Description of Here

Unfortunately we don’t have enough bandwidth to get pictures online, but the tech guy here said he will compress some photos for me, so after that – when I don’t know – I will be able to start putting up pictures. Until then a description of the site here will hopefully suffice.

Reef Doctor sits on approximately 400 metres of shore only 30 ft off of high tide just north of the small coastal village of Ifaty. We are positioned on the southerly portion of Ranobe Bay which stretches for about 25 kilometres. The lagoon is protected by reefs, 8 kilometres being the furthest distance out. The water stays relatively calm within the bay, which makes for good diving. Only recently has the wind started picking up along with the start of summer, making morning dives necessary as the waves begin to churn up the sand in the afternoon. Experienced surfers hire the local fisherman to take them out to the waves breaking over the reefs, but Reef Doctor no longer allows their volunteers to head out into the waves. There was an incident in their first year here, and if I am to die, it will happen because of diving, not surfing.

Furthest south sits the volunteer hut, with a concrete floor and the walls and roof made up of woven reeds. It hasn’t rained since I’ve been here, but the roof is supposedly is need of some repairs, with the lifespan of a reed roof being about four years. Behind our hut further inshore are two outhouses, these being reed-enclosed cedar seats. The smell isn’t bad, but none of the girls use it as night because of the cockroaches. Sitting there at night, there is a rustling all around you as 1-3 inch cockroaches scuttle up and down the walls waiting for you to leave so they can go back to doing whatever cockroaches do.

Further north and further inland lies the eating hall wherever everyone gathers during the week for breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and supper at 7. Those are supposedly the times aimed for by the cook, but meals can be as late as ½ an hour, which bothers no one as we don’t show up on time ourselves. In front of the dining hall are two shower stalls – just reed enclosures with concrete floors – by the well. You can shower as often as you like, but more than one bucket at a time is frowned upon. The water out of the well is slightly saline, but the only choice if you don’t want to go to bed with a slight film of salt covering your body. This is not a concern for us though, as most people consider a swim a day in the ocean as being the height of cleanliness.

Lining the shore are the staff huts, five in all. Made of reeds with concrete floors, they house everyone except for the director, who has a room in the main house. Further north up the shore sits the main house where there is power and internet, but only when the batteries have enough juice. With there being only one internet cord, being on the net is something that people line up for, usually after supper. The main house, as well as the dining hall, have plaster walls, but also have reed roofs. There is a kitchen and a bathroom with a shower and a toilet, with the kitchen being used on the weekends when the cook isn’t working. The bathroom toilet is used during the day by those who don’t want to walk all the way to the outhouse. Nobody does.

That is the extent of our area, with shrubs and smaller trees interspersed throughout and a main sand path connecting each of the buildings. I got a video of it all when I flew up yesterday, so I might be able to post a section of that. You will probably just have to use your imagination.

A Blane? A Ploat? A Flying Boat

November 28: Had breakfast with all the staff that hadn’t left at 6 to dive, and then helped out with chores around the house. For volunteers, our duty is ... sweeping. So, that means it takes me approximately five minutes to get my chores done. After that I started studying my Dive Manual in earnest, doing the first two chapters and the corresponding tests. Went snorkelling again this afternoon, and the water was warm to the point where it makes the plus 35 C air seem cold. It’s like swimming around in a cool hot tub, and most of the time I just spent floating while looking down at the ocean floor.

November 29: Quite an eventful Saturday. A group of us headed north to Mankili, about an hour walk north of Ifaty. Our main objective was the spiny forest park, and though we started out at 7:30, the sun was soon beating down on us. Being along the ocean means that on most days, humidity sits at about 90%, and today was no different. We finally made it to the park, paid our entry fee and started out with our guide on about a half-hour walk. The baobabs were the main attraction, with the largest - all seven of us hand-in-hand could just embrace it – being 1,400 years old. We also saw some tortoises, a variety of lizards, a snake and a few different birds. Unfortunately our guide didn’t speak English fluently, so he was unable to give the names of the creatures. The Reef Doctor group couldn’t provide me with names, as their interest in all things biological lies in the sea, so I will have to peruse the guide books here and make my own identifications.

