our hands in front of our face. After about five minutes the owner of the restaurant emerged with some candles for the table and walkway. We were quick to move the candles to the next table because it was attracting the most evil looking bug I had ever seen. Another Western couple came by for dinner and the evil bug went right for him. He freaked out and they left. Falang. We also realized we left our travel flashlight in Luang Prabang. Stupid tourists. We decided that when the lights went back on (assuming they would go back on) that we would finish our beer and head to our bungalow so that if we lost power again, we would not need to figure a way to get back to our room. The power returned in about twenty minutes and we called it a night - it was not even 8pm. Regardless, it was lights out for us.

A Hundred Smiling Faces

The sole purpose of our trip to Nong Khiew was to help host a book part at the primary school, grades 1-5. We raised some money in the US prior to our trip (Thanks once again to everyone who donated money) to host the book party. The cost includes the expenses of the BBM teachers, drinks and snacks for the kids, as well as publication of books that are distributed to the students. In this case, I think every dollar was worth it.

There seemed to be some confusion when we arrived as though they were not expecting us that afternoon. After a few minutes of discussion with the principal, we headed onto school grounds. The school consisted of 5 small class rooms, each holding approximately 30 students, usually three to a desk. We started the afternoon by having all of the students line up in grade level from the oldest on the right to the youngest on the left. Although the primary school is grades 1-5, some of the students are much older than what we would consider a fifth grader, with some students into their teens. I think the age of the student in each grade depends on when the student started grade 1 and how quickly they progress. I think sometimes students do not go to school for a full day, or perhaps have to take time off for family, so their progression is slowed. On the left side were the little tikes, including one girl who was probably only around 4 years old, who was so scared by the site of Eric and me and the six BBM teachers that she started crying. The students clapped and sang a song to welcome us. Of course, everything was sung or spoke in Lao, so I am not sure what they were saying.
After the warm welcome, the students returned to three of the class rooms for a drawing exercise. The BBM teachers drew 5 different faces on the board, including 5 different outlines of a face, 5 different kinds of hair, eyes, mouth, and nose. It was a blackboard version of the Mister Potato Head. The students were each given a sheet of paper and a new pencil to try drawing a combination of features. I attempted one as well, sitting with some of the girls for a few minutes, but my skills were limited. I drew a face with a round head and eyes, and tried to use it for laughs - showing the students the comparison between my drawing and Eric. He played along well. In one of the classrooms, with some of the younger students, I used the opportunity to teach a few words of English. Because they were drawing a face, I taught them the words, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. I guess word spread because in the next classroom Dao was singing a song in Lao where he touched his nose, mouth, and ears, in succession while saying the words quickly. The students followed him and he continued to say the words faster, and then changed up the order. The students loved it when they could not keep up, erupting in laughter. Then, Dao said the words in English and Eric and I tried to follow along, touching our nose, mouth, and ears, but we, like the students, could not keep up when Dao changed the order. We sang some other songs, and although we could not understand the words, we helped out with clapping and learned some of the little dance moves. Even Eric was at the front of a classroom doing a dance, which the kids obviously found hysterical. All of the BBM teachers were naturals at teaching, but Dao in particular was amazing. He not only enjoyed what he was doing, but moved so gracefully while singing and dancing at the front of the class that we were enthralled just watching him.

After the drawing and singing, all of the kids made their way outside for some games. We had no idea what most of the games were, but we enjoyed trying to follow along. With the first game a small group of students became the “losers” of the game. They were gathered in the center of the large circle and had talcum powder puffed on their faces, which the girls were not thrilled about. Most of the girls, even the young ones, tried desperately to remove the powder from the faces. As for the boys, they don’t mind the dirt as much and some still had the powder on their face while walking home after school. Another game involved an equal number of boys and girls, half were the larger girls and half were the smaller girls, and the same for the boys. The smaller kids rode on the back of the larger kids, holding a balloon. The goal was to break or knock the balloon from the opponent’s hand. The last two teams standing won a prize - a new book.

All of the drawing, singing, dancing, and games were the fun that encouraged the kids to think positively about reading books. After the games, and a quick snack, the children squeezed into two of the classrooms. This alone was adorable as many of the younger boys carried their benches over their heads from one room to another. Dao and Lin, along with some of the other teachers, read stories to each of the classrooms, complete with sound effects and balloons. Eric and I stayed most of the time in the younger kids’ classroom, and they were enthralled with the story - laughing and carrying on throughout. After two stories, a long table was set up at the front each classroom, with age appropriate books. The BBM teachers explained what each book was about so that the children could orderly chose a book to keep. The books were in both Lao and Lao/English. Some were simple alphabet books that had a cartoon or clip art with the associated word in Lao and English. These became great tools for Eric and I while were practicing English with very new speakers at BBM. Some of them were more detailed with local Lao fables and traditional stories. Some were even more in depth, including novels for the older kids. Groups of students were selected to take a book from the table, and three new pieces of paper to practice writing. I thought there would be a stampede for the books in the younger kids’ room, and although there was some pushing and shoving, it was fairly orderly. I gave out the paper to each of the kids, and each one said thank you, placing their hands in a prayer form and bowing to me. It was hard for me to keep up with them, handing them the paper, bowing my head and hands in response, and then quickly getting the next three sheets of paper together. As the kids were finished, they all gathered outside. Some of them sat alone just looking through their book, some compared their book with what their friends selected, and some groups read them together. I tried walking around to look over their shoulders, and if someone had a Lao/English book I started to read some of the English language to them. But, I think there was too much excitement for them to really follow along. I was able to go through a few pages of the alphabet book with some of the boys who repeated the words back.

