All's Well That Ends Well

Despite all the intensity, illness, fatigue, angst, and questioning of this trip, it has all ended up on a very high note. 

I personally was incredibly productive cranking out fundraising campaigns, business development campaigns, and content for both. I've worked with my local board and had multiple meetings with them and my new local manager. I sat in the office today and listened as she effortlessly handled a new business prospect and closed same. I saw a level of quiet intense work in the office each day. I enjoyed the tranquility of our new office that is so quiet compared to our prior one. I'm feeling good about the transition that is taking place. As I stated in the last post, I'm not sure where I will be in all this but I'm sure it will be 'the right place.

On A Different Note

 I saw this image on one of my people's computers

This is my inner cat

And a special Ghanaian 

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

I love a sign that leaves little doubt as to the message.

 

Transition 8.5.4. 2025 (Ghana)

Back in July of 2024, I wrote a post related to transition. In that post, I expressed a realization that while I constantly looked for definitive 'transition points' in my life development, what was really happening was a never ending of transitions. (Having been watching things related to physics lately, I think of this like the electron which is in multiple points of time/space at the same time.)

Thus we have come to yet another of these points, this one dealing with the Theodora Project in Ghana. I gave my update in July where I went through our crisis of the first half of 2025 and how via local engagement, we overcame it. This was my first time back to actually see and feel what that meant. 

It has been both deeply encouraging and stressful at the same time.

If you have raised children to their becoming adult, you are aware of this experience. You want them to become independent. But as they start doing that, they start pushing you away. You are happy and encouraged that they are finding their independent way. Yet you are hurt that you are no longer that central part of their life. It opens a hole in your heart. And that hurts. A lot of what has been going on during this trip fits into this category. That's the stressful part.

Encouraging, however, is the incredibly increased engagement by the Ghana Board of Directors. For years, they have been mostly window dressing. As mentioned in the crisis post, they came to the rescue in the time of need. Now they are providing the level of engagement that the participant manager is going to need to go forward. 

And I am left with wondering how this will all play out for me. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I've made huge progress building out our fundraising program and part of our business development program as well. There are still things I need to do to train a business development person. And I still have the strategic vision that is needed. But for the first time in six-years, I am leaving Ghana without a clear idea of if I will be returning. It will be interesting to see how things play out. 

Exhaustion

I spent about 4 hours yesterday just lying on a couch. Literally. Just lying there. Not sleeping. Just lying and not wanting to move. 

There has been and is a lot to get done this trip. It is crucial to Theodora that I extricate myself from management in order that it become self-sufficient. But to do that, especially with very limited people resources available on site, actually means more work in the sort term. 

Day-to-day management has been completely taken over. That's a big plus. Passing on the more strategic tasks are going to be harder. The two big things on the list are mapping out our first ever significant fundraising campaign (I will do a detailed post on that shortly), and putting into place a replicable business development system not requiring me. The first has the most time urgency as the end of the year is the big fundraising period. The later is inhibited by a chicken and egg situation...namely we need a local person to train and all local people are needed to do billable work. 

In order to accomplish these, I have been working extensively to create the systems, processes, and content to hand over to the team. This has meant going into our office and basically working 7 to 8 hours straight at a desk. That doesn't sound like that much does it. But, in reality, I haven't worked that way in, I don't know, ever! My work days when I do work are more about having all kinds of meetings, being able to get out, move around, etc. I tend to work in smaller spurts. 

Last night and yesterday I was hit with some kind of mild lower intestinal disorder, no doubt something I ate. I didn't get a good night's sleep. That combined with the amount of working, seemed to push me over the edge to where my body said, "de-I YOU are going to rest." Of course I said, "Body, I have a lot to do. I don't have time for this." It said, "You don't understand. YOU ARE GOING TO REST." and with that it was on the couch.

I got a good night's sleep. My innards seem to have settled down. It is Saturday and I am not going to do any kind of work.

AI Working With AI (Ancient Intelligence Working With Artificial Intelligence)

I had a lot of work, A LOT of work to get done coming to Ghana. Big projects related to fundraising and business development requiring detailed process development and content creation. It is hard to do these kinds of work when I'm home because my days often have meetings (physical and virtual) and I (at least) need uninterrupted blocks of time to do massive process and content work. I have been looking forward having numerous days relatively free from interruptions to do this work here in Ghana.

