It was a sad Friday. My three Rice compatriots left me and, although I got three more, this change over marks the last days of my own stay down in Guatemala. It feels a little bit like passing the toarch: teaching my songs and plays, showing where the best clubs are, reminiscing about clinical work. It will be hard to leave. But, at the same time, I think it´s about time. The rains are here, the natural rainy season augmented by huge storms that are hitting Guatemala from Mexico or Hondorous, and I left my umbrella on a chicken-bus comming back from Pana. That´s a sign if anything is.
This weekend I spent at Lake Atitlán again. We got luckly with the weather and even had two mornings of sun. We were in Pana(hachel) for one day, but didn´t spend much time there. Instead, we walked up part of the highway to Sololá (and when I say walked up, I do mean up) and took a turn off to get to Reserve Atitlán, a nature reserve boasting spider monkies and large racoon-like things whose name I can´t remember. It was an absolutely gorgeous hike, offering great views of the lake and Guatemala´s nature. It´s hard to remember, living in the Highlands, that Guatemala encompasses all climate zones, so this was a tropical reminder. Every now and then we would come to a clearing where we could see the lake and, right in front of the lake, we would see these two green monsters- highrise hotels echoing a Cancun sort of culture and causing an eyesore for everyone involved. It was heart-wrenching and, at the same time, assuring that these were the only two and that, for the most part, Atitlán has escaped the sort of mass-market developement that other parts of Latin America have seen. Which is not to say it has escaped developement, quite the contrary, but it seems to have done it in more it´s own way than other places, something that´s especially evident in San Pedro, but I´ll get to that.
After our hike we visited the museum/workplace/living area of Pana artist Raul Vasquéz. He gave us the tour himself, explained the significnce of certian works and generally tried to seduce us. His works, for the most part, seem to mimic the style of Picasso´s Guernica figures, although not quite so traumatic. However, some pieces that draw inspiration form Mayan folk-lore really shine.
After the museum we took a boat across the lake, whcih is about 9 miles by 2 miles, to San Pedro, the much talked about hippie capital of Guatemala. San Pedro is devided into two sections, below the hill and above the hill. Below it´s a city-girl´s dreams: restaurants, bars, clubs, internet café´s, bodegas, kyack and horse rental places, hostels and hotels. It seems that the majority of these places are owned by European or American ex-pats. Above the hill it´s a completely different story. There´s a good sized town with a bustling market, normal shops, not a club in sight, and hardly any foreigners. I get the sense that the vast majroity of people who stop in San Pedro never even climb the hill, and that the vast majority of people who live in San Pedro only descend when they have to take a boat to another town. It´s shocking and strange to see this divide, when in the entire rest of Guatemala that I´ve vistied the tourists and the locals have been completely integrated. While each half of San Pedro has it´s own charms, I have to say I´m more a fan of the upper part. Lower San Pedro feels too much like The Villiage for people on a budget. And, what´s more, barely anyone in Upper San Pedro speaks Spanish, they all speak a Mayan language whose name I´ve forgotton (there are 22 in Guatemala, so it´s a bit hard to keep them straight). The sounds are so different and beautiful that it makes just standing in the market a pleasure.
Still, lower San Pedro attracts a lot of very interesting and interested people, and that´s one of its best qualities. Saturday night, after arriving in our hotel and setteling in, we herd some beautiful gutiar music through the paper-thin walls. We ended up having a sing-a-long of old time music with an Jeffory, a 60-something music/Spanish teacher who had fallen in love with the lake 14 years ago during, and despite, the civil war. The music, the oppinions and the stories were political in nature, and really make you think about the subtle histories that you don´t learn in school. They´re a call to action that everyone should hear at least once and, hopefully, constantly.
That´s another thing I really love about travel in developing world countries: the people you meet are united by a common theme or awareness. Most all the travelers I´ve encountered here have been leading medical missions, trying to bring a voice to often over looked Mayan peoples or actively trying to expand their own understandings of the world and the people of the world. Because we are united by these themes, age need not act as teh uniter (or divider) that it often does. It doesn´t matter whether you´re eighteen or sixty-eight, you can get along, share stories, and form wonderful friendships. It´s something we should learn how to do in the States, both parties would learn a lot.
