It has been a total rollercoaster couple of weeks for our Theodora Project.
In January we were sitting pretty. We had raised enough money to fund five months of activity and had a good number of quality prospects for more.
Then things started to go sideways. I went to Ghana in February. It was productive as I reported with us getting commitments to space, computer training and behavior training. But we were still not able to fund our project because of problems getting the partner NGO set up to receive money. I got back on Feb 25, as it turns out just in the nick of time. Just a week later the travel restrictions and personal movement restrictions start piling up.
I am supposed to go back to Ghana with Wife in April but that's not going to happen. And that is when we are thinking we will start-up of the program. With me not being there, I am having to lean on my partner for things that are way out of his skill set comfort zone in order to set up the program. He is working with a number of people but I am not meeting any of them and am questioning whether anyone recognizes the issues that we have to deal here in the U.S. in terms of fundraising, doing work, etc.
We go through March and the accounts still aren't open. We still can't move money. I still don't have clarity on exactly what the teaching program is or how we are going to instill accountability. Finally, this week, Wife and I make a decision on a different way of moving the money. We have a meeting with our women on Wednesday. We are almost ready to fund but I still don't have answers to a ton of questions which is making me very uneasy. I am asking that I be able to meet with the others he is recruiting so we can talk things through but am not getting any response. And then the Ghanaian government says the major cities will be locked down starting Monday...effectively making our training plan not feasible.
My partner doesn't seem to get this so I send off a rather terse email to him and two others he has recruited to help but who I haven't met listing all my issues and saying I am not funding anything until we think through how we deal with the changing environment. He is pissed. I am pissed. But I reiterate that we need to talk and not just blindly go forward.
The meeting is set up overnight for 7 AM my time this morning. I get up early enough to get an agenda out. The meeting goes incredibly well. The two others my partner recruited are top-notch. They have great questions. They are good problem-solvers. They are ready to devote time and effort into what we are doing in a hands-on way.
We revise our program based upon the work opportunity we possibly have. We cut some of our expenses and make some changes that help cash flow. This program looks quite a bit different but I think in some ways it even better reflects where our women are. I think we are going to be able to move them faster and quicker into being productive.
After it all, both partner and I are feeling pretty good. Somehow we have made lemonade out of lemons. At a time when many programs are going backward, we are going to go forward.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Monday, March 23, 2020
How Much Time Have I Been Traveling Anyway?
Thus far in the highly restricted state that defines our new normal for the current time, I have managed to maintain a very busy business schedule. Whether for my paid gig or for Theodora Ghana, I am maintaining pretty close to the same level of meetings I would in the pre-Covid-19 world.
Yet, I have way more time. Why? Because all my meetings are virtual...most via video though some are phone only. And whether it is here in New Mexico where I would have been driving to and from meetings, out-of-state meetings flying to Chicago or California or my numerous trips to Ghana, they apparently take up a huge amount of my time.
I wonder once this crisis has abated and we are allowed to get out if I will travel as much as I have in the past. I'd like to think not but I suspect that I will. Because as effective as working virtually is, I actually like getting out and going places. Always have. Always will I suspect.
Yet, I have way more time. Why? Because all my meetings are virtual...most via video though some are phone only. And whether it is here in New Mexico where I would have been driving to and from meetings, out-of-state meetings flying to Chicago or California or my numerous trips to Ghana, they apparently take up a huge amount of my time.
I wonder once this crisis has abated and we are allowed to get out if I will travel as much as I have in the past. I'd like to think not but I suspect that I will. Because as effective as working virtually is, I actually like getting out and going places. Always have. Always will I suspect.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Slightly Manic/Depressive But Mostly Up
Like all of us living in the locked-down (or nearly locked-down) world of Covid-19, it is an interesting exercise adjusting one's living patterns, work patterns and emotional patterns. I find myself bouncing around between being very depressed and morose to being very positive and upbeat.
On the depressive side, I simply don't have any confidence that our governments are truly doing crisis management with a depth of understanding. We know that as a country the U.S. ignored the planning that was necessary to be good crisis managers. Now we are seeing our political leaders basically winging it in a very dynamic environment with a ton of interrelated variables, many of which the leaders don't understand. This is particularly true of the economic variables. To hear leaders and pundits say the economy has the possibility of going into a recession is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard. You can't completely shut down vast portions of the economy and not have a recession result. Money has to flow in an economy for it to function. When you stop that flow, economies implode. It's that simple. So lock down an entire economy for months at a time and you are going to have a recession if not a depression. So as I hear our leaders and pundits seemingly wondering about this, I go into a funk because they clearly don't understand the consequences of their decisions.