After the spiny forest we headed out to lunch, and the plan for the afternoon was just to laze around the beach until supper at a little Italian pizzeria on the beach. While the rest were sun tanning, Tom and I headed out to see a flying boat. It is a small zodiac with a hang-glider mounted to it and an ultralight engine (42 horses) mounted on the back. I decided it was worth the 72 USD for a 20 minute flight, so I headed up into the air around 4:30. I was a couple of kilos over the allowable weight, but the pilot, a Frenchman, said that if we didn’t get out of the water we could just turn around and come back. This was all relayed to me by one of the Reef Doctor staff who speaks French, as the pilot’s English is nearly as bad as my French.

We took off and headed south, about 3 kilometres off the shore, eventually reaching 320 metres. I got to see the reef and the no-take zones (places where fishing is not allowed) and then had a good overhead view of Reef Doctor. My seat was well above the gunnels of the zodiac, with the only thing holding me in being the cord that ran from my headphones to the pilot’s. It was a great way to see a bit of the bay and get an idea of how arid the inland is in this part of the country.

Had pizza in the evening and then headed back at low tide to our huts, walking along the wide expanse of beach as our flashlights caused the ghost crabs to flit back into their holes and wait for us to pass by.

Pictures are forthcoming, and if things work well today – few people are around so I can sit on the internet for a little longer today – I should be able to get a couple up.

Up to Speed on Madagascar

November 25: Got into Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, and paid for my visa and headed towards my connecting flight to Tulear via Fort Dauphin. When I went to grab my bag, I was surrounded by five Malagasy airport attendants who picked up the bag and guided me thirty feet towards the check-in counter. In the process, one of them asked for my passport and ticket, which I showed him, and when we reached the counter he demanded 10 USD – significantly higher than the average Malagasy daily wage. I demanded my passport, which he begrudgingly gave to me, and then gave him five bucks and told him that his help hadn’t been needed in the first place. One of them wouldn’t leave, so I eventually gave him a buck. So, all in all, they were the mostly costly porters that I have ever paid. Then, when I was in line waiting to confirm my ticket to Tulear, a Malagasy woman shoved herself in front of me and pulled her less-rude husband along with her to my space at the next available counter. Not a good introduction to the Malagasy as a people.

When I got into Tulear, now out of the plains of central Madagascar and near the ocean, stepping off the plane was my introduction to the most humid conditions I have ever experienced. Walking here is almost akin to wading, and I sweat continually and profusely.

I was met at the airport by a diminutive Malagasy woman who introduced herself as Christina, one of the Reef Doctor staff. The people here are an interesting mix of facial features and shades but are generally short in stature, with the men being on average around 5’7’’ and the women just over five feet. The island was originally settled by Indians and Asians, landing on the eastern shores of the island. Later (and no, I don’t have exact dates for you – Internet is a luxury so you will have to Wikipedia on your own) Africans landed on the western shore, and Madagascar has since become a melting pot of ethnicities.

Christina checked me into my hotel and then showed me around the town of Tulear and I got some ariary, the Madagascar currency (1500 AR is approximately 1 CDN – interesting note: One of only two non-decimal currency systems in the world. Again, if interested in the other, wikipedia) and then went out for pizza (topped with boiled eggs) and beer at a local outdoor restaurant. French is spoken by the educated in the bigger centres, though in the villages Malagasy is almost solely spoken, the dialect depending upon the region of the country. My uni-lingualism is again an impediment, and even more so than in Ethiopia, with everyone expecting me to be able to speak French.

November 26: Christina met me at my hotel at 8AM and we headed out to get my passport copied and officially signed, and did some shopping in the market. When we went to the government office for the passport work, we travelled in a rickshaw, what they call a pous-pous, and while the seat barely fit the two of us, it was an interesting experience, for me if not for the operator, who would have been used to lighter passengers.

After the errands, we loaded up our luggage on a taxi-brousse and then waited for an hour for the little Mazda to fill to three times its carrying capacity. We had gotten there early enough to reserve the coveted front seat, which we shared with the driver, while the rest of the fifteen or so passengers sat in the box, facing one another as they sat on two long bench seats – as long as bench seats could be in the back of a single-cab Mazda. It terms of distance, the road was 27 kms, and in terms of time, it was just under 2 hours. We stopped twice, once to pump up a tire, and the second time to change it. During the second stop, I saw a little boy, probably three years old, beating on a chameleon in the middle of the road with the stick. His sister got him to stop, and it drunkenly waddled under the truck and climbed onto a drooping leaf spring. In a couple of seconds I could see it changing colour, and then the driver got his own stick, knocked it off and flicked it fifty feet into the bush. Chameleons are apparently not well respected.

