Quick Update

Hey all,

So this weekend I'm in Dakar for Easter, which is why I can post stuff on my blog again.  Basically my internship and family life in the village have continued to go really well.  I really love living in Sessene, because I really feel like the village adopted me.  My family threw me a naming party and a whole bunch of people came (some of whose names I don't remember...but I'm slowly learning more)  My three sisters all have little babies less than six months old, which is a lot of fun.  It means a lot of work for them, so I try to help as much as I can, which usually means as much as they will let me.  

I'm working with a NGO that does consulting and promotion of organic ag.  So far I've mostly been visiting fields and working some in my organization's training example field.  I also went to a national organic ag market/festival thing in Theis.  

Thinking of everyone at home, even if you don't hear from me!

Love,

Mel

23/03/09

Hey again,

Today, Wednesday March 23rd, is my third day at my internship site.   Our whole MSID group left Dakar Monday morning to drop everyone off at their internship sites.  We took the southern road first, and since I was the closest one to Dakar, I got dropped off first.  While I was glad to not have to ride around in a bus for two days, it was a little disappointing not to be able to see more of Senegal, and see where everyone else will be living.  Danielle was right after me, since Fatik is only about an hour or so past my village of Sessene.

Sessene is right along the southern national highway, a little less than 2 hours southeast of Dakar.  When I arrived at my family’s house, it was pretty similar to the houses I saw in Toubacouta.  The “house” is actually more like a collection of one room houses with a open courtyard in the middle, surrounded by a reed fence.  My room is actually my own little hut, with a bed and a table.  There is also a kitchen hut, what seems to function like a living room, the girl’s room, and two others (I’m not sure exactly who sleeps there yet).  So far, I’ve spent most of my time in the living room, the girl’s room, and outside sitting under the big tree in one corner of the courtyard.  

As far as I can tell so far, the family is composed of four adult sisters, one brother, my parents, and a bunch of  kids.  All of my sisters have small babies.  I asked how old the two smallest are (5 and 8 weeks), and one of the older ones is 5 months I think.  He’s just started to eat a little solid food, but he doesn’t have any teeth, which makes his attempts to eat solid food pretty funny.  So far, I’ve mostly talked with my sister Rama, because she speaks French.  I was very relieved when I met her, and learned she speaks French.  Although she’s the only one of my sisters who speaks French, it makes life, and learning Wolof much easier.  She learned French in Dakar where she worked as a maid, until she got pregnant and came back to her parents house.  She said that a lot of employers won’t hire (or keep) a maid if she gets pregnant, because they know it’s nearly impossible to work full time with a newborn.  Her husband is still in Dakar, but he calls her periodically.  I haven’t asked yet, but I think my other sisters’ husbands must be in Dakar or Thies too, because I haven’t seen any adult males except my dad and one brother.  My brother, Cheikh, also speaks French, but I haven’t really seen him since the first day.  I met him and a bunch of other guys, who are family friends I think, but they seemed to disappear after I met them.  

Here the men and women live in almost completely separate circles, with the women staying in the house, and the men spending most of their time out.  They come back to the house to eat, sleep, and drink attaya, and even at meal times the guys eat around a different bowl than the women.  Actually I think that it’s probably easier for me this way, because the few times I’ve gone out with Rama to visit people, about every other male I meet asks if I’m married.  Depending on my reponse (I alternate between the truth, and joking that I have four husbands) I usually get an offer of marriage, or a request for me to find them an American woman to marry.  Yesterday, after he got over laughing, this one guy actually said he would be my fifth husband.  The Senegalese love to joke, but I think there is a little bit of truth in all the marriage offers I get, because most of the Senegalese men think that because I’m white, I must be rich, so they figure they might as well offer to marry me and see what happens.     

