diff --git a/csv_to_elastic.py b/csv_to_elastic.py
index 75a3924..16f3a7d 100644
--- a/csv_to_elastic.py
+++ b/csv_to_elastic.py
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ def send_to_elastic(elastic_address, endpoint, ssl, username, password, to_elast
 
     headers = {"Content-type": "application/json", "Accept": "text/plain"}
 
+    request_body = to_elastic_string.encode("utf-8")
+    
     if not username is None:
         auth = b64encode(bytes("{}:{}".format(username,password), "utf-8")).decode("ascii")
         if ssl or "localhost" in elastic_address:
@@ -156,10 +158,10 @@ def send_to_elastic(elastic_address, endpoint, ssl, username, password, to_elast
         else:
             print("*** Warning: Refusing to remotely transmit user/pass unencrypted.")
 
-    connection.request('POST', url=endpoint, headers = headers, body=to_elastic_string)
+    connection.request('POST', url = endpoint, headers = headers, body = request_body)
     response = connection.getresponse()
-    body = response.read().decode('utf-8')
-    response_details=json.loads(body)
+    response_body = response.read().decode('utf-8')
+    response_details=json.loads(response_body)
 
     if response.status != 200:
         print ("\n*** Error occured before import. ***")