In the morning we kyaked across the lake to a small beach where we swam, took in the sun and relaxed. We kyaked back across, explored some more of San Pedro, and began our boat-bus-bus-bus journy back to Xela.
And so begins my last few days in Xela and Guatemala. In the mornings I´ll work in the clinic and try toi help with the transition of Rice students. In teh afternoons, because I don´t have classes this week, I´ll most likely try to explore parts of Xela that I missed or head to a neighboring town or two to see what´s going on there. Wednesday afternoon I´ll head over to Antigua, a beautiful and built up city, to spend the afternoon and night before flying out of the capital on Thursday.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Song and Play Book
As some of you know, it´s been hypothesized and highly correlated that kids learn best when they´re having fun or when they´re not aware that they´re learning. I´m a huge supporter of this oppinion, given my own experiences learning and teaching, and so my educational efforts in Guatemala so far have made heavy use of play (obras de teatro) and song (cancion) . I´d like to share the songs and the plays with anyone who feels that they would be helpful in their own educational efforts, so feel free to ´borrow´them.
We´ve tried to use common, well known tunes, so that the songs will stick in the kids´ heads and unconciously or conciously make their way into the kids´ daily habbits. For this reason, we´ve also got hand motions, but of course, that´s a little harder to demonstrate over the Internt. Keep in mind that these songs were geared to kids from age 1 to 7, so they´re a bit simple:
Al ritmo de ´Ring Around the Rosie,´ jugando el juego
Sepiar el pelo largo/
Desde los raises/
Piojos, Piojos!/
Todo el mundeo caye
To the tune of ´Ring Around the Rosie,´ while playing the game
Brush long hair/
Starting at the roots/
Lice, Lice!
We all fall down
Al Ritmo de ´Ten Little Inidans´
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes (X3)
Trez veces cada día
To the tune of ´Ten Little Indians´
Brush, brush, brush your teeth (X3)
Three times each day
Al Ritmo de ´Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star´
¿Por qué sepiamos los dientes bastante?/
Porque necesitamos evitar las carrias/
Comida puede ocultar allá/
Y hace nuestros bocas sucias/
¿Por qué sepiamos los dientes bastante?/
Porque necesitamos evitar las carrias!
To the tune of ´Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star´
Why do we brush our teeth so much?/
Because we need to avoid cavities/
Food can hide there/
And make our mouthes dirty/
Why do we brush our teeth so much?/
Because we need to avoid cavities!
Al Ritmo de ´Row, Row, Row Your Booat
Lavar, lavar, lavar los manos antes de comer/
Limpia, limpia, limpia, limpia, no nos vamos a enfermar!
To the tune of ´Row, Row, Row Your Boat´
Wash, Wash, Wash your hands before you eat/
Clean, clean, clean, clean, we´re not going to get sick!
Al ritmo de ´Frére Jacque´
Lavare el cuerpo, lavar el cuerpo, cada día, cada día/
Es muy importante, por ser felíz/
Lavar el cuerpo, lavar el cuerpo!
To the tune of ´Frére Jacque´
Wash your body, wash your body, every day, every day/
It´s very important, to be happy/
Wash your body, wash your body!
Al ritmo de ´Cumpleaños felíz´ (Courtesy de Brandon Hayas)
Limpiar el o-ido/
Con tu propio dedito/
Una vez cada semana/
No usen algodón.
Al ritmo de ´Happy Birthday to You´ (Courtesy of Brandon Hayas)
Clean your ear/
with your own pinkey/
One time a weel/
Don´t use a Q-Tip.
We´ve tried to use common, well known tunes, so that the songs will stick in the kids´ heads and unconciously or conciously make their way into the kids´ daily habbits. For this reason, we´ve also got hand motions, but of course, that´s a little harder to demonstrate over the Internt. Keep in mind that these songs were geared to kids from age 1 to 7, so they´re a bit simple:
Al ritmo de ´Ring Around the Rosie,´ jugando el juego
Sepiar el pelo largo/
Desde los raises/
Piojos, Piojos!/
Todo el mundeo caye
To the tune of ´Ring Around the Rosie,´ while playing the game
Brush long hair/
Starting at the roots/
Lice, Lice!