What I did not expect was a massive leap into the use of AI to assist me. 

Over the last month, I have been dabbling. I had used it mostly to edit and reformat written content and for some research. I had not used it to map out an entire campaign. But on the flight out, I had layovers and I tried for the first time to put into AI (I am just using ChatGPT at this point) a request for developing an entire campaign. That led into developing ideal target definitions. This led into the creation of separate documents to be used in the campaign.

There were things I wanted done by my team that were going to stretch their capabilities. I was able to generate instructions and scripts that took into account the strengths and frailties of my people. 

I am learning how to iterate. By that I mean, give the AI a set of instructions, edit the response, and ask the tool for what additional instructions would assist making the work output more in line with my desire.

I know I am just taking baby steps. I have not succeeded in creating any fully formed, formatted end products. I am giving things to my team to for them to do final formatting. I find when I ask Chat to create an original document, my prompts (instructions) don't seem to be clear enough and it comes out not very close to what I desire. On the other hand, when I give it content I've written and ask it to make it more impactful, or more emotional, or more concise, I get much better results. 

On the whole however, I have gotten WAY MORE done over the couple of days I've been here than I would have thought. So I'm looking forward to see what else I can learn about using this tool.

Transit, Arrival, Settling In, Difficulties Of Inter-Cultural Networking

Truly by Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel standards it wasn't all that bad. Going to Ghana I flew from Albuquerque to Denver to Washington, D.C. and then on to Accra, Ghana. I knew the last flight was going to be late because I got a notification. Unfortunately, even with the late notification, the flight was even later so we all stood there waiting to board for an hour beyond the announced time. 

For those affectionados of business class flying, there is quite a wide range of quality between airlines food offerings. United made a big Hoo Ha when it unveiled its special Polaris cabin, seats, and lounges. Initially the food quality took a big jump up. But lately it has become decidedly 'Meh'. In particular, there seems to be a ban on salt. Everything is very bland. And the salt shakers on the individual trays don't seem actually put out any salt. Then there is breakfast. Breakfasts on flights, even business class, tend to be very 'meh' as well. This flight took that to a new level of insipidness with the introduction of the Egg White Bite, little like blobs of tasteless egg whites. Why the airline has decided that we need to be conscious of our egg yolk intake is beyond me.

As we took off late, we of course arrived late. This meant that instead of us being the only flight arriving, that there were four other large international flight arrivals so the small Accra airport was packed. However, as the experienced traveler I am, I got off the plane right away, bounded to the health and passport check-in, got the shortest line and was through in about 15 minutes. Amazing...

....only to wait over an hour for my bags to finally show up. 

I was picked up by my people. It was so late we went out to get something to eat. I had some stir-fried noodles that were mercifully full of flavor. 

The weekend was mostly about shopping for food and doing food prep for the week. On my agenda this trip is making rounds to various Rotary Clubs to increase the visibility of Theodora and Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking. It has been awhile since I did this and I had forgotten some of the cultural differences. 

In the U.S., people like to talk about themselves. In a networking environment, it is not hard to get a conversation going. In Ghana, nobody trusts anybody, so they give out as little information as possible. This leads to your white American asking a bunch of questions and getting one word answers in response. The better technique is to just wait until the meeting is over and you've given your promotional blur. Then those who are interested come over to you.

On Friday, we did have a virtual meeting on the grant where the Muslim Family Counseling Representative put his actual signature on the application, making it official. We're hoping we have everything we need to submit it today, Monday.

Off To Ghana Again

I sort of dodged a bullet as United Airlines (whom I'm flying this time) had system wide IT related stoppage yesterday. All seems on time today.

It is going to be an interesting trip given recent events. I've been working hard preparing for the trip as we want to greatly improve our fundraising effort this year and start building a true, sustainable business development system not dependent on me.

And we are in the last phases of getting a grant from Rotary International for recruiting and training AND we have a commitment from the Muslim Family Counseling Service in Ghana to be our partner. I will write more about this as I think it is pretty big deal for us. 

