The Finale

by Dom on November 16th, 2008

Driving was horrible today. Amazingly bad. It was rainy most of the time; then the sun came out for a bit and made a blinding glare on everything. It was great conditions to find out how stupid people are about driving. Many people forgot or didn’t seem to know that the left lane was for passing. I passed people in the right lane who must have just had cruise control on or something and they were looking at their cell phone. Ridiculous. I couldn’t handle it and when people wouldn’t notice the people coming on from the on ramp until they were right beside them and then cutting other people off. People just cruising right beside other people when there’s a line of cars waiting to move on. It was just absurd. 6+ hours of abusrd driving. I’ve never not enjoyed driving so much. Eh.

RISD was cool, except the first time I went it was just a bad day. I forgot my wallet and I couldn’t get breakfast, or a battery for my bike light. The building I needed to go to was locked. So I sat around and followed some kid in. Then the floor I needed was locked, so I knocked. Found out I that they had no time for me that day. So I drove back to my friends house where I was staying. The next day was much better though. RISD was cool, they had some great facilites and a real intense program. I spent some time at their museum too, that was real cool. It is nice to see some old friends and meet some new ones too.

Pratt was interesting. They had a three year program that really seemed to give a solid foundation in design. It was in a pretty neighborhood in brooklyn too, lots of brownstones. Their campus was fun too, there was art all over it. New York was cool, but it was weird. It was just miles of store fronts and apartments with random spots of glitz. It almost all looked the same so much that it almost tricked you into thinking you’ve really just been hanging out on the same four blocks the entire time. There was some good stuff there though. Glad to be on the way home though, it’s time.

NYC

by Dom on November 10th, 2008

I’ve been hanging out in New York for a few days. Expensive is the word. It works out with the budget a bit though because I spent a lot less than I thought I would earlier in the trip. It’s been a good time indeed. I’ve been staying with a friend from the Peace Corps; and the first night we met up with a friend from Augusta. It’s been real nice being able to see people again. New York is a lot of walking. This girl I’m staying with claims to have been too busy to really get out much so she doesn’t know where many things are and so we end up wandering a lot looking for stupid things like bars or breakfast places. It’s fun though. I finally made it to a guitar store. Guitar Center actually. I checked out some of the local ones and was a bit disappointed. I did find something at the Guitar Center though, something that turned out to be just out of my price range and not even close enough to fudge. A 1972 Gibson Hummingbird acoustic, it was real sweet. I learned a lot from talking to the guy though so it isn’t a total disappointment. I rode around all yesterday too. Riding with traffic here seemed a lot easier than in Atlanta for a number of reasons, cars are used to you, the land is flatter, things aren’t as sprawled. It’s still fun to pass drivers and taxis during rush hour too.

Through the Middle

by Dom on November 7th, 2008

So I made it out of Notre Dame after four overtimes. If only they could have punched one through and not lost…Oh well the past is in the past and we all know how much I care about sports anyway. Notre Dame as a school though was quite interesting. Super small program, taking only one a year. A whole lot of freedom and support. That seemed real cool.

Continued on over to Columbus. Hung out with both sides of the family the first day. That was nice. Had an early Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house. All the food was quite excellent. Especially the sweet corn. Two years without it is one thing but two years only being able to eat the corn flakes equivalent really made me appreciate it and miss it that much more. I piled like three extra scoops on my plate and because I didn’t see it until last it was all on top of my salad and potatoes and all that business. I’m not a mixer but some things just have to be done. In addition there was goose and duck and sweet potato pies and all kinds of other pies; like pumpkin. It was excellent. It was nice to see great grandma again and all the children and spouses of the cousins that are all grown up now. These times they are a changing.

Cruised over to Philadelphia yesterday. Supposedly a seven hour drive. I didn’t time it, I don’t know. It was pretty great because there was like no traffic. The weather was pretty fantastic yesterday too. Kind of warm but a nice cool breeze with all the green and orange and yellow leaves overhanging the highway. Every now and then it would hit me how different it was from the Malawian scenery but for the most part it was just some colorful leaves. Staying with a family friend here. Got some more Yuengling and some hot wings for dinner last night. It’s good to be in America.