In general, I’ve been told that the village is pretty empty right now.  Since it’s the dry season, a lot of the young, working age people are in the cities.  I think it’s very likely that I have more brothers and sisters that are in Dakar, because I don’t think it’s coincidence that all four of my sisters who are here have small children.  Since there are a bunch of little kids, there is plenty of work to do around the house.  As far as I can tell, none of the women in my family work outside the house, probably partially because there isn’t really anything else to do, but they’ve let me help some.  On my first day I helped with the laundry.  They seem to do some wash each day instead of my family in Dakar who has one laundry day where they do it all.  I think that might be because they don’t have as many clothes, especially for the small kids who grow out of clothes fast, so the clothes they do have need laundering more often.  Yesterday, my mom also let me try to make cous-cous.  They make it from millet flour, sometimes with some corn flour too, basically by adding water to the flour so it clumps up, and then mixing it until the clumps break up.  It took me a really long time, and my cous-cous still had some balls that were too big, which my mom quickly fixed after I was done mixing.  I don’t think it was too bad for my first try, but I’ll have to practice a lot to be able to make it anywhere near as efficiently as my mom.  Also they told me that Saturday they will teach me to make a Senegalese meal, and I chose to learn to make yassa, since it’s my favorite one.  

Monday night was also my first time working at my internship.  I met my supervisor Mr. Pane, who is the director of the organization I work for, Agrecol Afrique.  He explained to me the basics of the organization, what they do, main problems, goals, and such.  The organization is headquartered in Thies.  They work in organic agriculture, advising organic producers and educating people about the benefits of farming organically.  Agrecol Afrique also helps the producers with marketing, and in Thies there is an all organic market once a week (I think).  The staff of the Sessene office of Agrecol Afrique is Mr. Pane, Mme Faye who works with the women’s cooperative, and Mr. Dia who is the agronomist and works with the producers.  It’s interesting to me that they call the farmers, “les payasans” in French, which literally means peasants.  That word doesn’t seem to have the same negative connotation in French, otherwise everyone in my organization is very unpolitically correct.  

Yesterday I started work around 8:30 am, when Mr. Pane and I went to the office of Agrecol Afrique.  They have a pretty nice modern office, with computers but no internet.  He was working at the computer, but he didn’t give me anything to do, so I found and started to read some of the Agrecol Afrique newsletters.  I haven’t gotten too far since it’s in French, and my head hurts if I try to read French for too long.  However, it was useful reading to help me think of what I want to learn, or my “academic goals” as MSID puts it.  Mr. Pane said that previous interns have basically just participated in all of the Agrecol Afrique activities, but I can also do some sort of independent project if there is something specific I want to do.  The second week of April there is a organic ag conference and market in Thies, and Mr. Pane said I can go to it with them. 

Around noon, I went home and hung out with my sisters and the kids until lunchtime (probably about 2 I think).  Then around three, Mr. Dia came to get me, and we went to the trial plots of Agrecol Afrique.  They rent some land to have a training field to show people how to farm organically.  They’ve installed a drip irrigation system to grow vegetables during the dry season, which is supplied with water from a nearby well.  He also showed me their nursery plots where they raise the vegetable seedlings to transplant into the field.  They are also testing an alternative planting system that uses a constructed trench of sorts where the drip irrigation line is buried underground.  They put plastic along the edges of the trench, and have some millet, ash (I think) and some sort of manufactured product to retain water.  I’m not sure but I think it’s similar to the water retaining beads that I’ve seen in the US to mix into potting soil.  The trenches are still under construction, so they don’t know yet if they will work.  Also, Mr. Dia said it was the first time they’ve been tested in Senegal, so they really have no idea how effective it will be.  After looking at the projects they have, I helped transplant cabbage seedlings from the nursery into the field along the drip lines.  As we were working, I was surprised by the dark brown color of the soil in the field since most of the soil around here is a light sandy color because it’s almost all sand.  So, I asked Mr. Dia, and he said that during the wet season there is a river that deposits alluvial material there, so they don’t have to fertilize the field at all since it’s so rich with organic matter.  In general, though, I’ve been surprised how many crops can grow in almost pure sand.  

The first day I got here, my grandmother gave me a Senegalese name, so now, like Margretta, I am Fatou.  There are three other Fatous in my family, and it’s a common name, which makes for some confusion.  Rama and I came up with FatouMel for me to differentiate from the other Fatous, but it hasn’t stuck yet, so I think I’ll just have to deal with being one of the many Fatous.  Also, yesterday, my mom told me (with some translation help from Rama) that they are going to have a name giving ceremony and party for me.  In French, the name of the party sounds like baptism, probably because it’s normally thrown for little kids when they’re first named.  I’m pretty excited to see what it will be like, and my sisters and mom have already started talking about what I’m going to wear for the party, and told me I should invite my friends.  I don’t know if they will be able to/ want to come, but I’ll at least tell Danielle since she doesn’t live too far away, and she was my roommate in Dakar.  

