Back Home - Temporarily

Sunday I made the flight back to Albuquerque. There were minor inconveniences but (within the scope of air travel) for the most part the trip was uneventful. I even got back in early. 

I did another pretty good adjustment to the time zone changes and have been back in the swing of things here. I'm catching up with my few clients. Doing stuff needed by Wife in the house. 

BUT,

At the same time, we are working like crazy on the Eldership. For in exactly one week, it will be launched on another de-I / Wife travel adventure. 

The camera batteries are being charged. The packing is being arranged. Getting the prescriptions filled. Last minute shopping. Trying to get some of the house projects in some semblance of progress. 

But, get your vicarious travel thirst ready. Because by this time next week, Wife and I will be winging our way to Europe.

Back From Kumasi -Winding Up Trip

Everything went smoothly in Kumasi. My flights with Africa World Airlines were all on time. Weather was fine. AND, I had a really great meeting with the young man who heads up the Muslim Family Counseling Service's street children advocacy program. TM is an impressive person. He's energetic, with a positive attitude. He and his small team spend a lot of time out, in the environments where young people are ending up living on the streets because of lack of economic opportunity. As such, he and his organization are ideal partners for the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking's Economic Development Initiative. 

We spent most of the time I was there visiting actual environments where people are living and the different populations. This meant me getting out of my comfort zone and going rather deep into parts of the city I would never go on my own. But it was necessary in order to get the real picture.

Listen to TM in one of those environments, the Central Market

 We were able to reach a consensus on the specifics of demographics and modifications to the programs we want to approach. Hopefully, I will be able to have this second Pilot Project ready to kick-off by the first part of next year.

I was back in Accra on Thursday for a full day and evening of meetings both here and back in the U.S. Today I'm working from my apartment, wrapping things up and will be heading back to the USA on Saturday.

 

 

We Interrupt Are Normally Scheduled Program For A Bout Of Food Poisoning

Yup.

A full fledged, hanging over the toilet, both ends going food poisoning.

It has been a long-time since I've had anything remotely this bad, going back to Vietnam in 2016 (and we suspect that was a virus, and not food poisoning).

Last week Monday, I had lunch at the office. When I'm in Ghana I usually buy lunch for the team so we can all be in the office more. I had ordered Groundnut (peanut) Soup, something I've had many times before. It didn't taste that great so I didn't really eat much of it. 

That night it hit me, full force. I was so wiped out that on Tuesday I sent #2 to the Theodora meetings alone. I did nothing but drink hot water. I got a reasonable night's sleep which was good because we had to get up early in the morning to fly to Tamale. At the airport, I was hungry but afraid to eat. We did end up buying something and I didn't suffer any ill effects. In Tamale, I had local food again for lunch, again without any ill effects.

But on Thursday, suddenly things went wrong. I started to have intense acid burning in my stomach whenever I ate. At first, I thought it was a reaction to spicy food. But with some experimentation, it turned out to be anything, a piece of bread, a bowl of corn flakes, it didn't make a difference. And the effect was just after I age, it would last for hours. 

By this weekend, I was getting really concerned. I was doing my usual travel triage of starting to look for local MD referrals through our travel insurance app and composing messages to my home MD. I decided to try a couple more efforts to control the situation on the theory that I was producing too much acid in my stomach. I decided to get a very powerful acid reducer, Nexium, which I've used before with excellent results. And I got some unpasteurized yogurt. 

Happily I can report that they seem to have done the trick. Today I was able to eat normally without a sign of the issues I'd had previously.

Which is good because I'm off to Kumasi tomorrow for another step in expanding our Rotary EDI program.

Empress Pu In Ghana Photo Spectacular

Seeing is believing!

Signing Ceremony at the Rotary Club of Tamale 

 

 

Distribution of Rotary Swag...Always Appreciated

 

 Mandatory Group Shot

The Local Assemblyman warming up the crowd before de-I makes his first ever Economic Development Initiative talk to a Ghana local village. Thank you fellow Rotarians for the 5 minutes of prep time to prepare.

At Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants

Meeting with Rotarian Jonas (who has probably done more than anyone in Ghana to help this program move forward and succeed)

 

Presenting three of our women with Certificates for passing the Advanced Virtual Assistant certification

Theodora Team

The Emperess Pu In Theodora Land

Things are certainly different when the Dowager Empress Pu Lee Shah (aka #2) descends upon your humble African project to do her observation and inspection of what her vassal, de-I has been up to. The standards are much higher.

"de-I! Where is my large black gigantic SUV so I can lord around this African city?"

"Your Brilliance, I have gotten you a large, humongous SUV to take you around?"

"de-I, I said black, not dark grey. Are you blind? No self-respecting police escort is going to take me obnoxiously through traffic, disregarding anyone else's plans if my humongous SUV is not black. Go out back and flog yourself."

Of course, in all seriousness, nothing like this is occurring (though it would be kind of cool if it did 😂). Instead, we've had #2 here as the highly engaged and interested member of our Theodora Board and Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking co-President. She has been throwing herself into meeting virtually everyone involved with our project, all our Board members, critical advisors, team members, and has sat in on numerous of our team meetings. She has reengaged the local Non-Profit Board and has found ways she can contribute in that area within the context of her own responsibilities. It has been great.

Of course, this wouldn't be Ghana without the usual number of 'things not working'. 

We started with the apartment I have been using lately, not having running water. That sucked. But I was to move to a separate Airbnb to house #2. It had water, but no hot water. Then the office is having water supply issues. 

Then there was #2 having a flight delay and getting in a day later. That wasn't a Ghana issue but a British Airways issue. 

Lastly, #2 and I took a day trip to the northern city of Tamale to inaugurate the first Pilot Project of Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking's Economic Development Initiative. More on that in the next post.

On The Road Again And Back To Ghana

I leave tomorrow for Ghana and back to my normal business routine. 

 Accept things are not really normal. In a good way. 

With Theodora, through a number of separate situations we are in solidly profitable situation for the first time in...well forever! There is still a lot to be done to get this to a fully functional, independent business, but it is well on its way. And if the goal was just to set up this small group as successes, we'd be fine. But, our ambition is much greater, to use this model to help many, many more women. So we will be working on lots of projects to both solidify our current success, and to build the basis for expansion.

But on top of this, there is the development of the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking (RCEHT) Economic Development Initiative (EDI). We have our first pilot project ready to be initiated in the northern Ghana city of Tamale. In addition we have another potential partner in the city of Kumasi. So, I will be visiting both of those cities during this trip. 

AND, to make things even more interesting, daughter #2 who is a co-President of my Rotary Club and on my own non-profit's board as well, will be visiting with a whirlwind four-day visit. She will be checking out Theodora first-hand, meeting all the key people, and will be joining me in visiting Tamale and the members of the Rotary Club of Tamale for a formal signing ceremony of our Memorandum of Understanding on the project. 

So lots happening. It has taken a lot of effort to get things in place both for the trip and business at home. So I'm tired. But I actually look forward to my long international flights where I can unplug and just let my energies renew.