So much for the depressive. Now for the positive...maybe even manic side. I am as busy as ever. I have replaced my entire business schedule with virtual meetings. I would say some of these are more productive than they would have been in person. I was to go to California this week. #1 had set up four meetings related to Theodora. We held each virtually. They were great successes with lots of good thoughts and follow-up ideas. I have had numerous meetings with clients and networking connections. I am impressed with the amount of positive thinking trying to figure out how best to make it through this environment. It gives me hope that even if our governments won't be good stewards of the economy that maybe the participants will!
One thing that is nice. Each of my days is full of activity, thinking, planning, building, working. I may be restrained physically but not mentally or emotionally.
On the depressive side, I simply don't have any confidence that our governments are truly doing crisis management with a depth of understanding. We know that as a country the U.S. ignored the planning that was necessary to be good crisis managers. Now we are seeing our political leaders basically winging it in a very dynamic environment with a ton of interrelated variables, many of which the leaders don't understand. This is particularly true of the economic variables. To hear leaders and pundits say the economy has the possibility of going into a recession is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard. You can't completely shut down vast portions of the economy and not have a recession result. Money has to flow in an economy for it to function. When you stop that flow, economies implode. It's that simple. So lock down an entire economy for months at a time and you are going to have a recession if not a depression. So as I hear our leaders and pundits seemingly wondering about this, I go into a funk because they clearly don't understand the consequences of their decisions.
So much for the depressive. Now for the positive...maybe even manic side. I am as busy as ever. I have replaced my entire business schedule with virtual meetings. I would say some of these are more productive than they would have been in person. I was to go to California this week. #1 had set up four meetings related to Theodora. We held each virtually. They were great successes with lots of good thoughts and follow-up ideas. I have had numerous meetings with clients and networking connections. I am impressed with the amount of positive thinking trying to figure out how best to make it through this environment. It gives me hope that even if our governments won't be good stewards of the economy that maybe the participants will!
One thing that is nice. Each of my days is full of activity, thinking, planning, building, working. I may be restrained physically but not mentally or emotionally.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
No Society Can Afford To Save Everyone And Survive
I was listening to the television today. The Governor of New York made the following statement. (I paraphrase). "If it takes us shutting down our entire economy to save 5,000 lives, we will do it. Life is invaluable. We will do whatever it takes to save a life."
This is so wrong.
In fact, no society has the economic capability to save all lives. The world we live in has limits. If you have ever studied power curves you know that it takes more and more resources to achieve smaller and smaller results as you approach trying to attain 100% results. All systems that work understand this. One simply does not have the resources to achieve perfection. You will use up all your resources in the attempt.
Our society has been on this "avoid all pain and all loss no matter the cost" for a long time now. There is no way we can afford to do this. Now I will and do accept that this pandemic is one that may call for extraordinary efforts. But believe me, on this, the pain and loss from shutting down our entire world economy will be much greater and devastating to people than our leaders are calculating or acknowledging. They glibly say we should all be in this together for the greater good. But they will not be the ones who will see massive losses of their incomes as all the hourly and gig economy workers will. They will not be the ones on the margins of society who see the equation of their well-being tip to unstainable. They will make sure that the elite are made whole but the ordinary people will be the ones who will take years upon years to recover as they always do.
A healthy biosphere as to cull itself. Not all can or should survive. (And believe me, I know I am in the high-risk group that this disease is targeting and may well be the one culled!) Fight this yes. But understand that there is should be an acceptable level of loss. That is reality.
This is so wrong.
In fact, no society has the economic capability to save all lives. The world we live in has limits. If you have ever studied power curves you know that it takes more and more resources to achieve smaller and smaller results as you approach trying to attain 100% results. All systems that work understand this. One simply does not have the resources to achieve perfection. You will use up all your resources in the attempt.
Our society has been on this "avoid all pain and all loss no matter the cost" for a long time now. There is no way we can afford to do this. Now I will and do accept that this pandemic is one that may call for extraordinary efforts. But believe me, on this, the pain and loss from shutting down our entire world economy will be much greater and devastating to people than our leaders are calculating or acknowledging. They glibly say we should all be in this together for the greater good. But they will not be the ones who will see massive losses of their incomes as all the hourly and gig economy workers will. They will not be the ones on the margins of society who see the equation of their well-being tip to unstainable. They will make sure that the elite are made whole but the ordinary people will be the ones who will take years upon years to recover as they always do.