Went to see the school here today. That turned out to be a bit ridiculous with a couple reschedules and rain. It seems to be a really awesome program though. I talked with a professor and hung out with some of the current grad students while they worked on some projects. The program seemed to really be connected to the city; which is real cool. Coming back was a bit of a financial fiasco because I’m not good at managing my money here yet and got on a $6 train with only $3. The guy just took the other $3 out on me. Whatever though, I got home. ATM tomorrow though.

I keep thinking/dreaming of a nap, and I keep postponing it. Tomorrow will probably just continue the cycle. Heading North again tomorrow. Oh so I just realized I forgot to talk about OSU. Their program seemed solid, but very teaching oriented. As in that’s pretty much the only new doors that would be opened for me from obtaining their degree. Since teaching is pretty far down my list right now I’m just not so interested in it. They had a very classical approach to the masters. Where I choose a topic and spend three years researching it and then present my findings as a thesis and defend it. All the while only formally meeting with my advisor once a year. I want something a bit more hands on and theoretical if that makes sense.

The first leg

by Dom on October 31st, 2008

The trip has begun. I made it up to Notre Dame. Had a nice stop in Knoxville first though. It was nice to see Doug again; he was the first friend from Augusta that I’ve seen. Ridiculous. We went to some pretty sweet bars. One had a sign that said all shirts must have sleeves. At the next one there wasn’t a sign, or sleeves. The latter offered beer in 32oz Mason Jars. The draft Yuengling was pretty good. It’s a shame they don’t sell it in Georgia. Closed the night with some Krystals. It was a good night but it made waking up at 8am a bit more difficult.

The drive up was pretty unproblematic. The only issue I had was that I wanted to take the bypass around Cinncinati but the signs weren’t well marked and were still in Kentucky so I didn’t believe that I was there yet and missed the turn. It turned out not to be a problem at all. I’ve been taking photos. For the most part it feels pretty normal being home but seeing huge balls of chicken breast in the deli seemed really odd. I didn’t get a photo of that but I decided I’m going to use my camera like I would when I was in Malawi. As in just whippin’ it out at random times and snapping snaps of random things. I’ll pick the good ones when I’m done and post them up. Anyway, debating what time to wake up tomorrow. Either way calls for bed now.

LA&ACCD

by Dom on October 28th, 2008

Hory Clap, I’m back. In GA that is. Just got back from LA. It was surprisingly cool. Of course that could be because of the short length of my trip and the locations I was, but who cares, I liked it. Jenn’s doing great. Except that whole number 2 business…hehe. The first day we just went for a ride on the boardwalk and Jenn made a dinner of tortellini alfredo. Good good stuff. The next day we actually went to the beach and hung out. Water was quite cold. Like one of those backwoods streams you find in the winter. I made her get in with me though, it was nice having company! Hit up some cool restaurants that day too, fish tacos and crab cakes and the like. Friday we checked out the Art Center. Cool school, however I was an idiot about visiting and didn’t make an appointment with the dept. chair and he wasn’t there. It really shook up my views of what I want to do and what I expect form a school. Then again, I think it’s pretty cool a visit to a place can do that. We went to Jenn’s parents house that evening after a very late lunch at Panera bread. Jenn’s dad made some pretty good steaks for dinner and we just went to bed. It was a long day. Saturday morning we went wake boarding. I’m still sore. Sergio came, yes that one. Serdhyo. It was a lot of fun, we were out there all day pretty much. I got a jump off and superman face-planted straight into the water. It was pretty awesome. Later that day there was a little party and a lot of family friends came over. I got to meet a lot of people and they got to meet me. I had brought some skupernong wine (I doubt I spelled that right, that’s just a kind of white muskadine though). It was a big hit. The next day we went to Disneyland! Jenn has a friend that dances in the Lion King section of the play. As a tiger…Yeah. It was cool though. I had never been to the land before and it was a lot of fun. Didn’t make it to the Tiki room though. Apparently one of Jenn’s favorites; however we did do the tea cups! Heck yes. I ate over half of this obscenely huge pizza there too. It’s a bit sickening to think of, but I couldn’t stop. It was good and the first pizza I’ve had back. Overall it was a great time and it was great seeing Jenn again and meeting those friends. That school really intrigues me.

This is the end

by Dom on October 16th, 2008

My only friend, the end.

I still have to see the GSO, AO, CD, Cashier, AI, Dr. Rollin’ north at 11. And then my new journey will begin. See you all soon. I’m getting ready. You should too.