We all fall down
Al Ritmo de ´Ten Little Inidans´
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes (X3)
Trez veces cada día
To the tune of ´Ten Little Indians´
Brush, brush, brush your teeth (X3)
Three times each day
Al Ritmo de ´Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star´
¿Por qué sepiamos los dientes bastante?/
Porque necesitamos evitar las carrias/
Comida puede ocultar allá/
Y hace nuestros bocas sucias/
¿Por qué sepiamos los dientes bastante?/
Porque necesitamos evitar las carrias!
To the tune of ´Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star´
Why do we brush our teeth so much?/
Because we need to avoid cavities/
Food can hide there/
And make our mouthes dirty/
Why do we brush our teeth so much?/
Because we need to avoid cavities!
Al Ritmo de ´Row, Row, Row Your Booat
Lavar, lavar, lavar los manos antes de comer/
Limpia, limpia, limpia, limpia, no nos vamos a enfermar!
To the tune of ´Row, Row, Row Your Boat´
Wash, Wash, Wash your hands before you eat/
Clean, clean, clean, clean, we´re not going to get sick!
Al ritmo de ´Frére Jacque´
Lavare el cuerpo, lavar el cuerpo, cada día, cada día/
Es muy importante, por ser felíz/
Lavar el cuerpo, lavar el cuerpo!
To the tune of ´Frére Jacque´
Wash your body, wash your body, every day, every day/
It´s very important, to be happy/
Wash your body, wash your body!
Al ritmo de ´Cumpleaños felíz´ (Courtesy de Brandon Hayas)
Limpiar el o-ido/
Con tu propio dedito/
Una vez cada semana/
No usen algodón.
Al ritmo de ´Happy Birthday to You´ (Courtesy of Brandon Hayas)
Clean your ear/
with your own pinkey/
One time a weel/
Don´t use a Q-Tip.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
I´ll get better with this whole blog thing, I promise. But, in the meantime...
Spanish classes have been going well. Went from the Imperitive (comands) to the Subjunctive (indicitive of doubt, a case we don´t have in English) and have actually been using them, sometimes at least. As always, should be studying more, but there are just some many more interesting things to do here.
Started a week of salsa classes and have never gotten so many side cramps in all my life. I think that dance was invented to remind you to eat more potassium and drink more water. Couple it with the heat at a club, and I can make it through maybe two songs without having to take a break. But that doesn´t stop me from trying.
As for work: I´ve gotten really good at taking medical histories in Spanish. Some of the questions we ask are really interesting from an outsiders´ point of view. For example, we ask religious affiliation, which I thought was a bit odd, but which the doctora explained to me was necesary for certian questions that she may later ask. Surprisingly, a large part of Guatemala is Evangelicial, I has assumed the vast majority would be Catholic.
It´s amazing the things you learn from thtse medical histories. Most of the women I´ve talked with who are over forty have had somewhere in the range of 8 to 12 births and sometimes over 16 pregnancies. The average woman, regardless of age, has never had a pap smear and uses no method of birth control, regardles of whether she´s married or single. And, my teachers have told me, machismo prevents men from using condoms, despite them being available at every pharmacy, and a pharmacy being located every two blocks (think Starbucks in New York City). What I think really needs to happen are family planning clinics and sexual health education to kids, starting young. Of course, to do this would be to face a huge taboo, and who knows how you would get the majority of schools (many with some connection to the church) to authorize this. So it turns into a cycle: girls get pregnant very young and, to save their honor, must get married. Sometimes their quincineras and weddings are only weeks apart. They are then regalated, for the most part, to the role of wife and mother and their husband must earn a living. Both are denied the higher education that would really help them make decent livings, so they are stuck at the bottom rungs of society. And the problem is worse in the often rural Mayan communities, which are already the poorest communities and are often discriminated against. Of course, this is not always the case, but it happens far too much for comfort. Throw in the higher rates of spousal beating that are often caused by young, haphazard marriages, and anything over a small ammount of ten births seems like too much.