Generally, I feel very welcomed by my family, despite the fact that I don’t understand the majority of what people are saying.  I’ve already learned  a bunch of new words, and are starting to understand a little more when people are actually talking to me.  Mostly they just ask me the basic questions and salutations, so I hear a lot of the same stuff which makes it easier.  Yesterday as I was walking to work (it’s a few minutes down the road from my house), I was really happy to hear some people call out and greet me, “Fatou, Fatou.”  It was a nice change from “Toubab, Toubab,” (that’s the word for white person) although I still get that a lot.    

Love,

Mel

Spring Break

Hey everyone,

Spring break was a while ago, but w/o internet access I can't post stuff.  Better a little behind than never!

After our sixth week of classes, our group had a week off for spring break.  Everyone except Zach decided to go to the Casamanse in the south of Senegal.  We took a boat from Dakar to Ziggenshore, which left Friday the 13th at 6 pm.  Boarding for the boat started at 2 pm I think, so we arrived, checked our bags, and went through several ID checks.  Generally, the ticketing and boarding process for the boat was much more western than I expected, somewhat like an airport.  The boat ride takes about 16 hours, so we chose to stay in cabins on the boat instead of the chairs.  There were pretty nice bathrooms and showers (with hot water!) and a restaurant on the boat (way above our budget...).  About half of the people on the boat were Senegalese, and the rest were tourists, mostly French.  While it was a good bit more expensive than taking a taxi, I was really glad we chose to take the boat since it was way more comfortable, and probably safer.  

When we got to Ziggenshore, some members of Brendan’s family met us at the dock, and surprised us with a small bus to take us to their house.  They put all 15 of us up for one night in this house that seemed to be empty.  They told Brendan that some of the family members are in Dakar now, so we speculated that this was their house, which was conveniently empty so they had enough space for us to stay.  Brendan’s family also contacted a friend the next morning who is a chauffeur to drive us to Cap Skirring, and generally, they were very hospitable and helpful while we were in Ziggenshore.

Both Ziggenshore and Cap Skirring are popular tourist spots, especially Cap Skirring.  In Cap Skirring we stayed at this little hotel along the beach.  There were probably at least 25 other hotels and encampements like it.  Unless you’re in the city, the hotels here are usually a collection of little one room houses with some sort of common eating and hang out space.  Some of us stayed in a room with a bathroom and others, including me, opted for the cheaper option of a shared outdoor bathroom and shower.  So, it was kind of a blend between a hotel and being camping.  The best part, though, was that behind the dining room and terrace there was a staircase that went directly to the beach.  

I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the beach at Cap Skirring was.  It wasn’t covered in trash like some of the Dakar beaches, it was nice and wide and fairly flat.  Also the ocean had a nice gentle slope and didn’t get deep to fast.  It was pretty hot, probably in the mid 80s (like late June or July in PA) the week we were at the beach, so by mid-afternoon the water was nice and warm.  

Even though the beach was really nice, I only spend the whole day there once.  One other day, we (usually Danielle and I) ventured into Cap Skirring to look around the market, and we ended up getting invited to eat lunch with this Gambian guy and his family.  He just arrived in Senegal, so he was happy to find someone who spoke English, since he didn’t speak French at all yet.  After lunch we went back to the market.  It was an artisans market, and very much aimed at the tourists.  There was a lot of cool woodwork, jewelry, bags, and textiles there, but even just walking around everyone tries to get you to come into their shop.  Some vendors are ok, but others, if you go in, they give you a hard time about leaving without buying anything.  After an hour or so, I got really tired of being harassed.  I did end up buying some stuff, which I was happy with.  Unfortunately, I found out later that I grossly overpaid for it, which made me mad.  The vendors inflate the prices in Cap Skirring even more than Dakar, and even though I bargained for things they take a lot longer to go down.  Basically, I think they know that there are other tourists who will come along and, like me, overpay the first time, so why would they sell it to you for the real price.  I wanted to go back to the market in Cap Skirring and chew out the lady who ripped me off, but we didn’t have enough time, and actually when I woke up the next morning I wasn’t so mad about it.  I know it was mostly my fault that I paid too much, but it still irritated me that the vendors take advantage of tourists so much by starting the negotiation at 10x the actual price, instead of the normal 3-5x.

