Aged Rockers - A de-I/Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel Revival

 If you are older than 25, you have had the experience of that group you loved years ago doing some sort of reunion concert or tour. If you are an old, old rocker, you have the agony of watching these fellow overweight, sagging geezers, who used to be the hot stars, trying to revive their past (in many cases because they've mismanaged their money). 

I have long suspected that the supernatural powers that control the demi-deities of frustrating human existence actually make individual avatars of the master dem-deity for each human. Hence the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel that was first identified by daughter #3 about 15-years ago, is in fact not the same entity that has been the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel with whom I have faced off. 

I have previously noted that it seems like the fire of our battles are a mere shadow of what they were in their prime. Hence, when I saw that the weather was going to be terrible in the Northeast US where I needed to fly on Saturday night, I was not surprised when I got messages from Delta airlines that my flight had been canceled.

There are not a whole lot of ways to get from Accra, Ghana back to the US on any one given airline. Plus I had issues like my Covid test expiring before I could leave, where I would stay, etc., etc. All the kind of things that my worthy foe MUPGT would be gloating over. In the even, it really didn't take all that long to rebook a flight and I was able to get another test, and stay in the same apartment for a day. It all had this feel, as I mentioned above, of MUPGT and I just going through the motions for old times sake. 

But to be honest. I am just as glad to not have all the drama. Hopefully will be home by Monday night.

The Joys Of Accra Apartment Living

Ghana - pronounced in this case with an exaggerated first a - sort of elongated and exhaled - Ghaaaana. To be accompanied by a shaking of one's head in resignation.

This is an exclamation I here often driving here with my long-time driver F (met within the first 20 minutes of my stepping outside the terminal on day one of trip one in February 2019) and my longest tenured VA whom I've known almost as long. The expression is typically used when we encounter any of the myriad inanities or frustrations that crop up in a lean economy like Ghana. It is sort of like when you bitch and bitch about something. Then you use this as the catch-all term for 'What can you do? That's the way it is?"

I feel that way about renting short-stay apartments here.

 I have now made 10 trips to Ghana and have stayed in apartments in all but the first two trips. To be charitable, let's just say that the standard for workmanship and maintenance in short-term rental units is a bit lacking. There is literally always something not working. The apartment I have been in on this trip and the last, has a refrigerator that sort of keeps food cold, a fan/light hood over the stove that doesn't seem to be connected to any electrical power, an ironing board with no cover, a washing machine with no rack or lines for hanging clothes to dry. The internet modem was on its last legs and would go down at least once a day (It was replaced.) All these are kind of...well...what you expect. But I had an experience that was totally novel during the trip. 

Last Sunday, I was eating lunch when there was a knock at my door. It is my next neighbor. Their air conditioning unit is not working. The unit is on the roof. The only way to reach the unit is by placing a ladder on the balcony of my unit! Of course, I said it was okay, I didn't want people to go without A/C. Through out the afternoon, people are going up and down, in and out, bringing new A/C units up and old one's down. All the while trying to not destroy my apartment and looking sheepishly at me.

Sunday evening arrives and they are not done. They want to come back on Monday but I will be in the office all day. It is not until Thursday that I am in the apartment and they can finish. 

Now I am thinking...Who designs the utilities of a building so they can only be reached by going through a 3rd party's unit? There is no other way to get to the roof of this apartment complex? Seems weird.

Ghana.

Transformation

What a change four months make. When I was in Ghana in September, I posted on the considerable progress we had made. But equally it was a very stressful trip due to numerous factors. 

Going into 2022, I put to bed the planning and presentation needed to seek out funding and got started actually looking for that funding. At the same time the team in Ghana has seemed to grow to a new level of understanding. 

A number of you have seen this but if you haven't, this 8-minute presentation done by two of our women at a virtual Rotary meeting just before New Years captures that change.

 Whereas a year ago, we were just hoping to prove that we could fulfill the promises we made of turning our candidates into real virtual assistants, we now have a clear plan for taking our proof-of-concept and turning it into the business we envisioned. 

And how about this for transformation? 

 What's special about this? This was taken after our first ever planning session including our Ghana Board of Directors, our management and our participants. That planning session was notable enough but this picture is what is more notable. It is our participants' decision to no longer hide their faces. When we began, the potential shame of being recognized publicly for what they had been led them to insisting their image not be made public. Now they are taking a lead in visibly and vocally being the image of change potential. 

We have a long way to go. But we have come a long way as well.