Ruarwe Hike

by Dom on September 26th, 2008

Just got back from the Ruarwe hike as I call it. It’s actually a hike from Mlowe to Usisya. I arrived in Mzuzu at 5:30am. It’s been a long day and it’s only 8:30 but I figure now’s the time to tell the story. So Paige and I started on sunday I think. We hitched up to Chiweta, which is just past the escarpment in Karonga district in the north. We took a matola(small truck crammed with people) on a pleasant ride down a dirt road to a coastal town of Mlowe. There we just took a right down a road and kept walking for about four days. The road dwindled into a path pretty quickly and it mostly followed pretty closely along the lake shore. I had heard it can be hiked with two four hour days and a six hour day. We packed two loaved of peanut butter sandwiches and planned on inviting ourselves to eat with the locals.

The first day it was windy, really really windy. Clear and sunny but almost cold because of the wind. We hiked for about an hour, found a beach and went swimming. Stopped for lunch, got sima and goat! That’s pretty much how the story goes. We did that for a while the first day. Maybe 5+ hours. Ended up camping on a beach at Chisanga. It was a weird and beautiful place. Real secluded but apparently well off. I saw a lot of glass windows and iron rooves. While we sat on the beach recouping and waiting for dinner to be ready some kids swarmed. Some brought some tamarind and I found out that they are pretty good. Real sour. Like one or two will burn my tongue. I told them I liked them and they brought me a plastic grocery bag full of them. I still am eating them. We had rice and vegetables for dinner there. We also signed some guest book and heard stories about how other visitors stayed for weeks.

The next day the path got more treacherous. That’s the only word for it. It got a lot more narrow and sandy and high and rocky. I was using my hands to climb some hills, I wouldn’t say they were mountains. We would hike for kilometers on almost nothing but rock. Rock cut out of the side of a hill or placed there to maintain the path. We stopped and swam at a couple beaches ate some of our sandwiches for breakfast and snacks. This second day was overcast mostly. It got hot in the afternoon but soon the sun was behind the mountain so it wasn’t bad. We had gotten a much earlier start than other people who we had talked to so we had gotten further the first day and became ambitious the second day and tried to push through to Ruarwe(take some time figure out how to say it…now continue). We were starting to feel the wait of our packs and the Chaco sandals were starting to wear on our feet. After continously asking people how far to ruarwe and getting answers from three hours to one hour, though in no particular order and repeated multiple times we decided to stop. It was around 5:30pm when we stopped at Kandowe. We were beat and had probably done more like 6+ hours of hiking that day. I inquired if they had a resteraunt. They didn’t, however one of the guys we were talking to said he’d feed us. Awesome. He just lived at the top, the peak, the zenith, of this hill/mountain. I was again on my hands as I climbed up there. We had Usipa and cassava sima. I don’t mean to be an ingrate but I wasn’t pleased. Usipa is little fish about the length of your pinky and they let them dry in the sun and then they weren’t cooked. You eat them whole. I skipped the heads and left them in a little pile in the bowl. Lunch had been fish too, a little bigger different fish that was cooked. Though had still been left in the sun in preparation for the meal. Not the best marinade. Afterward we pretty much slid down the hill on our butts back to the beach and set up tents.

The third day we set off with the knowledge that when we asked how far to Ruarwe we were told 2-3hrs or 1hr if you were strong. What does that mean. We ended up taking about 2.5hrs. I guess we weren’t strong, I’m ok with that. That part was equally if not more treacherous with more steep steep hills and rocky precipices. We made it to Ruarwe around lunch time. We found out that it is about six hours to Usisya from there and decided not to stay the night there but to knock some hours out later that day, beach camp again and finish the next day. Also I had heard(incorrectly) that Usisya was the better lodge. So we stayed for lunch at Ruarwe. I tried to nap and did some snorkling too. We stayed there about four hours. It was a nice break. My feet were really hurting then. We finally left around three. Pushed on through some of the most hilly and landlocked part of the hike. It was crazy seeing the hills and the people just marching up and down them carrying water on their head or whatever. We reached a beach and camped around five. Ate only our sandwiches for dinner and had some coffee. I played a little guitar and we guyed out our tents to some beach ivy because for like 40min there was intense wind. It stopped when I finished tying them down and I don’t think it came back all night. Annoying but still necessary, the wind was blowing our tents over with our packs and stuff inside them. It had to be done.