Have to rush to my first flight. More to come.

Disappointment

Not much newsworthy took place this past week. And the only thing that was, was a disappointment. 

Wife went into the foot doctor for X-rays on the status of her broken foot. One of the breaks has healed but two are still in process. This means another 4 weeks for her in the boot. 

She was depressed. I was depressed. But she's focusing on the instructions related to no foot movement to promote healing.

Grilled Lamb Redefined - With Pictures!

After my great success with grilling chicken last week, I was inspired to try the same technique with a large piece of boneless leg of lamb. This is another cut that I've had issues in the past getting to turn out decent. Only this time I photo documented the whole process!

The Marinade

This is a major part of the revised process as historically my efforts in this regard have been fairly banal.

Start with a lot of salt and a lot of whole black and white peppercorns

 

 The rest of the ingredients - Large amounts of garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme, olive oil, and red wine

Using a heavy duty mortar and pestle beat these until the peppercorns substantially breakdown

 

 Add a lot of garlic and beat until paste like

(please note we follow the 'Grandparent Cooking Conventions' whereby our directions are 'a bit of this', 'work it until it feels right', 'how much? enough'. And for crying out loud, I gave you picture above.)

Add your Rosemary and Thyme

Now beat like a maniac because breaking these down is a Mother

Beat in gradually the olive oil and red wine

 Prepare your chunk 'o' meat by cutting across it checkerboard style. This will allow the meat to lay flat and thinner so it will cook faster. The slicing will expose more surface for the marinade to infuse flavor.

Rub the marinade into the meat. Really give it a massage.

 

 Put in the fridge overnight

Next morning take it out at least 3 to 4 hours before you grill it so it gets up to room temperature.

(If your meat is too cold it will have a hard time getting to the proper internal temperature without the outside being charred.)

Take off most of the marinade.

 

 Cook using our foil underneath to protect from charring and brick on the top to get as much surface are on the direct heat method.

It only required 14 minutes to get to 140/145 degrees internal temperature, a nice medium rare.

 There was a nice char on the outside and great flavor throughout.

 So get your mortar and pestle, your brick and your foil and tackle those larger cuts of meat.

(And yes for certain relatives, I bet if you took a block of tofu, marinaded it thus, grilled in on a thick layer of foil with a brick on top it would come up pretty damn good.)

Theodora Update July 2025

We all know the catchy phrases:

If it were easy, everyone would do it.

No pain, no gain. 

I would offer that it the actual experience of driving for success can be a bit wearying. 

Since the February trip, things have been a bit rough. We went through another phase of client loss which led to finances being very tight. And my attempt to bring 'open book management' and more participation in responsibility for the business did not work.

Without going into too much gory detail, it was a very nice 'developed country' idea that ran onto the rocks of the reality of a very different culture, lack of strong local leadership, and a base of people who come from a traumatized background. I honestly thought we might implode. 

But things happen for a reason. 

My number one local director, a very experienced and strong business person who has both International and local Ghana experience, a person who has been key to our being legal in Ghana, stepped in and took charge. In his words, 'We tried doing things the American way. Now we are going to do things the Ghana way.' He has appointed one of the women to be the day-to-day manager and is providing mentorship to her. I have a couple of things I need to be doing.

• Training someone to be business development
• Get our fundraising organized and more consistent

Things have stabilized. We are adding clients again.

This was not a particularly 'fun' thing to go through (an understatement). But seeing a strong local presence say, "We cannot let this die" is an important breakthrough. It is not just a 'white guy's' project/vision anymore. Now we have local people who are truly bought in as proven by their actions. 

That's a pretty big breakthrough.

Grilled Chicken Refined

A number of years ago, I saw an article on grilling chicken over coals by cutting it in half and putting a brick on top of each half. The idea was to reduce the cooking time so you didn't have a charred outside and uncooked inside. I tried it and was relatively happy. But it often was overcooked, dry. I had issues with the outside getting too charred. And I wasn't happy with my flavoring marinade that didn't seem to add a whole lot of flavor. 

This last weekend I made a number of modifications to my recipe that resulted in a very most and flavorful bird. 