I´m working at a free clinic that, when it has it, gives away medicines to its patients. It seems to me that the majority of peopel we see are indiginous, as opposed to Ladino, but there is a mix. The most common reasons for comming in seem to be throat infections and bactirial/parasite stomach things. Of course, I´ve seen everything from STI´s to musle problems, but those are less common.
We´ve also continued our work with the middle school, and expanded this work to include a day care center with kids from babies to 7 years of age. We´ve now talked to all the kids in the middle school about brushing their teeth and keeping themselves clean and healthy over all. We still go back to play with them, though, as we´ve become really attached to the kids; it´ll be hard to leave them. At the day care we did some weighing and measuring of the kids to make sure they were normal for their age. We´re going to do hygine stuff with them as well but, because they´re much younger, we´re going to approach it a different way: through song! Remembering how much I loved music time as a kid, I wrote up a bunch of songs about health and hygine. Hopefully they´ll be so catchy that the kids will remember them when it comes time to brush their teeth or take a bath. Here´s one for your reading/singing pleasure:
To the tune of ´three little Indians´
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes tres veces cada día
Translation:
Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Brush, brush, brush your teeth three times a day
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun making the songs, and I´ll post a song book of sorts when I have a good ammount. I think this will be an ongoing project.
We´re prepairing to do education on vacines to patients this comming week; last week we did a free blood pressure and blood glucose level clinic. I am proud to say that I am now a master blood glucouse level taker and that, for the most part, our patients were relitively healthy. There was one older woman with off the chart gloucose levels, and it was terribly sad to see her reaction to the news that she was diabetic. The problem here isn´t intent to change lifestyles or stay healthy, it´s money. There´s no way that this woman could afford dialysis or even some of the more costly drugs. So, despite her best efforts, the result of this diagnosis may very well be death, despite technologies that would prevent it. I think a lot of people here are accutely aware of this, so they would just rather not go to a doctor to find out their status on any number of things. Their reasoning being: what will knowlege do other than cause anguish, when there´s no money.
I´ve been able to travel quite a bit with the school, but last week was the first time I traveled with just a friend and no school guide. We hopped a bus to some distant place, changed at a gas station to a pickup truck that mush have held 20 people, 5 baskets of fruit being brought to market and a few chickens. We were headed to San Andres Xecul, a town about an hour away that is famed for a brightly colored, somewhat psychadelic church. The church was OK, although not as crazy as it was made out to be, but the view was what was really worth traveling for. We climbed up the hillside, caught the tail end of a pick up soccer game between local boys, and marvled at how we could see the entierty of the Questzelangelo valley. On the hill we also passed some people separating thread using 50 yard steaks, another very cool sight.
I´ve taken two weekend trips so far. One to the beach town of Monterico, where we did absolutely nothing (and it as wonderful but too hot after having lived in the highland for a month), and one to Panahachel, on Lake Atitlan. Compaired to Atitlan, Monterrico is nothing. The lake is huge and beautiful, and has lots of towns around it that you take a boat to get to. Because of the hurricanes and storms hitting Central America at this time of year, the lake was surrounded with a beautiful fog whcih, on short and maraculous ocassions, let up to reveal sky. The water is warm and inviting, and I saw more than one native to the area bathing in it. The area is a paradise, and I loved it so much that I´m going back this weekend. However, I´ll stay in a different town, Panahachel is too touristy and doesn´t feel real.
We took a trip to a chcolate factory and, hopefully, we´ll be able to get to the beer factrory that we live right next to at some point. The woman working at the chocolate factory, the mother of one fo the teachers at my Spanish school, walked us through the whole chocolate making process and, of course, let us taste, She makes the traditional Mayan chocolate used to make hot chocolate, not to eat. This stuff is so rich that it works fine to make it in just water, as oppose to milk, which works out well because milk is too expensive for anyone here to buy.
