i need to create a hash/array where 2 elements are stored: the country code, and the number of times the country occurred.

I want to vet some conceptual logic: i want to create a helper method that passes in a list of countries. Then, I loop through each country and will merge the country code into the hash through a series of if statements:

```
@map_country = Hash.new
if country == "United States" 
    @map_country.merge(:us => ??)

```

I'm not quite sure how I can add a counter to push into the hash. Can anyone help? Basically, I want to achieve how many times "United States" shows up.

Also, once I have this Hash completed - I want to do something different to each country based on the count. How do I go about picking out the value from the key? Moreover, how do I get just the key?

```
<% if @map_country[:country] > 5 %>
... do this with @map_country...

```

Thanks! Apologies if this is confusing, but really could use some help here. Thanks!