The next day we did about three and a half hours and made it to Usisya. Thats when we found out the inferiority of it. It was ok, we were glad to be finished. I had blisters and a sore heel and it was nice to not have to walk anymore that day. It felt kind of like when Jenn and I got to Likoma though. Just very unsatisfying. The kicker was when we found out the 5am matola out actually is a 2am matola. I decided not to sleep and made a liter of instant coffee. It didn’t help, I found this hanging bed, it was amazing. I slept. Only to find out that the 2am matola was actually a 1am matola and we were late. So we basically ran to the thing half asleep with my feet screaming and my pack half closed. I had heard stories of this matola. I was hoping to plan this whole trip around avoiding this matola. I envisioned a small brown pickup with about thirty people plus stuff in it skidding its way up this mountain ledge. I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be what we(and I think the UK-ians also) call a lorry. Like a big flat bed but with like two foot sides. So we crammed in this thing sitting on crates of empty beer bottles and usipa coming to the market in mzuzu and climbed our way up a surprisingly well maintained path/road. I was on a bag of fish, pinched between some luggage and a wall. Fortunately not the cliff side. I almost slept on the thing although it was cold and windy up through those hills and the constant honking to wake up any one who might want a ride didn’t help. The trail took us about two and a half hours through the mountains under a full moon and then we just appeared in Mzuzu at dawn. The road we came in on I didn’t think left town, just looped around. I was wrong. Now I’m here, showered up, sore and tired. I got some sweet photos though, of course.

Oh an amusing story. We were hiking past this house, there was a small dog(all the dogs are small), it was barking it’s head off. I turned my head slowly to look at it and it yelped and ran away inside. Just freaked out and ran off. I mean, I scare babies but dogs are a new one for me.

TJ, he gone

by Dom on August 11th, 2008

So TJ came. We had a good time. Though it started out a bit hectic. See he had decided he wanted to do something famous while he was here and after talking him out of climbing Kilimanjaro he decided he wanted to do Victoria Falls so he bought his tickets to fly out of Lusaka, Zambia instead of Malawi. So that made a lot of plans a bit awkward. I had wanted to do the lakeshore hike and maybe camp in Liwonde national park and hike Mulanje but there would be no time to get to Lusaka after all that. Once he got here he thought he wanted to go really far north but then there wouldn’t have been time for Victoria falls, we would have just had a few extra days in limbo killing time. Not the best way to vacation.

So what happened was after he flew in we stayed in Lilongwe a night and then went up to my house for a night and tried to strategize. We woke up deciding to skip Malawi and go straight to Zambia so we would have time to do both Victoria falls and South Luangwa national park. See one of our hitches just came from the park and claimed it was like being in the middle of National Geographic. So that sold TJ. We walked out to hitch around 9, a lazy morning, and then decided, yet again, that we would let fate decide. I stood on the northbound side of the road to flag at the traffic towards the lake and he stood on the southbound side to flag at traffic that would take us to Zambia. I got a ride and off to Nkhata Bay we went.

We stayed there a couple days, got a discount on a chalet because of booking confusion, sweet! Swam a lot, ate a lot, walked a lot. It was cool. We then left early to try to get to Zambia in a day. We made it. We got a hitch down the scenic lakeshore road with a South African. He had something to do with the Uranium mine in the north. He was difficult to understand. He got there in enough time to hitch out to the border and on to Chipata though, so that was cool. Chipata was cool, like a big Mzuzu, except I broke my sunglasses Jenn had brought me pretty much the instant I got there. I did find some pretty sweet replacements though as you’ll see when I can post some photos.

Anyway hung there for a night, met some people, drank some beer, the usual. In the morning we hitched out to South Luangwa. Got a truckbed ride down a 100k dirt road for a couple hours. It’s pretty hot there too for it being winter and all. This is where we encountered the only problem of the trip. The place we got dropped was booked, it being busy season and all. So we had them call around and find us someplace else, and then because there were like elephants and hippos blocking the path to the bar and everwhere else, they had to drive us to this other place the booked for us. It was called croc valley or croc farm or something. There weren’t many crocs where ever it was. We stayed there one full day, did two drives and saw pretty much everything but cheetahs and rhino. We saw elephants, hippos, crocs, buffalo, giraffe, lion, leopard, hyenas, etc. Pretty sweet. The hyena laugh still haunts my dreams, it was pretty creepy. It worked out because TJ had decided he needed to stay until we saw some lions and we saw some the second ride. Convenient when trying to get to Vic Falls. So we made some friends and got a ride back to Chipata in the back with luggage. We got there it was no hassle which was nice.