When we finally got into the village of Ifaty, and then into the Reef Doctor main house, I was laconically greeted by Shawn, the director of the program – who didn’t give his name – and told to head to the volunteer hut as it is currently siesta, and nothing was happening then anyway. Apparently every weekday from 12 noon to 2:30 is siesta, with the weekends just being one long siesta. This does not make for very efficient working conditions, but it does make for a relaxing “work” week.

I walked into the volunteer hut – about 35 feet long and 15 feet wide – and was greeted by four college-aged women who apparently are my roommates. My bed is off in the corner, but aside from mosquito netting, there is really no privacy to speak of. They are leaving over the next few weeks, with the first leaving tomorrow, and then I will have the hut to myself.

Anne, the volunteer coordinator, escorted me into the village where I signed President Bruno’s logbook. Every village, no matter how small, has a president who oversees all of what goes on in the village. Bruno likes to keep tabs on those around his village, and as Reef Doctor staff and volunteers live within the general vicinity of the village, everyone new person must go and pay their respects and sign their name and enter their contact information into his logbook.

Since one of the volunteers left the next day, most of the staff went out for drinks and dancing at a tiny little bar in Ifaty, about a twenty minute walk from the main house. It seemed like a late night, but when I headed back, it was about 10:30, and then the real party animals stumbled back around 11. Morning comes early around here, with the boat heading out at 6 in the morning to catch enough calm water for a couple of dives.

November 27: Got up at 7 and headed up to the dining hall. It was remarkably quiet, as the majority of people were obviously nursing hangovers. No one has yet to give me any directions or shown me a schedule of what I can expect in the coming weeks, but that is in part because I am here during a time of transition. The director and the dive master are both leaving, with their replacements here already and trying to get into the swing of things. I headed off snorkelling by myself and say about a half-a-dozen different types of fish, some eels and a starfish. The snorkelling is supposed to be terrible here due to intensive over-fishing (hence Reef Doctor) so I am really looking forward to going to see some of the reserved no-fishing zones which are supposed to me incredible.

After lunch I decided I would give the siesta a shot and ended up sleeping for over four hours. I’ve had a bit of a fever since my time in the Johannesburg airport, as well as the flu and indigestion, so it was good to get some more rest. I woke up and headed up to the main house where I started the review of my Open Water Dive Manual. The plan is that I will be diving Tuesday of next week, so I am to have the book work done by then.

The food is fairly simple fare, with lots of rice and potatoes, but there is no question of quantity. There is also a lot of fruit, like pineapples, mangoes, papayas, bananas, plums and peaches, all fresh and all significantly more succulent than in any Canadian supermarket.

You are now up to speed, and I will hopefully be posting near-daily updates. While I still feel that the majority of blogging is nothing but socially-acceptable navel-gazing, I hope this is interesting - and that I will be able to make it interesting - for those who drop in from time to time. Feel free to leave a comment, or drop me an email.

The Rest of Ethiopia

November 19: Went to the Nech Sar game park – south of the two rift valley lakes (if you google Lake Chomo we were on the south side of that. The drive was over the most awful roads of the trip yet, with it taking three hours to cover under 30 kilometres. We saw some zebras and some ibex, but other than that there weren’t any animals around. There have been some disagreements in regards to park management, and currently there is no management in place. There used to be giraffes, lions and other typical big game, but they have been hunted and driven out of the country into Kenya, which has a robust wildlife management program. After that drive, which was about six hours on the road, we headed up to H’Ossa, and the roads that on the way down were fairly rough were smooth in comparison on the way north.

November 20: We headed south again, retracing our path to go and a look at a coffee plantation. The security was quite tight, and after a lengthy conversation we were allowed onto the fenced farm, but were not allowed any pictures. The reason for their wariness is due to the big coffee dealer – like Nabob – who have used intimidation to halt the progress of Farm Cooperatives like the one that we saw. Instead of driving all the way back to Addis, we stopped in Nazaret where Aklilu has an old friend who owns a hotel. Tseguay, the hotel owner, started with five bucks in Vancouver at the age of 28 and after eight years of driving cab, had saved up enough to move back to Ethiopia and build a 48-room hotel.

