I'm Kristen Rivas. I'm the Program Director for the Family and Community Medicine Program at University of Maryland. Our program is one of the first family medicine programs in the country founded in the late 1960s, and we've graduated over 500 family physicians who are currently serving in Maryland and beyond. Our residents receive training in a variety of inpatient-outpatient settings. We have inpatient rotations at University of Maryland Medical Center, a large academic hospital, and Baltimore Washington Medical Center, a smaller community hospital, giving our residents the best of both worlds feel. Additionally, our Sports Medicine Fellowship allows for our residents to receive optimal musculoskeletal training. Our teaching faculty is composed of highly enthusiastic and dedicated individuals who are excited about leading our doctors into the future of family medicine. Our department mission is to improve health through family practice, education, and innovative ideas. I hope that you will explore our residency further and consider becoming a part of our long-standing tradition of providing high-quality health care to families, individuals, and their communities. Hi, my name is Dr. Latte Bradford, and I am a resident in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. I actually went to medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and I knew in my third and fourth years through the family medicine clerkship and then later in my sub-I in the fourth year that this was the department where I wanted to train. One of the really special parts about this program that I really love is the fact that it is truly an embodiment of what it means to be a family physician. It is focusing on the health care needs, but also the socioeconomic and cultural needs of our patient population. Being able to train here in the city of Baltimore means we get to see patients with a diverse array of health care and social needs, and not only do our graduates finish with robust training in medicine, but we also become quite adept at navigating the social structures and navigating how to connect our patients with the resources and the services that they need once they leave the hospital and once they leave our clinic. One other emphasis that is of particular interest of mine is our social justice committee. So we are excited about raising the awareness and the consciousness of our faculty, our trainees, our department at large, to the issues that our patients deal with from day to day. And we are excited about becoming leaders on this campus in social justice to really make a difference beyond the walls of our clinic. One other thing that might be of interest to you is the fact that we care about resident wellness. This is not just about work and training, but we support one another outside of work.  Your faculty will be very encouraging and supportive of all of your professional and personal development goals. So this is just an awesome place to train, an awesome place to be a growing resident, and I strongly encourage you to consider the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland.


to connecting Hawaii business on Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Kathleen Lee, owner of Kathleen Lee Consulting and I am your host for this program. Think Tech Hawaii is currently live streamed on ThinkTechHawaii.com as well as on Think Tech Hawaii's Facebook and YouTube channel. And for viewers out there who are watching us live, you are more than welcome to email us questions, to questions at ThinkTechHawaii.com. For today's show, I am super excited to introduce my friends. We have Lelaine Ignau and Eric Gunding, co-owners of Sama Sama, which is a boba, milk tea inspired, oh, Filipino inspired boba, milk tea company. Did I get that right? Yes, thank you so much for having us, Kathy. Of course, thank you Lelaine and Eric. Lelaine, let's start with you. Tell our viewers about yourself. Yeah, so I am the one half of Sama Sama and outside of that, I'm also a reporter for the Filipino channel, also known as TFC and AVS Theater International. And I'm also the founder of Kusong Philippinex, which is a Filipino market here in Hawaii that supports Filipino small businesses, creatives and organizations. What about you, Eric? Yeah, from the other half of Sama Sama. I do own two clothing businesses. One is called Breakthrough, which is more geared towards mental health awareness. The second clothing brand is Familiarware, which is a Filipino based clothing brand that the whole entire family can wear. I also do videography and photography and design as well. Awesome, so before you two started Sama Sama, you both already mentioned that you had entrepreneurial endeavors running separately. Eric, let's start with you. Could you go more into what the businesses that you started and then Lelaine will go over to you as well? Yeah, so I think, I don't know of me coming out of college. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but at the same time it's like seeing my parents and like most especially seeing my mom doing her five businesses. I think that inspired me to take that leap into like doing my own type of socials and whatnot, especially starting with the clothing brand at first. I think that's where my inspiration came from. And then of course, turning into the boba shop, you know, like, I think I've always liked the idea of having a business. Sorry, Eric, could you say that last part again? We kind of blanked out, but you said you always liked the idea of? Well, I always liked the idea of having a business. I don't know, I just, it's just rewarding to be able to work on your own, your own thing and then it's just exciting and thrilling. Absolutely agree with that. Lelaine, tell us about your entrepreneurial endeavors before our Sama-Sama came along. So I personally don't think that Pusum Filipinax is essentially an entrepreneurial endeavor per se. I feel like I'm more so, we act like a nonprofit. I think the business aspect of it is really hosting these small businesses. And for me, it was all about really giving a platform for our Filipino community out here in Kauai. I know that there's other events, there's other organizations and whatnot, but I feel like there's nothing really geared towards millennials and the next generation. And also have that platform, a safe space for people to really showcase their talent as business owners, as creatives, the community work. And so that's really where Pusum Filipinax came to life. And actually Pusum Filipinax is the reason why we started Sama-Sama. So everything that I do is very much so intertwined. That's awesome. Let's delve into that before we go into the business. What does Sama-Sama mean anyway? Yeah, so it means together, together, like let's join together. And I really wanted it to be a community-based Filipino-inspired bubble business with Pusum Filipinax. It really is about building community. And when I saw that we didn't have any drink vendors, we had one at our very first market, but they kept on running out. And I told Eric, I was like, you know what? We should start thinking about doing a bubble business, especially because I want to start one and have my own when I was in middle school. And I thought, you know what? Why not? All these Filipinos are doing amazing things of their businesses, they're thriving, they're successful and happy. What's stopping us from starting our own? And so we started planning in 2019. And then it wasn't until 2020 where we really took the leap. And actually this upcoming May 9 is our official one-year anniversary. That's so cool. Congratulations to both of you. So tell us about the company and the food truck. What do you serve? Like what are the flavors inspired by and all that good stuff? So tell us more. Yeah, Eric, do you want to go ahead and take that one? Yeah, so for the bubble business itself, we wanted to be unique in a sense of like, you know, there's so many bubble tea shops around the island. Like I feel like it's on every corner, right? You drive by and you see a bubble shop. And for us, we wanted it to be different. So basically all our sheriffs, we all handmade it ourselves. Everything's made fresh with like the real fruits, like fresh strawberries or mango, pomegranate. We wanted to have that aspect to it.  And for us, we want to be different in that way. And we wanted to be able to showcase that to people, to our customers that, you know, for unique in a sense of everything is made fresh, everything is handcrafted on spot. Yeah, and then Malin, if you want to add some more to that. Yeah, like I mentioned before, Eric and I are very much so, I guess you could say we're very, very passionate about our Philippine culture. And so when we started planning Sama Sama, we really wanted it to be around the culture. So to the general eye, when they look at the menu, they're kind of like, how is this Filipino? I don't understand. And for those who really understand, there are, we handpicked those flavors. So strawberry, of course, everybody knows what that is, but not everyone knows that we have strawberry farms in Baokyo. And so I want to pay oh to that, for example, or peach mango, we want to pay oh to Jollibee. And then of course the toppings, that's where it starts to look a little bit more Filipino where we have things like Sabaulaman, which is a mix of syrup, flavorless boba, and then Jolli or like the whole, which is similar thing, but instead of the Jolli, we turn it in, we add the soken tofu. So things like that, we just want to have a little bit of Filipino here and there. And as we grow as a business, we want to be able to grow our menu as well so that we can continue to educate others about our Filipino culture and our Filipino people. And do you folks collaborate with other vendors as well? I know you mentioned the teas, but Lelayne, I think you collaborated with other like food vendors before, is that right? Yes, so our starting menu is actually created by Chef Mileto of Minasa. And he's a really good friend of ours. He really pushed us throughout our journey of building Sama Sama along with our other food vendor friend. And so with our first generation of food menu, we had him come in and create a menu for us. And we're hoping for the future to continue the theme of Sama Sama, bringing people together. We want to be able to collaborate with other businesses as well. Let's go over the aesthetic of your truck, which I absolutely love. And saw for the first time at Aloha Tower this past weekend. So you have your Lelayne, you're in the truck right now. And, you know, if and when people get to see you, folks, there's also a Rotan chair outside of the truck. So tell us more about your inspiration for that. Yeah, I really wanted us to just go all out with showcasing that we're Filipino. And I wanted a modern twist to it. So of course, everybody knows about the Rotan. It's very popular right now, but not a lot of people know that it actually originates from different countries in Asia and including the Philippines. And then of course, if you can see the big spoon and the big fork, that's very common in a lot of Filipino households. We just