The next day our whole group went on a tour of some island around Cap Skirring.  The first island was called Ourang, and we walked around the village and toured the school.  I was a little surprised when the teacher stopped the class to talk with us and answer questions, but I guess they’re used to visitors.  The second island was a big fishing community, so we saw a lot of fish.  There was fresh fish at a market like thing near the water, as well as a fish drying operation with wire mesh tables covered in fish drying in the sun.  Also, we watched some guys making wooden fishing boats for a little while.  The third island we visited is known for its old colonial buildings.  There was a fairly big church, as well as some slave holding quarters and a cemetery.  Lastly, we visited what our guide said was “L’Ile de Fatiche.”  Due to the name, we were expecting to hear something substantial about the animism.  When we got there, though, all there was to see was a collection of animal skulls under a tree.  This would have been ok, except our guide said almost nothing to explain the tradition.

Love,

Mel

23/02/09

Hi,

Last Saturday, the day after I went to the markets with Papa, a group of people from MSID, including myself went to an english club meeting at the local university.  It is called L’Univerisite Cheikh Anta Diop, and has 60,000 students in a university that was built for around 15,000 students.  We visited one of the dorm rooms, and it had one bed, and a mattress on the floor, as well as a tiny bathroom with a shower.  The Senegalese students told us that it would have been a single originally, but now there are four people living there.  Seeing how much space they had made the housing shortage at Penn State look very minor. 

The meeting of the english club was actually a debate on the topic of marriage.  After a socializing period, a panel of students presented arguments for and against marriage.  The primary pro-marriage argument was that marriage is a holy institution created by God, and God directs that people get married.  The con-marriage panel was two young women who argued that marriage makes women at best like maids, and if you’re not lucky like slaves.  For them, marriage is viewed as an obstacle to having a career, traveling, and generally being able to make choices about how they would like to spend their lives.  

It was interesting to me that these women viewed avoiding marriage as the means by which they would be able to achieve their goals.  It seemed to be commonly accepted that it is a wife’s responsibility to take care of all of the housework, children, and to a large extent her husband.  No one (except a few of our group who spoke) proposed a modification to the gender roles, but rather it was generally accepted that women have to choose between getting married and being able to direct their own lives and have fulfilling careers.  While there are some married women who work, it seems that it is out of economic necessity, and that the wife staying home with the children is the optimal state.

While there were some people, including a few men, who were “against” marriage, a large majority of the room was “for” marriage.  Several women spoke in favor of marriage, and one one woman in particular stuck out to me, because she said that she was for marriage because God desires that women have children, and to have children one has to get married first.  I’m not familiar enough with the Koran to know whether it directly instructs people to get married and have children or not, but whether it’s in the Koran or not, marriage as a religious practice is a value commonly and strongly felt by the Senegalese.  Even amongst the young, well educated Senegalese we we talking with, religion seemed to be the most common motivator for marriage, along with the general opinion that one cannot be happy without being married.  

In addition to the feminist stance, one other main opinion against marriage seemed to be that too many women are materialistic, and get married for economic reasons, so some of the men there didn’t want to get married and then have their wife leave them for a richer man.  This was rebutted, or generalized somewhat by the argument that there are many motivations for marriage, other than love, for both men and women, and these often create problems.  Some people felt that if a couple married for love that the husband wouldn’t want to mistreat or overwork his wife, so this wouldn’t be a problem.  In general, many people felt that too many people get married for reasons other than love, and this was not good for the future success of the couple.

For me, this debate was very interesting, since I think a debate on marriage in the US would have gone very differently.  The women around me were asking we which side I was on, and I said I was for marriage, but I disagreed with much of what was being said on “my” side.  While I don’t consider myself a feminist, many of the arguments were obviously sexist, and it irritated me that they were so widely accepted, even by the females. Gender roles are very different here in Senegal, and I’m not here to crusade for feminism, but I was surprised to hear such a majority of university students express these opinions.  From the arguments presented I would probably should have said I was against marriage, because really I’m “for” marriage but not for any of the reasons they presented.

While I was interested in the content of the debate, it was mainly set up in this format to give the students a chance to practice English.  There were probably over a hundred people there, and I was impressed to see such high participation in a club meeting on a Saturday afternoon.  I think the Senegalese have much more incentive to study English than US students have to study any language, and that is why so many students come to practice, and so many have achieved such a high proficiency.  Everyone who spoke was understandable, and many students were very good with only a few mistakes, and this debate was only for the freshman and sophomores, so these were not the upper level English students.