November 21: Joline, Peg and I got up at 6AM and headed out with Tseguay and a friend of his to a natural hot springs about 30 minutes away. The Olympic sized swimming pool is about 28 degrees Celsius, and it was refreshing to just soak in it while Tseguay and his friend swam laps. There were a bunch of monkey around, and would come within a few feet of you if you pretended to have something in your hand. After the swim we headed back to the hotel and headed back to Addis. A British group had arrived, all Hope sponsors, and we had dinner with them at british-themed restaurant called The Cottage. Before dinner we had time to explore the city a bit, and we made some stops at two Coptic Churches. The first one we left quickly as there was a drunk woman who accosted us and started screaming. One of her fellow worshippers approached her and she turned and spat on him, which made us decide that it probably not worth of effort to reason with her. We also stopped by Kaldi’s Coffee, named after the Ethiopian shepherd boy who discovered coffee after his goats ate some beans and started acting strangely. It was modelled on Starbuck, everything from the look and colour to the recessed halogen lighting.

November 22: Headed out to Muna, an Ethiopian coffee house, where the four us enjoyed macchiatos and some pastries. I’m beginning to enjoy coffee, but with generous doses of sugar, and as Ethiopian coffee is considered to rank among the best in the world, I don’t see maintaining the habit in North America. We headed to the Ethiopian Museum of Anthropology where I was looking forward to seeing Lucy, one of the earliest humanoid skeletons. Unfortunately, she is currently on loan to a museum in Maryland, but there were other things of interest. It was interesting for the first 30 minutes or so, but after that we were looking at the door. In the afternoon we headed to the Mercado – I think I already mentioned that this is the largest outdoor market in Africa. We didn’t see all of it, and spent most of our time haggling with the merchants. As soon as they see ferenge (foreigners) prices go up 800-1000%. I got two pairs of shorts – one I tried on, and the other the woman said was the same size. She was eager to add to the sale, and when I tried on the second pair back at the hotel, it turned out they were about 6 inches too small at the waist. Oh well – both prices combined were still relatively cheap compared to the price for one pair of short back home.

November 23: The Great Ethiopian Run was today, and the gun went at 9AM. There were over 40,000 people registered, and with thousands more joining along the way, there ended up being and estimated 50,000 runners. I started with Peg and Joline but quickly lost them in the first few hundred meters. I positioned myself in the middle of the crush of people, and we hopped/walked the first kilometre en masse. I was a head taller than most of those around me and would regularly turn back to see the mass of people behind me – stretching back further than I could see. I never saw the beginning of the crowd except for the first 30 seconds, as those at the front, who must have been waiting there for over an hour to hold their coveted positions, sprinted off. I don’t know how the shoulder-to-shoulder national guards marking the start line stepped out of the way fast enough when the horn sounded, but I didn’t hear of anyone being hurt. I met up with Peg and Joline at about the 3 km mark, and we ran the rest of the way together. We ended up finishing in about an hour and fifteen, and with the number of people on the course it would have been harder to have done it any faster even if we wanted to.

After lunch at the hotel we headed out to the football stadium (soccer – we are not in North America) and paid the exorbitant price of 30 birr ( about 3 bucks ) to sit in the elite seats – padded chairs and shade. Some of the group elected to pay 3 birr to sit on the concrete steps in the sun, but eventually most of them upgraded their tickets and came to sit with us. We got our seats with about 20 minutes to go in the opening match, and then the main event started. It was Coffee vs. The Police – assumedly their sponsors – and the game, while played on a lousy field, was entertaining to watch. Part of the entertainment was the clear delineation in fan loyalty – some parts of the stands were standing room onl y, while other parts had lots of space available. These packed areas would erupt with singing and shouting as they all got to their feet when their team had a scoring opportunity or made strong defensive play.

In the evening, Peg, Ken and I hired a taxi and bombed around the city looking for a coffee ceremony. None was to be found, but one positive was that Yared, our driver, didn’t end his shift until seven the next morning (1 Ethiopian time) so I asked him to meet me outside the hotel at 6:30 AM to take me to the airport.