Well, I must say that it is sad, but true, that I am no longer a teen. But my 19th year went out with a bang. I started off in the day care center and got spit up on by the most adorable little baby ever. We helped the kids break open two pinatas, and the smiles were inredible. I had clases and ran some erands and then got together with a bunch of friends for a big Indian feast. ¿And who knew there was good Indian food in Xela? It was like a taste of home. Some friends of mine, Inge and Brandon, bought me a delicious cake and, before I could eat it, I was sung happy birthday in a total of 5 languages: English, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Czechk, Dutch and German. It was definately the most multicultural birthday I´ve had. After, we met up with some of the teachers from the Spanish school and danced until the lights at the club came on and the music was turned down. It was a wonderful day, but bittersweet because Inge, a good friend from Holland, headed out to Mexico the next morning. Still, her birthday present to me, sticking around for my birthday, was one of the best I could have asked for (sweet as a shnoopia or papernoten!)
At the end of this week my fellow Rice Humanitarian Medical Outreachers will head out and six new ones will head in. We´ve gotten colse during our time here, despite not knowing eachother before, so It´ll be hard to say goodbye. Still, I have another week left after them, and I´m sure I´ll find something great to do.
Tonight we´re off to a café or, tal vez, a new casino that just opened up. I´ve never been to one, so it should be an interesting and cultural experience.
Hasta pronto mis amores,
Julia
Spanish classes have been going well. Went from the Imperitive (comands) to the Subjunctive (indicitive of doubt, a case we don´t have in English) and have actually been using them, sometimes at least. As always, should be studying more, but there are just some many more interesting things to do here.
Started a week of salsa classes and have never gotten so many side cramps in all my life. I think that dance was invented to remind you to eat more potassium and drink more water. Couple it with the heat at a club, and I can make it through maybe two songs without having to take a break. But that doesn´t stop me from trying.
As for work: I´ve gotten really good at taking medical histories in Spanish. Some of the questions we ask are really interesting from an outsiders´ point of view. For example, we ask religious affiliation, which I thought was a bit odd, but which the doctora explained to me was necesary for certian questions that she may later ask. Surprisingly, a large part of Guatemala is Evangelicial, I has assumed the vast majority would be Catholic.
It´s amazing the things you learn from thtse medical histories. Most of the women I´ve talked with who are over forty have had somewhere in the range of 8 to 12 births and sometimes over 16 pregnancies. The average woman, regardless of age, has never had a pap smear and uses no method of birth control, regardles of whether she´s married or single. And, my teachers have told me, machismo prevents men from using condoms, despite them being available at every pharmacy, and a pharmacy being located every two blocks (think Starbucks in New York City). What I think really needs to happen are family planning clinics and sexual health education to kids, starting young. Of course, to do this would be to face a huge taboo, and who knows how you would get the majority of schools (many with some connection to the church) to authorize this. So it turns into a cycle: girls get pregnant very young and, to save their honor, must get married. Sometimes their quincineras and weddings are only weeks apart. They are then regalated, for the most part, to the role of wife and mother and their husband must earn a living. Both are denied the higher education that would really help them make decent livings, so they are stuck at the bottom rungs of society. And the problem is worse in the often rural Mayan communities, which are already the poorest communities and are often discriminated against. Of course, this is not always the case, but it happens far too much for comfort. Throw in the higher rates of spousal beating that are often caused by young, haphazard marriages, and anything over a small ammount of ten births seems like too much.
I´m working at a free clinic that, when it has it, gives away medicines to its patients. It seems to me that the majority of peopel we see are indiginous, as opposed to Ladino, but there is a mix. The most common reasons for comming in seem to be throat infections and bactirial/parasite stomach things. Of course, I´ve seen everything from STI´s to musle problems, but those are less common.
We´ve also continued our work with the middle school, and expanded this work to include a day care center with kids from babies to 7 years of age. We´ve now talked to all the kids in the middle school about brushing their teeth and keeping themselves clean and healthy over all. We still go back to play with them, though, as we´ve become really attached to the kids; it´ll be hard to leave them. At the day care we did some weighing and measuring of the kids to make sure they were normal for their age. We´re going to do hygine stuff with them as well but, because they´re much younger, we´re going to approach it a different way: through song! Remembering how much I loved music time as a kid, I wrote up a bunch of songs about health and hygine. Hopefully they´ll be so catchy that the kids will remember them when it comes time to brush their teeth or take a bath. Here´s one for your reading/singing pleasure:
To the tune of ´three little Indians´
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes
Sepiar, sepiar, sepiar los dientes tres veces cada día
Translation:
Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Brush, brush, brush your teeth three times a day
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun making the songs, and I´ll post a song book of sorts when I have a good ammount. I think this will be an ongoing project.