wanted to tie in our Filipino culture and add a little bit of modern twist to it as well. Eric, did you have anything to add to that? And again, I commend both of you for having like great tasting offerings as well as, you know, beautiful aesthetic for the truck. But anything you wanted to add to what Lelayne had mentioned. Yeah, so for the truck itself, like, you know, you see a lot of food trucks on this island. And from the get go where like if we're putting in money for this food truck, we want it to look like the best. Like we want to make sure we present ourselves to the best of our abilities. And we wanted to showcase it as like a mobile cafe to people, you know. We didn't want it to be like another food truck that you see rolling around. We wanted to take care of every aspect from like what you see on the outside, especially with the neon light or the, or a coffee shell light, the rat time share that's something you don't really see with other food trucks, you know. We want it to be interactive with people. You know, when you come to our food truck, we wanted to create an experience for you. You know, like we want to allow you to take pictures with your food or drink. We want you to be able to sit down, you know, on the neon sign that we've seen that through the events that we've been doing.  You know, like you don't really see what other food trucks you just see. Like normally you just see, you know, like a silver wall with a lot of equipment and whatnot. And like, you know, that's not something that we wanted to do. We wanted to stand out and be different. And like, basically change the game on this island with food trucks.  So we are going to go on break, but when we return, I'd love to ask you two more about the business or in challenges, clientele and demographic and all that. So we will be right back. AppCook Connecting Hawaii Business on Think Tech Hawaii. Our guests today are Lelaine Ignau and Eric Gunding of Sama Sama. And when we last left off, we were talking about how their food truck stood out. So Lelaine, let's start with you. We'll not start, obviously. Let's continue with you. Walk us through the process of starting up a food truck business. You know, Kathleen, to be honest, I was more so just trying to keep us on budget and I'll be quite frank, I only did the cute stuff. So I think Eric really has to take this one and he no forms and out of that whole experience. So we credit you for the beautiful backdrop there. And again, the looks of it. So Eric, as Lelaine had mentioned, tell us about the nitty gritty of starting a food truck business. It's honestly hard. It's not, it's not really that easy. You know, if you talk to anyone who has a food truck, like it costs a lot of money. So I think a person for most have the budget, know exactly what you need inside. And of course, there are things that you may need. You may not need in the end, but I think you just need to be concise with your equipment, the person for most. Also know who you're working with, you know, especially with this food truck, like it's very hard to trust people, especially with all these high ticketed items, like all these refrigerators, all these restaurant equipment and whatnot. So you need to be able to trust the person that you're working with. And you need to be able to understand too, like how the equipment works, like which equipment is best. Like you don't want to be jipped at the end of the day with especially what's spending so much money on it. That is very good to know for our viewers out there who may want to take on that endeavor. What are some, well, actually, let me take it back. What is the demographic that you two have discovered as far as your client's health goes? It really just ranges from teenagers and kids to families and adults. It really just depends on where we pop up just because for us, we, you know, living in Hawaii is not cheap at all. So for us, the hustle's real. Any pop-up we can get, any opportunity we can get to put our name out there, share our culture and the Boba business with, we will take it. So it ranges from, for the most part, families, teenagers, young adults. And you started this, you had mentioned earlier that you started this last year since you are coming up on your one year anniversary for Sama Sama. So congratulations to you both. I think that is a great accomplishment. What are some challenges that you ran into starting up in the midst of COVID? I think the biggest thing was trying to figure out can we handle it financially because we were in such an interesting time of our lives. And I'll be honest, like we have a lot of student loan debt that we're dealing with still. And so it was trying to figure out do we take the leap or not? And I think with everything going on with COVID, everyone was just trying to figure out ways to make money. And at that time it was kind of more like, okay, it's now or never because if we don't do it now, when will we? So I think it's just really trying to take that big leap. It's just do it and not be perfect. And then figure out as you go. I think as you just take that first step, the details will come in as you go and work on it one more. I absolutely agree with that. Lilaine Dunn is better than perfect, right? We'll start somewhere, start anywhere. What are some interesting experiences that you two have gone through so far since the food truck business came up? I think the shortage has been a huge thing. I know there have been times where our cups or our lids have run out because shipment hasn't come in yet. So we try to figure out what cups do we use