November 24: I head down to the curb outside the hotel at 6:30 AM and the doorman ushers me over to one of the four cabs waiting. He tosses my bag into the back seat, but before I get in I ask the driver the price of the fare to the airport. It’s 100 birr according to him, and I know he is cheating me, as Yared said he would do it for 60 birr – Yared is also probably cheating me, but just not as much. I shake my head at him, grab my bag out of the back seat to the sound of the doorman’s protestations and find Yared’s cab a couple of cars back. He brings me to the airport, and I pay him his 60 birr and head into the airport. I’ll skip the long and tedious serious of flight and layovers, and pick up a day later on the evening of the 25^th.

Johannesburg, SA

A wealth of information coming at you real quick from South Africa and an eighteen hour layover. Spent the last week and a bit in Ethiopia, and here is all that in a day-by-day run down. My apologies to whoever looked at this and wondered whether or not I was even interested in communicating - Madagascar should be more successful in terms of internet access.

Oh, another thing - I have a bunch of pics, but this cafe doesn't allow USB access, so that will have to wait until Tulear.

November 14: Met my HOPE group and we bonded in the Frankfurt airport after a 9 1/2 hour flight. I sat beside Joline, a teacher from Calgary who raised over $25,000 for HOPE. She has two kids with her husband Rod, and teaches Grade 6 at Calgary Christian. I sat beside her on the flight, though we met before when she picked me out as I was reading "The Irresistible Revolution" - good book by the way, I recommend it. The other two guys were from Abbotsford - Ken and Randall (nickname: Peg) - and they have been the driving force behind the Run for Water there that raised $100,000 in its inaugral year. Ken is working for CLAC as BC's Provincial Director and Peg hosts and co-produces a television show and pastors a church called Nexus. These three are in their thirties, so I felt like the young'un. We became good friends over the week and a bit - that's what happens when you spend hours on end in a Land Cruiser.

Okay, so same day we get into Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and check into Hotel Ethiopia - the premier place to be in the 60s, and still high society in Addis.

November 15: Ethiopia is different from the rest of the world in a couple of interesting ways. It is the only country never to be colonized in Africa - the Italians gave it a shot in the 1800s but failed - and it runs on a different clock compared to the rest of the world. They count the birth of Christ as seven years later than everyone else, so they just celebrated their millenium recently (seven years behind us). As well, they count time differently - The day starts at 6 AM, and they count forward from there. For example, if you want to meet someone at 3 PM, that would be 9 Ethiopian time.

We were planning on heading south before noon, but Peg had to wade through reams of red tape to get his video camera into the country. In the interim, Yonas, one of our drivers, took Joline, Ken and me throught the Mercado, the largest market in Africa. Understandable as Addis has a population of 5 million people. There are people all over the street, parting approximately twenty feet in front of your bumper as you travel at about 30 clicks through the congested streets. The pollution in Addis is thick at times, with the majority of vehicles belching black smoke to the extent that what they save in maintenance is probably lost in oil. The majority of the vehicles are little four-cyliner sedans - Russian made Ladas - and Toyota mini-buses, painted white on the top half and blue on the bottom half. These taxis are everywhere. The mini-buses are crewed by a driver and an operator, usually a younger boy, who leans out the window of the sliding door and yells out the destination.

Peg eventually got his camera - he is planning on doing a series of interviews for his television show - and we hit the road, getting into H'Owassa after night fall.

November 16: Having breakfast at the hotel, and who should show up but Haile Gabreselassie. We took pictures with him, and Peg got an interview. The group was excited to see the world-record marathoner, even more so given that all of them are all pretty serious runners - hence the Great Ethiopian Run on Sunday - but I'm getting to that. He is a national hero, and it was pretty neat how he took the time to come over and shake our hands and chat for a couple of minutes.

Left after that and headed down to Arba Minch, our base for the next three nights. A gorgeous hotel, sitting on the edge of the Rift Valley. Pictures are forthcoming, but try to imagine an acre of grass with detached groups of about eight rooms scattered around the compound. The restaurant looks east over the valley, with baboons running by the thirty foot stretch of eight foot windows.