A healthy biosphere as to cull itself. Not all can or should survive. (And believe me, I know I am in the high-risk group that this disease is targeting and may well be the one culled!) Fight this yes. But understand that there is should be an acceptable level of loss. That is reality.
Making Lemonade From Lemons
How quickly life changes, No? We are all in sort of freefall as the effects of the world's reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic are turning into an almost complete closedown of public and economic life.
Wife and I had a big trip planned to start on March 31. That clearly isn't happening. Actually, we had pulled the plug on it a few days before the shit really hit the fan in terms of countries closing their borders and international travel grinding to a halt. I also had a couple of business trips planned but they are going by the wayside as well.
At first, I was really bummed, especially since there is work that we need to be doing in Ghana for Theodora Project. But there is nothing I can do about it. I will work through our people there until such time as travel resumes. But as it became clear that it wasn't just me but that the whole world was going on hold, I started to look at all the positive things this would mean for me.
Wife and I had a big trip planned to start on March 31. That clearly isn't happening. Actually, we had pulled the plug on it a few days before the shit really hit the fan in terms of countries closing their borders and international travel grinding to a halt. I also had a couple of business trips planned but they are going by the wayside as well.
At first, I was really bummed, especially since there is work that we need to be doing in Ghana for Theodora Project. But there is nothing I can do about it. I will work through our people there until such time as travel resumes. But as it became clear that it wasn't just me but that the whole world was going on hold, I started to look at all the positive things this would mean for me.
- I get some badly needed rest from the high-energy life I've been running the last year or so
- I will be able to hike and get back into shape which I haven't been able to do
- I will be spending a heck of a lot less money
- I will be able to focus on my local business (even if I have to do it virtually) and hopefully get my income up as well.
- I have a bunch of special things for my lunches in my freezer that I haven't been able to eat since I am hardly ever here.
Friday, March 6, 2020
Return Of The Prodigal Niece or How I Learned To Love the Bombe
Of all the many far-flung members of our families, our niece RMG, holds a very special place in our hearts. We bonded during a difficult time in her life when she came to New Mexico to regroup after a bad experience. Now the fact that as de-I Sandia Outfitter's Catering and Restaurant Division at that time was in need of cheap labor, the fact that I had her work for peanuts in the kitchen of one of our holdings in no way colors the bond we built.
In the decade and a half that passed, she went on and got her Ph.D. in Physics, was married, widowed all too young, and we continue to stay in contact. We don't get to see her very often but when we do it is like having one of your children visit. And one of the things that we do when she arrives is MAKE SOME CRAZY ASS COMPLICATED DESSERT. Why we do this is not really clear since none of the three of us really like sweets that much. But it is something about the challenge. This year the challenge was BOMBE GLACEE...a confection that is essentially five different dessert components (cake, mousse, creme Anglaise, nut brittle and glaze) put into a mold so it comes out as a whole. It is really pretty decadent.
In the decade and a half that passed, she went on and got her Ph.D. in Physics, was married, widowed all too young, and we continue to stay in contact. We don't get to see her very often but when we do it is like having one of your children visit. And one of the things that we do when she arrives is MAKE SOME CRAZY ASS COMPLICATED DESSERT. Why we do this is not really clear since none of the three of us really like sweets that much. But it is something about the challenge. This year the challenge was BOMBE GLACEE...a confection that is essentially five different dessert components (cake, mousse, creme Anglaise, nut brittle and glaze) put into a mold so it comes out as a whole. It is really pretty decadent.
Bombe Glacee Play-by-Play
The Brain Trust
Wife and RMG charting out the battle plan
21 Steps in this recipe!
All hands! Man, your Battlestations!
My one major contribution other than doing clean up
Feeding them
Homemade pasta cacio e pepe
(Which by the way turned out freaking awesome)
Now back to the making of the Bombe!
(How appropriate since we are in New Mexico where they also made The Bomb)
Creme Anglaise
Brittle of Almond Slices
We have a gap in our recitation because I took a nap and missed about 8 steps
:(
When I came back it was time to unmold the Bombe
Success!
Adding the Glaze
And the final touch of the Brittle of Almond Slices
Our team basking in the glory of success
Time to serve
Denouement
The Bombe was so rich and sweet that we knew we could not get close to eating it all. So Wife and I brought it to our Rotary Club...where they devoured it practically to the last crumb!
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