now? What lids? There were times where we forgot our straws so people had to go the list or even the boba shortage was right before we started our business. So we were ready to say, okay, we're just gonna make boba from scratch already. But thankfully we haven't had to do that just yet except for our special national tapioca day last year. So it's a lot. I think it's definitely a learning process with everything but I mean, what else can we expect with running a business? I think it's a blessing though that we get to learn these new opportunities, these experiences, gain these lessons. So yeah, for sure. Well, a central part of your business revolves around representing the Filipino culture. What is the importance of that? The importance or significance of representing the Filipino culture through everything that the food truck embodies? Eric, let's start with you. I think for us it's very important. You know, at the end of the day, like we can't change who we are.  I feel like that goes for a lot of people here, especially getting teas in an elementary school or just teas for what you eat, what you drink, how you speak.  You know, we can't change that at the end of the day. Like we can't embody anything else but be a Filipino.  And the food aspect, drink aspect, that's what we want to be able to showcase to people, you know, like, this is my culture. This is something I should be proud of. And like, this is something that can be seen. And we want to be able to showcase to like, Filipino cuisine is always going to be here to stay, no matter what. And you know, it's finally time for us to showcase to the entire world that Filipinos are here. What about you, Lilane? I have to agree with Eric. I think for me, it was definitely just trying to put ourselves on the map and provide representation for our Filipino culture, especially through our food because not everyone knows what Filipino food is all about. Not everyone's attracted or great Filipino food on a regular basis. So I really wanted us to change that. And so I introduced it through Boba and eventually through dessert and food. I mentioned this earlier during our break, but I love watching the dynamic between you two because you seem to work really well together. What is it like being business partners as well as life partners? And again, congratulations on your engagement. I know you guys are set to make it official at the close to the end of the year, but tell us more about like that dynamic. You want to start? I think to be honest, we just bounce off of each other well. You know, when it comes to business, when it comes to like, we were able to know when to separate business from like our relationship. And I think that's important to us because for the most part, we're insane. It's crazy. Like some things that she thinks of, I'm already thinking myself. You know, or like some ideas already had, she was already thinking of it. So I think it was crazy that, you know, we're just that insane for each other. Yes, I have to agree just because if you, I mean, of course Kathleen, you know us personally, but people who know us personally, they know that we're opposite. I'm the more extrovert and Eric's the more of the introvert. And so as a relationship, of course, opposite to track, and of course we're gonna still have our issues or bump heads from time to time, but knock on wood when it comes to Sama Sama, like Eric said, we're so insane. I'm so blessed and grateful to have Eric as my life partner and business partner, and that it works out so well with Sama Sama, just our life. I love it. I absolutely love it. Is there anything else you too would like to add since we have a few minutes left? Eric? Yeah, please go ahead and follow us on Instagram, at SamaSamaTV. Look out for our May schedule. We're in for a busy month, definitely. So we hope to see you all there at one of our pop-ups. Yeah. Lilene, what are some upcoming events that you guys have within the next week or so? Yes. So it is Teacher Appreciation Week this week. So we have been collaborating with some schools, providing Boba to the teachers as a little thank you for them. And so we have an event tomorrow at one of the schools in Kapolei. And then on Friday, we have May Day Celebration at Barrington High School from 4.30 to 9.30. On Saturday, we have a double event. But we have Mother's Day Makage at Dream House at the beach from 9.00 to 1.00. And then another Teacher's Appreciation event at Ample High School from 4.30 to 9.30. Awesome. Oh, it looks like we have a couple more minutes to spare. So what is, from each of you, what is one lesson learned that you would like to share with viewers out there, especially people who may want to start up a small business or a big business, either way? I would say just go for it. What I would do all the time because essentially it took us two years to really get ourselves to just go out there and do it. So in those two years, we were just constantly brainstorming any ideas that came to mind. We would put it on our notes, on Google Drive. And then it wasn't until the last six months that we really went in and figured out where do we get our supplies from? What are the recipes for our stirrups? What is the recipe for the drinks? How do we go about this? And so I think we're super grateful that we were able to have Pusum Food Connect and then, of course, Eric's two clothing brands and his media program, his media business that it helped us also learn some business site, business lessons along the way and that we could put it into some pama. But I say just really plan out, but don't overplan it because you might take yourself out. I think when you know that it's becoming too much, just go for it, go from there. I like that. What about you, Eric? Yeah, pretty much just echoing the lane. The balance life is just short, you know? Could be here today, gone tomorrow. Basically, my rule with them is if you have it already in your head, it's already in someone else's head, too. So you might as well jump on it while you still can and make the most out of it, definitely. Wonderful. Let's pull up your Instagram and how can people find you both here? What is your handle? So SamaSamaTea for Instagram and Facebook. I believe TikTok as well. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you, Eric and Lelaine for joining us today and for talking about your company and thank you to the entire staff at Think Tech Hawaii as well, to Jay Fidel and the folks who make this happen. We had Michael and Haley who helped us out today. Until next time, aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


Hey, everybody. Matt here for Layton Sports Cards, ripping two boxes for Michael D. We have one box of 2022 Panini Immaculate Collection Baseball. One box of 2022 Top Stadium Club Baseball. There we go, Michael D. Good luck. The box topper is Francisco Lindor. It's oversized box topper. There's Nolan Ryan. Red, Xander Bogarts. Red foil. Nice Red Sox color match. Hans Krause. Nice. Rookie Auto. Spencer Strider. There you go, Michael. Nice hit. Juan Soto, team of the future. There's Jose Ciri. Ozzy Alves. Look here, make sure that's a variation. I don't think that's a variation. There's Vlad Jr. Red. It's not a very long queue, less than an hour wait time. There's Wander Rookie. Juan Soto, dynasty and destiny insert. That is Chrome Refractor Miguel Cabrera. That is orange to 99. Nice, Miggy. J-Rod Sapphire Base to sell for over 700. Yeah, those sapphire cards sell for a lot of money. There's John Cruck, Red Foil. Brandon Marsh, Rookie Red Foil. Jeremy Pena, Rookie. Dave Stewart, triple exposure. I'm sorry. That's one, two, three, four. Quintuple exposure. Mackenzie Gore. Black Foil, Chris Bryant. Bobby Whit Jr. That is Rookie Red Foil. There you go, Michael. Nice card. Tatees. This is Rookie Auto, Spencer Watkins. Jeremy Durant. Tyler Glassnell. Rookie Calrally. Vidal Ruhon. Ricky Henderson and Chrome, or I'm sorry, just Chrome. That is Dicut Petalanzo. Juan Niepez. Bobby Whit Jr. Power Zone. Rookie Insert. Spencer Strider. Rizzo. Carlos Correa, Red Foil. Two packs to go in Stadium Club. David Ortiz. Medrasario, Red Foil. Brooks Robinson, Black Foil. All right. Nice box of Stadium Club. Let's see what's in your iMac. Next up is Patch to 25. John Gray. It's a three-color patch. And Jersey to 99. Albert Pujols. This is Rookie Patch Auto to 99. Luke Williams. And Jumbo Patch Auto to 99. Andres Munoz. I think that might be the first time I've seen him in a Mariners uniform. That's Rookie Patch Auto to 10. Andre Jackson.  Tops Chrome Black. It's one pack and then one encased hit. This is Auto to 25. Trey Turner as a Dodger there. And Rookie Jersey to 99. Romy Gonzalez. All right, Michael, that'll do it for your break. Thank you for the purchase. Appreciate it. We'll get these right out to you.


Hey, it's Kevin and I'm back for more defeating depression habits with today's topic being sun exposure. Although it might seem like a non-issue to a lot of people, the reality is three-fourths of Americans are vitamin D deficient and a sunny day may do more than just boost your mood. Studies have shown that the brain actually produces more of the mood-lifting chemical serotonin on days that individuals receive more sun exposure. There's even a difference between sunny and cloudy days. Not only does this information provide more evidence that sun exposure and reduced serotonin levels are related to seasonal effective disorder whose acronym is unfortunately and ironically sad, but it proves that a lack of time in the sun could explain the following. Difficulty concentrating, lower energy or fatigue, loss of interest in daily activities, moodiness, and a desire to sleep more than the recommended seven to nine hours a day. All it takes to get the recommended amount of sun exposure is five to 15 minutes on your hands, arms, and face. Two to three times a week. You do that, you get all the benefits that the sun has to offer. As with everything, you've got to do it in moderation. Go outside between ten and four, you risk getting a sunburn. And if you decide to take your 10 to 15 minutes of sunlight with sunscreen, apparently it blocks all the benefits. But you know considering how many people are vitamin D deficient, which actually included myself, according to my doctor, I recommend trying this one out because you most likely are. There are natural ways to find the chemical reactions that are going on in your brain. Depression can seem overwhelming, but if you introduce new healthy habits into your life one at a time, quality of life can change. Please like this video if you'd like me to continue this series and introduce new healthy habits into your life. And if you're interested in myself or other moderators covering other topics, please comment your interests below. I'd also be interested in hearing if any of you guys tried out my habits from the last video and if they were able to help you out in any way. If you want to check out my own channel, I make videos every Monday and Friday. And please subscribe to Psych2Go, they do awesome work. I hope this video was helpful. Have an awesome week, everybody. I shall see you soon. Bye.