Again, stayed there a night, met some people, drank some beer, the usual. Then we hitched to Lusaka. Got a free ride with some nice locals and found the suggested hostel with open beds. Stayed there one night and decided to take a bus to Livingstone, the Zambia border town closest to the falls. It wasn’t the best choice. The 8hr bus ride was not very pleasant on the rough roads. So much so that when we left we reverted to our hitch hiking ways. But we got there and again found the suggested hostel with available beds. It was a pretty cool place. Colorful, informative, except there was a lady there that was quite rude. I heard rumors that she didn’t like the busy season. She more seemed to not like her life, but that’s just what I saw. We never spoke about it though. That place had an interesting policy of not keeping your bed unless you had paid for it; which made for some worrisome days when we forgot to pay. Fearing we would return with our stuff in the office and some random traveler in our bed. It never happened though.

The first day we missed the free transport down to the falls from the hostel and so we walked and hitched and eventually got a taxi. We had a great time. We did the normal thing walking around the park taking picturing and getting wet in the spray. Then we hiked down this path to the run-off, the first rapid, called the boiling pot. It was rocky and wet and cool. Climbed around a bit, found a little somewhat calm pool if you will and took a swim. The water was pretty cold and every now and then a big rush would flood the thing and make me fear I was being washed out to swim the rapids. Which really did look like fun, especially after hiking around under that hot Zambian sun all day. After that we decided to try to figure out how to get on the other side of the falls. We had seen, before going, there was a pool at the brink of the falls that you could swim in. While we were taking pictures we saw some people over there so we wanted to check it out ourselves. We found a rasta guide to show us the way. He took us to some nice spots for photos and then showed us the pool. It was pretty crazy. Our guide showed us some points we could jump in. And we did. They were about five or ten meters up. A good jump. We waived to the tourists on the normal side and dove in, well feet first, clenching our butt so as not to be cleansed. Again the water was cold, but invigorating, especially being so close to the falls. I’ll definitely try to post some photos when I get a chance. The only downfall to that trip was that I lost my knife. A real bummer but I figure theres no better place to lose a knife than one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Once the swimming was done, I walked over to the Zimbabwean border and got ripped off for a ten million dollar note. I think I paid the equivalent of about twenty two cents. Oh well, it’s a nice souvenir I’m told. It has an expiration date on it. A smart idea, if a bit funny I thought.

After that we hitched back. The next day we did a rafting trip. It was probably the highlight of the whole trip. It wasn’t actually rafting, it was riverboarding, you just had to go with the rafters. I had never heard of this or seen it anywhere, but what it is is they give you short fins, a boogie board, a helmet and lifejacket and you basically swim the rapids. It really made regular rafting seem like a cakewalk. The water was cold and as anyone that’s been diving with me knows, I get cold easily, I was shaking the whole time. It was awesome though, just awesome! They would pick us up and raft us over the calm sections and drop us back in right before a rapid. We’d strategize a bit with out guide and then swim as hard as we could accordingly, which was normally against the very strong current. By the end of the trip my feet just flapped behind my legs my ankles were so beat. The next day my thumbs were sore from my deathgrip the deathgrip I had on my board the whole time. I only thought I was going to die about four times too, it was great. Saw some crocodiles, unfortunately they only stayed on the shore in the sun. I thought it would be pretty funny to see one of those things flopping it’s way down those crazy rapids beside me. That river was really deep and it was crazy to feel the currents underneath. They’d pull your legs all over the place. The whole thing was just intense. Afterwards they gave us beers and lunch which went well with the breakfast they provided before the trip. We watched the video they made and got ripped off buying the photos they took. I’ll post some of those when I can too. That was pretty much day two.