We´re prepairing to do education on vacines to patients this comming week; last week we did a free blood pressure and blood glucose level clinic. I am proud to say that I am now a master blood glucouse level taker and that, for the most part, our patients were relitively healthy. There was one older woman with off the chart gloucose levels, and it was terribly sad to see her reaction to the news that she was diabetic. The problem here isn´t intent to change lifestyles or stay healthy, it´s money. There´s no way that this woman could afford dialysis or even some of the more costly drugs. So, despite her best efforts, the result of this diagnosis may very well be death, despite technologies that would prevent it. I think a lot of people here are accutely aware of this, so they would just rather not go to a doctor to find out their status on any number of things. Their reasoning being: what will knowlege do other than cause anguish, when there´s no money.
I´ve been able to travel quite a bit with the school, but last week was the first time I traveled with just a friend and no school guide. We hopped a bus to some distant place, changed at a gas station to a pickup truck that mush have held 20 people, 5 baskets of fruit being brought to market and a few chickens. We were headed to San Andres Xecul, a town about an hour away that is famed for a brightly colored, somewhat psychadelic church. The church was OK, although not as crazy as it was made out to be, but the view was what was really worth traveling for. We climbed up the hillside, caught the tail end of a pick up soccer game between local boys, and marvled at how we could see the entierty of the Questzelangelo valley. On the hill we also passed some people separating thread using 50 yard steaks, another very cool sight.
I´ve taken two weekend trips so far. One to the beach town of Monterico, where we did absolutely nothing (and it as wonderful but too hot after having lived in the highland for a month), and one to Panahachel, on Lake Atitlan. Compaired to Atitlan, Monterrico is nothing. The lake is huge and beautiful, and has lots of towns around it that you take a boat to get to. Because of the hurricanes and storms hitting Central America at this time of year, the lake was surrounded with a beautiful fog whcih, on short and maraculous ocassions, let up to reveal sky. The water is warm and inviting, and I saw more than one native to the area bathing in it. The area is a paradise, and I loved it so much that I´m going back this weekend. However, I´ll stay in a different town, Panahachel is too touristy and doesn´t feel real.
We took a trip to a chcolate factory and, hopefully, we´ll be able to get to the beer factrory that we live right next to at some point. The woman working at the chocolate factory, the mother of one fo the teachers at my Spanish school, walked us through the whole chocolate making process and, of course, let us taste, She makes the traditional Mayan chocolate used to make hot chocolate, not to eat. This stuff is so rich that it works fine to make it in just water, as oppose to milk, which works out well because milk is too expensive for anyone here to buy.
Well, I must say that it is sad, but true, that I am no longer a teen. But my 19th year went out with a bang. I started off in the day care center and got spit up on by the most adorable little baby ever. We helped the kids break open two pinatas, and the smiles were inredible. I had clases and ran some erands and then got together with a bunch of friends for a big Indian feast. ¿And who knew there was good Indian food in Xela? It was like a taste of home. Some friends of mine, Inge and Brandon, bought me a delicious cake and, before I could eat it, I was sung happy birthday in a total of 5 languages: English, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Czechk, Dutch and German. It was definately the most multicultural birthday I´ve had. After, we met up with some of the teachers from the Spanish school and danced until the lights at the club came on and the music was turned down. It was a wonderful day, but bittersweet because Inge, a good friend from Holland, headed out to Mexico the next morning. Still, her birthday present to me, sticking around for my birthday, was one of the best I could have asked for (sweet as a shnoopia or papernoten!)
At the end of this week my fellow Rice Humanitarian Medical Outreachers will head out and six new ones will head in. We´ve gotten colse during our time here, despite not knowing eachother before, so It´ll be hard to say goodbye. Still, I have another week left after them, and I´m sure I´ll find something great to do.
Tonight we´re off to a café or, tal vez, a new casino that just opened up. I´ve never been to one, so it should be an interesting and cultural experience.
Hasta pronto mis amores,
Julia
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