After each kid received a book and paper, they lined up again to say goodbye and thank you, and with a quick, large group photo, the school day was over. We had spent about three hours at the school, and although we were more passive than the BBM teachers, we were still hot and exhausted. The BBM gang drove back to the village for the evening in the van, but Eric and I opted to walk back to town on our own, with the children walking back. We spoke to them some more in English and what Lao we knew. Even that night in town, children were saying hello to us, and I think it was because they recognized us from the school.

Before leaving the school, the principal thanked us, but we tried to get across through translation that we wanted to thank him for the opportunity to look in on his school for an afternoon. It was a humbling experience. We had been to a small village school last time we were in Laos, but this provided us more of an understanding of what it is like for these students. Some did not have shoes on, and most had stained and dirty clothing. I know it costs a lot to purchase clothes for school, and to provide books, paper, and pencils for the students to make their way successfully through school. But seeing how excited so many students were about learning and reading, despite their adversity makes someone contemplate their own goals and objectives.

It is not the destination but the journey that is important - Take 2

There were three ways to return from NK to Luang Prabang in the morning. Our first choice was to take a boat down river, which would take about seven hours, but was supposed to be a beautiful ride. The problem was cost. The boat sat ten people and cost close to $150. If we were the only two on the boat, we paid the $150. If we could get eight or ten people, it would reduce the cost. By Monday night there were no other passengers signed up for the boat. We tried talking to some other Falang to get a group together, but no one was willing to commit. The other option was the tourist shuttle, which was a little over $10 per person. We were told that the tourist shuttle was like a van, and if you sat in a good seat, it was fine. If you were stuck in the back, there was no leg room and it was very uncomfortable. The third option was the public bus, which had no a/c, but the windows stayed open. It stopped along the way to drop off and pick up passengers, and could get pretty crowded. But it was cheap, and we were told the seats were fairly comfortable.

In the morning, we left the guest house to see if the ticket “office” was open. Next to the ticket office was a woman selling noodle soup for breakfast. Our gang from Big Brother was there for breakfast before heading to the next village on their itinerary. We stopped for some spicy pork soup, and it was great because we were able to say good bye to the gang once again. After breakfast the office opened. It was a man inside a small wooden shack selling tickets for all of the buses through the day. It was a little before 8am and the next public bus was leaving at 8:30, and cost only 35,000 kip, around $4. So, we bought our tickets, packed up our little bags, checked out, and made it back well before 8:30. Then, we saw the “bus.” Our bus heading to Luang Prabang was actually a sawngthaew, meaning “two rows.” It was a converted pickup truck with two rows of benches, one down either side. There was a roof and some bars to hold onto down the side, and it was all open aired. Well, we wanted to try the locals bus, and this was it. The side of the truck said it could hold 20 passengers, and we put that total to the test. We could fit about seven people on each bench facing each other, and in the front was the driver and two passengers, one of whom was the ticket taker. Then, three squat wooden stools were placed in the middle of the truck for additional passengers. As we stopped to pick people up and drop people off, mostly Lao and Hmong villagers, they would play musical chairs on the three chairs in the middle, and would hang off the back of the truck. We had mothers, grandmothers, babies in slings, small children, and even chickens (dead though). We think one passenger exchanged a dead rooster for the cost of the ride. The ticket taker went to the back when they tried to board with a rooster with its feathers and a chicken with no feathers. The ticket taker inspected the rooster, looking under the feathers and everything. Not sure where the rooster went, but the passenger boarded with only a chicken and no rooster. It was all a great ride, a bit bumpy, and often dusty, but after 3 hours and a lot of stops along the way, we arrived safe and sound back in Luang Prabang. Traveling like the locals do. The entire trip to NK, and all of our work at BBM made the entire two week trip to Laos well worth it. It was an experience I will never forget, and I think will ensure that we will return once again to Luang Prabang.

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Photos

Eric and the BBM Students
Eric and his regular, Thai Thor, who is standing on the left, on a step, and is still shorther than Eric by a head.

Eric, Amber, and Sasha
As we say goodbye on our last day.

Balloon Game
Eric rocked it. He also towered over the crowd.

At the school
They called together all of the kids to greet us, These were the oldest.

Hygeine
This was one of two posters teaching the dangers of improper hygeine.

Drawing
This was me trying to draw with the students. How do you say "I stink at drawing" in Lao?

Distraction
Eric was distracting the boys from their singing.

Dangers
This was a poster showing the different kinds of unexploded ordinance in Laos, and where it could be located.

A Total Ham
I have several pictures of this boy with his face covered in powder.

All is Quiet
During snack time.

Moving Furniture
All of the students crowded into two rooms to receive their books. These kids were helping move the class room furniture.

Story Time.
Lin, aka Stve, reading a story.

Someone is enjoying themselves
during story time.

New Books
The students were so excited to pick out their new book.

Handing out paper
Clean paper is a rareity

The School Group
All the students are holding up their new books!

Teachers
One of the BBM teachers, the school's teachers, and principals, and Eric, and I.

Comments

[Mary]

Beautiful
Sums up this entry. Those kids are precious and I am so envious of the experience, thanks so much for sharing. Really puts so much of the current crisis in perspective. Miss you lots..but love reading all the updates.

[Cathy]

You guys rock
Really enjoyed reading this latest entry. We are really happy for you and it sounds like such a rewarding experience!