Day three, there, we just walked around and hung out and recovered. Nothing too special. Went shopping in the curios, watched the new texas chainsaw massacre, and animal planet while eating lunch, weird. Then we hitched back to Lusaka the next day and TJ flew out and I hitched again, back to Chipata. In all my wisdom I left my credit cards in TJ’s bag too, so I hope they enjoy their trip to Europe.

Overall it was a great time. Back in Lilongwe now sorting out my bank stuff and preparing for COS conference. Hazah! (oh yeah, my pink eye is better.)

Jon and Emily

by Dom on June 27th, 2008

So Jon and Emily came and went. It was a great time. We spent a few days at my house where they saw me teach and helped me get water. We spent some time in Lilongwe doing fourth of July stuff and we went to the lake for a few days as well. I was impressed with how they handled all the situations. Like they were old pro’s or something. They were so easy it was great. They even cleaned my house and filled up all my water buckets while I was teaching the last day we were there.

It was nice for others to see the kind of things I get to face day in and day out. Like sweet random hitches and food that almost tastes American. We all actually thought it did taste American until Jon corrected us. Out of a room of 10 I think half did a double take when he said nik naks tasted nothing like cheetoh’s. Amusing. I got him hooked on bao. I just hope he finds people to play with besides Emily, cause I know she’ll get tired of it. If he doesn’t I just keep whooping him when I get back, well he did beat me two consecutive times and deemed himself the bao champion and started talking smack to Malawians saying he was the best. I don’t think he ever let them challenge his title though. He also was kind enough to bring a soccer ball for my school which was in desperate need of one. Though now, two weeks later, it’s almost unrecognizable from the bunch. It’s amazing how they treat things.

I think they had a good time. It was stressed by some of my previous engagements but they were good sports about it and seemed to make the best of it all. We made it to the lake and thats all I really wanted to do. Now they’re home safe. Back reliable transportation and food, and traffic jams, mcdonalds and headaches. Although I think traffic fume headaches are worse than sun/boredom ones. I’m extremely glad they came and I think everyone enjoyed meeting friends of mine.

Mid-term Break and then some.

by Dom on May 24th, 2008

So all of a sudden my school informs me that next week is our mid-term break. We missed the usual times because of holiday swapping. They negated the republic day holiday I think, either that or freedom day, and reinstated Kamuzu day… So here I am. It’s gonna be a busy break, because I feel like I should be using this time to research schools, but I have a bike training in Mzuzu later this week and then I’m picking Jon and Emily up at the airport! I’m real excited for them arriving, but real nervous about applying to schools. Just sitting at site with the days coming and going only being marked by new math topics makes me feel like I’m going to inevitably be late for all my deadlines. If you’re curious, I’m interested in a Masters in Industrial Design.

Last weekend though, I went down to Yulanda’s site and helped her run a workshop on how to teach math and science. It was pretty interesting but I didn’t realize it was going to be all me. I thought there was more going on, or I was just an assistant, but no, it was all me. I didn’t have much, but it was nice because it made me make it more interactive. We just discussed common problems and how to overcome them. I showed them some fun science experiments. The ones I used for my science weekend. I finished up teaching how to change from one base to another. It was a good time though a bit disconcerting initially.

Also, I don’t think I talked about this but I had a student come find me after classes because he wanted to show me a snake he found. He said he found it on the way to school in the morning. He pulled it out of a log. He said it was hit by a car. I asked how big it was and he pointed to a small tree. I was curious. It was like a 40min walk down and across the river along the road. It was obvious where he left it, there was a small crowd. It was reassuring to see the people because he was worried someone would have taken it “some people eat them” he said; alluding to the unscrupulousness of the people who engage in that. It turned out to be about a 6′-7′ python about as thick as my forearm. It was definitely dead. An interesting site nonetheless.

So I raced some form twos. I won. We ran the width of the soccer field. Twice. I beat them both times. HA. They asked me to come to sports later to teach them how to run fast. They actually said you should come to sports to teach them how to run. Except that whole L and R thing made me think he was saying learn. I didn’t understand him for like 5 minutes. It was amusing. I showed him how to do lunges.

One last thing, have you guys seen this madonna video on Malawi? It’s, uh, a bit intense. The mushroom cloud is a bit much. There aren’t any child soldiers here that I know of. There are little kids working in the fields and carrying bricks. That’s pretty standard. And of course AIDS is pretty bad, I can’t say I have much first hand experience though since I’m not in the health field. But geez, dramatic.