Note: Roads in southern Ethiopia are completely different then a North American roadway. Really Justin? I know, I know, but let me lay it out: The roads are used by everybody and everything - herds of goats and cattle, for drying out crops, walking to the next village, donkey carts and little jeepneys - woefully under-powered scooters with covered tops carrying a half-a-dozen people - plus SUVs hell-bent on getting to their destination. Every decent vehicle is a Land Cruiser, either filled with tourists (usually retired Germans) or NGO workers. And, once we got into the mountains, the "road" was a rocky track, cut by erosion and impassable by all but a Land Cruiser. We did get stuck twice, and got ourselves out once, and the second time about twenty villages pulled us up and out.

We had to two Land Cruisers for our use, transporting eight of us including the drivers. The four non-Ethiopians, as well as Aklilu, a Canadian-Ethiopian from Langley, Berekat, Hope's southern director and a Hydro-engineer and our drivers who traded back and forth - Yonas, Philemon and Yonatan.

Novemver 17: Got up early - still hadn't adjusted to the time change - and caught the sunrise at about 6:30 as it came up over the other side of the Rift Valley. We headed out at 8 and it took 5 hours to cover the 40 kms to one of the villages that HOPE is working in. Our Land Cruiser had a few miles on it - 450,000 kms before the speedometer and odometer stopped working - and these roads are rough enough that tires are changed every three months.

We saw a capped well - different than a bore-hole - and the village that water was piped to. The pipe is 50 cm deep, 5 km long, and the villagers dig this in a week. A length of galvanized pipe is 18 ft and costs $50, and with projects ranging in scale up to 17 1/2 kilometers, that is where the majority of the cost is. The capping is also a cost, but not even comparable to a bore-hole. As well, HOPE's projects are all gravity fed, which eliminates the needs for pumps. The simple technology is maintained by the community, which looks after the water points (taps) and cleans out the aquifer ever 3 months.

Clean water in these communities accomplishes a number of things. Firstly, clean water creates healthier living conditions, as people are not drinking from rivers and standing water that is polluted by livestock and various bacteria. Secondly, it frees women. It is the responsibility for the young girls to collect water, and this keeps them from school. It also puts them in danger of rape, having to walk many hours away from their village. These underlying social benefits were new to me, but make sense when the water as well as all the saved hours of labour are taken into account.

In Edmonton

This is the first post of what will hopefully be a semi-regularly updated account of my travels to and in Africa.  For those of you who haven't heard anything about this, you are probably in the majority, as the pieces really only fell into place about a week ago.

I am traveling with a group of Hope International (hope-international.com) supporters and employees to Ethiopia for a ten-day tour of the work they are doing there.  We arrive on Friday in Addis Ababa, the capital, with groups flying out of Abbotsford and Calgary.  We will be doing a variety of things over the ten days, including seeing the work that Hope is doing, going on a safari and participating in the 10-km Great Ethiopian Run.  When the rest of the group flies back to Canada, I will be making my way to Madagascar via Johannesburg, South Africa for a six-week internship through Reef Doctor (reefdoctor.org).  This will include community work (such as basic first aid training) and data compilation in the Indian Ocean.  The first two weeks are pretty densely packed, with classroom time devoted to marine biology - which should be interesting given my glaring lack of knowledge in this area - and field work, which basically be numerous dives so that I can become PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified and get out in the Mozambique Channel to do data collection.

I have been interested in traveling with Hope on one of their trips to see some of the development work that they are doing for a while.  When I had last talked to Jet Takaoka, one of their development officers, a trip to Sudan in January of 2009 was the most likely time and place that I would be able to join them.  I talked to Jet at a fundraising dinner in Fort McMurray in mid-October, and he said that Sudan didn't look likely, and asked if I was interested in traveling to Ethiopia in November.  Thinking that this gave me a bit more time, I said yes, and then Jet finished laying it out - and the group was leaving in less than a month, not in 2009.  Everything fell into place, but given the price of the trip, I was looking for opportunities to stay overseas a little bit longer than ten days.  I had settled on touring Europe after the Ethiopia trip when I came across an opportunity in an email newsletter called GoAbroad.com.  This was the Madagascar internship, and that only came together in the last week or so.

I fly out of Calgary on Thursday, and land in Ethiopia after a connection in Frankfurt over a day later.  I still need to find a wetsuit.  If you are a 6'5'' diver, you apparently are expected to weigh no less than 215 lbs.  It is unlikely that I will gain 15 lbs before Thursday.  Hmm...