title: python counting letters in string without count function
body: <p>I am trying to write a program to count the occurrences of a specific letter in a string without the count function. I made the string into a list and set a loop to count but the count is never changing and i cant figure out why. This is what I have right now:</p>
  
  <pre><code>letter = 'a'
  myString = 'aardvark'
  myList = []
  
  for i in myString:
      myList.append(i)
  
  count = 1
  
  for i in myList:
      if i == letter:
          count == count + 1
  
      else:
          continue
  
  print (count)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any help is greatly appreciated.</p>