After the debate we toured the university some (this is when we went into a dorm), and talked with some of the students more.  Apparently the English club hold a forum like this every other Saturday, so I hope to go back since it was an interesting insight into Senegalese culture, as well as a chance to meet more Senegalese students.  

Love,

Mel

21/02/09

Greetings all,

Yesterday, I went with Papa downtown for the first time (finally!) to a market and several other places.  We took the public bus which goes right by our house since our quartier (neighborhood) is close to a big road.  As far as I can tell so far it’s a fixed price to take the bus anywhere (150 CFA, which is 30 cents), and it doesn’t even matter which bus you take since all of them go downtown, as long as you get on going the right direction.  When we got off the bus the first place we went was the headquarters for the Catholic charity ministries and schools in Dakar.  Papa had a meeting there since he volunteers for the Catholic Church and the sisters there.  I also learned that this is where he used to work as an accountant.  He is a well known there since he worked there for over 30 years, and it was fun going around meeting everyone.  Also, as we were leaving this man offered to take us up on the roof so I could see Dakar.  It was a gorgeous view since the building is really tall, and looks right onto La Place D'Indépendance.  I was impressed by how large Dakar is, and how much of the city is surrounded by water.  

After seeing where Papa worked we went to not one, but two markets in downtown Dakar.  The Marché Kermel is in this open sided round building, kind of like a really big pavilion.  It was mostly fish and vegetables, with some stalls selling touristy stuff outside.  I didn’t buy anything at Kermel, because I didn’t really see anything that I wanted.  When we got the Marché Sandaga, Kermel seemed really small by comparison.  The Marché Sandaga isn’t all under the same roof, but rather it spans several square blocks where there are small boutiques along both sides of the streets.  And, in between some shops there are little passageways leading to more rows of shops behind those right on the street.  

We walked through a large area with food, and it seemed like we passed at least a hundred stall selling onions.  I don’t know how anyone decides which stand to buy from, except maybe one day you just pick one and anyways go back there.  It was much the same thing with all of the other items for sale, in that there was an entire streets of shops selling cloth purses, leather jewelry, and tourist magnets.  I saw all kinds of food, electronics, make-up, perfume, hair supplies, pre-made clothes, belts, purses, shoes, hardware supplies, fabric, and even tailors right there in the market who would sew clothes for you.  

The Marché Sandaga was overwhelmingly large, and I had no idea where to start.  It would be very easy to get lost there, and I have no idea how people keep track of where to buy things.  Merchandise seemed to be grouped somewhat by type, but not entirely.  All of the vendors are trying to get you to come into their shop, and if you stop to look at anything, even just for a second, the vendor starts trying to sell you anything and everything they have.  Since it was my first time to the market I decided it was easier just to keep walking and not stop anywhere, so I didn’t buy anything at Sandaga either.  Sometime I want to go back to Sandaga to get some things, but I know enough to have a specific list, or I’ll spend all day there and still not get what I need.

Love,

Mel

19/02/09

Hi,

Last Tuesday (Feb 17), I went with my environment class to La Parc Nationale des Iles de la Madeleine.  It is a national park with two islands (clarification for the non French speakers), but one is really small, and basically just a big rock.  These islands are off the coast of Dakar, and preserved as a national park to conserve local animal and plant species.  There are a lot of migratory birds that use the island, and also native species that reproduce there.  We saw several different species of birds, and the bird colonies were quite large.  We were able to get quite close to some birds because this is their nesting period, and the females won’t leave the nest.  They build their nests in the crevices of rocks, and if the guide hadn’t shown us, I would have walked right by the nesting birds. 

 

We also saw several different plant species, and although the island isn’t large there were two main ecosystem types.  The baobab trees on this island were much shorter, and the roots were exposed and growing up out of the ground.  Our guide said this was an adaptation because of the wind, and high salinity of the soil, which makes sense, but I was surprised that baobabs could look so different.  Also, we saw some succulent plants that kind of looked like cacti, but I don’t remember what they’re called.  I’ve learned that remembering foreign names is a lot harder because you have to learn how to pronounce the name in addition to remembering whose has that name.  Whether it’s places, plants or people, names are definitely a challenge here.