My name's Peter and I've worked in social work for the last 50 years. I started off as an unqualified social worker and had all sorts of strange roles that don't happen now like moving homeless families and delivering bath aids, all sorts of things. It was just really assisting other qualified social workers at that time. But after a while I started to get a sort of small case load on my own, mainly I think of older people and people with a disability. After about seven or eight years I did a course for working with people with visual impairments and it was teaching people Braille, Moon, Typing and daily living skills. At that time I worked mainly with people with a visual impairment but also other people as well. After about 10 years I did the social work training. I went to Portsmouth Polytechnic, sponsored by West Sussex so it was good I was actually paid a full wage to do the training and when I came back I had to work with everyone really. It was sort of children and families, older people, physical disabled people, mental health, learning disability, all the things that we do now. The next move was to the community term for people with learning disabilities which was I think about 20 years ago and it's a multi-disciplinary team with health professionals and etc. And the most recent changes is to lifelong services although there's still the learning disability bit we also now work with people with a lifelong physical disability. That's where I'm now really. It was very sort of informal to start with when I first started. I shared an office with home care managers, it was quite a good experience actually sharing with them. They were very welcoming and very nice. It was quite informal and it was a strange setup because there were two offices when I started. It was at the time when the Seaboam report had come out and there was now amalgamation of children's services and welfare and mental health all into one. The recording was all by hand, there was no typing in those days I don't think it was all hand written. To get something done you just had to go and ask someone, you didn't have to fill a form in. It was very informal whereas today there's actually a process for absolutely everything. I guess it is legislation because there's been more and more legislation over the time and we have to justify what we do and to show that we're doing the job we're supposed to be doing. And it's things like, I mean the Mosaic now, there's a process for absolutely everything. I think that's the big change. I always think things go round in circles a little bit and there's sort of trends I think that have happened. Like for example at one time it was very sort of community-orientated. We had patch offices in Midhurst and Starrington and little offices where there was only a few people so it was very much close to the local community. I wonder whether something like that will come back in the future. I think it's like to stay separate children and adults. There may be changes within the particular services but very difficult to predict I think exactly what will happen in the future. I won't enter it because I wanted to make a difference. I think I was probably a bit idealistic then and I'm probably more realistic now after many, many years but I hope that it can make small changes in people's lives and enhance their sort of quality of life. So that's what I see my role as being. There's a few and just speaking generally it's lovely to see people achieve what they want to achieve. I've got three people now who I've known for many years. I started off working in Bogner and I'm back in working in Bogner now and they've sort of come full circle with me almost. So I've known them for about 35 to 40 years probably, three of them and I have been their social worker all the time. On and off I've been their social worker. They've really come a long way in that time in their different ways. They're all very different, but they've come a long way. And it's so nice to see that they've been able to with lots of setbacks, I think, but also achieve what they want to in their lives. You know, and to be part of that and to sort of share it with them. And they're just really nice people as well. So it's really nice. It's the people I work with, the customers I work with that are really lovely and I enjoy working with them. And colleagues have been great, including managers. I mean, have been really, really good. I think the quality of managers is so much greater now. They're very supportive and very, very helpful from my immediate manager up to the sort of higher managers I've had contact with. So that's been really good. And the team, I mean, is very, very supportive. I mean, they're lovely people and they're very supportive of each other. And that includes some health people. You know, most teams in social work don't have health people alongside them, but the health people are a great asset to the team as a whole as well. So it can be emotionally draining, but it can also be very rewarding. And I suppose that's why I've stuck it for 50 years. So one or two times, I thought, is this really the right thing for me? But I've always decided it is and always, always carried on.


How much sun exposure might one need to get their target vitamin D level to that found associated with the lowest total mortality rate? Well, it depends. It depends on our age, how long we're exposed, the time of day, the time of year, our latitude, our skin color, our use of sunscreen, how much of our body we're exposing. Even in Boston, though, all it takes is 10 to 12 minutes of midday summer sun without sunbuck, if you're a young pale naked Caucasian. But then you're golden. Actually, you'd be a little pink.  As I hope you're beginning to appreciate, it's not easy to make a one-size-fits-all recommendation for how much sun exposure one might need. And low vitamin D status, despite abundant sun exposure, has been found even in the best of circumstances. Young, half-naked skateboarders in Honolulu, mostly Caucasian, averaging 30 hours of sun a week, and 51% didn't even make it to 30. If they can't, who can't? And these days, even if we're an albino nudist at the equator, how often might we be getting outside in the middle of the day with a desk's job? So, if we're really interested in getting to the vitamin D level associated with the lowest mortality rates, and our lifestyle or latitude won't allow us the necessary sun exposure, then one needs to take vitamin D supplements. The piddly amount added to soy milk, calf milk, margarine, or mushrooms would simply not be enough.