I had a good time at Les Iles de la Madeleine, and it was nice to spend some time outside.  I got a little sunburnt since I forgot to reapply sunscreen, but it’s already fading to tan.  I would consider going back to this park, since there is a nice place to swim, but it’s expensive to get in, which is probably why we only saw toubabs there.  

Love,

Mel

17/02/09

Hi all,

Last Saturday, Danielle and I took on the challenge of preparing American food for our family.  We wanted to give the women of our family a day off, so we made both lunch and dinner.  For lunchtime, we decided to to a brunch since the Senegalese don’t really eat breakfast food much, a typical breakfast is bread with butter and jam, or chocolate spread (healthy, right...).  So, we made a fruit salad, omelets, and french toast.  For dinner we made spaghetti with chicken strips, homemade sauce, and a salad.  

In order to buy food, first we went to the Marché Tilene with our host sister Kanjo (nickname for Therese, fyi).  It wasn’t exactly open air, but in a big warehouse like building.  Everything from carrots, cucumbers, onions, garlic, and parsley to all types of fish, beef, and shrimp are sitting out on wooden stands.  There were also many different types of grains, beans, and spices that you could measure out in any quantity.  Also, we bought fruit for our fruit salad outside in a row of fruit vendors.  We got grapes, oranges, apples, and bananas.  

All of our purchases included some haggling over price (especially the fruit), but I got the impression that people don’t haggle over food as much as other stuff.  Since food is something that is a regular purchase, the price seems to be more set, although my sister Kanjo told me that prices of certain vegetables and fruits do go up during the winter when they’re not in season.   

After going to the Marché Tilene, the supermarket (which is called Casino), and this little corner boutique in our neighborhood, we finally had all the ingredients we needed.  The cooking itself went pretty well.  Although our family has a stove, only one burner works, so we used that one in addition to a separate gas tank and burner.  For lunch Danielle was in charge of the omelettes, and I made the french toast (which we had to explain was not actually French).  I think my french toast came out well, although the only bread I could find was thinner than ideal.  Sliced sandwich bread like in the States is pretty rare here because everyone eats bagettes, so the only sliced loaf bread we found was sliced thinly.  

The act of Danielle and I cooking was very interesting to the women in our family.  We wanted to give them a day off, but everyone stayed home to watch us cook, which kind of defeated the point, but that was their choice.  Kanjo, Virginie, Anne Marie, and even Mama to some extent gathered around the door to the kitchen to watch how we were making things, which turned out to be helpful when we needed a pot or couldn’t get the stove to light.  At one point a neighbor came over to get something, and when she saw we were cooking she decided to come back when it was done to try the American food we were making.  And, sure enough as we were cleaning up brunch she was back to try some of the leftovers.  It was quite the spectacle, complete with pictures and everything (on Danielle’s camera, so I can’t put any up...).  

By the time we got to dinner, our family had adjusted to the idea of us cooking some more, so they relaxed some and left us alone more.  For dinner, I was in charge of the chicken, since Danielle didn’t want to tackle cutting the meat off the bird since it still had feet and a head.  After I sawed off the feet and head it looked much more normal and wasn’t too hard from there.  While I was cutting up the chicken, Danielle made sauce for the spaghetti and a vinaigrette salad dressing.  Then we just washed veggies and lettuce for the salad and boiled some pasta, and voila, an American-Italian meal (which was fitting since both Danielle and I are part Italian).    

In general, our family seemed really happy that we cooked for them, and they told us that we were the first foreign students they’ve had who tried to cook anything.  I don’t understand this because MSID told us that we should try at least one meal, but I guess a lot of students don’t listen to these instructions.  All in all, although we spent the whole day shopping, cooking or sleeping, I was satisfied with our work.  Making food for 10 people every day is a lot of work, and I admire the time and energy the women in our house put into food preparation.  Excepting one incident where we tried to cook over a plastic pot, which was silver and looked metal, I think Danielle and I proved ourselves fairly competent in the kitchen, which is good since next year I’ll actually be responsible for cooking for myself on a regular basis.  And, in case you were wondering nothing really bad happened to the pot.  It turned a little black on the bottom, but Cathy saved it before it melted, and aside from a little excitement and embarrassment all ended well.  

Love,

Mel