Marinade

I wanted to be sure I was packing flavor that would be tasted. I started by pounding black and white peppercorns in salt in my heavy duty Thai mortar and pestle. I added garlic, pounded more. Then HUGE handfuls of fresh rosemary and thyme from my garden and pounded a lot more. Finally, I added olive oil and white wine and pounded still more. 

I took this mixture and rubbed it into my split chicken (which I had made slits in the breast, thighs, and legs to aid in the flavor absorption and cooking time). I marinaded the chicken for almost 24 hours, occasionally taking it out to rub the marinade into the chicken.

Fire Set-Up and Cooking

My two main concerns were not having the chicken stick to the grate and avoiding the chicken drying our. What I did was not pre-heat the grates. I put them on over the coals just as I was ready to start. Then I put down a sheet of greased heavy duty aluminum foil. I put the chicken halves on, inner cavity side down first. I put bricks on top of each half. 

The use of the aluminum foil between the chicken and the fire was inspired (he says with extreme modesty). It kept the chicken from getting burnt on the outside. Juice from the chicken pooled on the foil, moistening the cooking chicken. Sticking was minimal.

Results

I cooked it on the inner side for 10 minutes and the skin side for 8 minutes. The chicken came out very moist and a good outside. I think it could have used 2 more minutes on the skin side. 

I am thinking I want to use this same technique on a piece of boneless leg of lamb.

Monsoon Reflections

I sit on the outdoor deck just outside the Man Tower. I am watching the sunset play its reds, oranges, and purples on the remnants of the thunderstorm we had a few hours ago. As is often the case during this season, there is a significant wind and I'm watching the trees sway in rhythmic harmony with the music I'm listening to through my headphones. 

I've working on my story as I do almost every night now. I keep looking up to see the next permutation of the colored light tableau in the sky, feeling the near perfect low 70's degree temperature, sipping my after dinner drink.

The Monsoon, the time when the summer heat causes the air over the mountains to rise, pulling moisture from the far away Pacific and Gulf of Mexico into our area. This then rises, cools and causes thunderstorms. It gives us humidity that is in the 35% range, three to four times the norm here in the desert. 

The days have a rhythm. There might be lingering moisture and clouds in the early morning. But it is usually clear and dry during the late morning and early afternoon. But you see the clouds building over the mountains. And by late afternoon, the storms come. Some times it is just a dribble. Sometimes it is serious rain. Then by mid evening it is all blowing off and the cycle will start again. 

This year we had a very dry winter, followed by a cooler and wetter spring. We only had a few weeks of the exceedingly hot and dry weather that usually marks May, June, and early July. Instead we got a much earlier Monsoon than usual. This has been a blessing for our garden, in particular, my tomatoes, cucumbers, chiles, and cooler loving herbs like parsley. I already have harvested some from all the above which is unheard of so early in the season.

The Monsoon. So lovely. So appreciated.

THE EPIC, COSMIC, SPECTACULAR REMODEL BEFORE AND AFTER POST!

I Was Wrong! 

I had a whole bunch of 'before' pictures. I just hadn't posted them when we started the project. 

When we started the project, I remember the two contractors saying confidently that this was a straightforward job and they should be able to knock it out in about a month. Well we are here at 4 and a quarter months and we're still not all the way finished. BUT, we are still going to do our before and after post because most of what's left is pretty small stuff. 

Living Room - Before

Living Room - After

Lounge and Library - Before

 Lounge and Library - After

 

 Front Bedroom - Before

 Front Bedroom - After

 (Sorry - Either a very bad picture because of bright back lighting or an astral plane image)

Oops - Somehow forgot to take 'Before' pictures of the Master Bedroom so only 'After' ones

Master Bath - Before

Master Bath - After

Small Bathroom - Before

Small Bathroom - After (including disco mirror and cosmic Japanese style toilet)

Small Upstairs Office - Before

Small Upstairs Office - After Man Tower Transformation

Large Upstairs Office - Before

 Large Upstairs Office - After (aka Eldership Bridge)

 Upstairs Exercise Room - Before

 Former Upstairs Exercise Room - After (use still to be determined)

 Other parts of house that were transformed but for which there are no 'Before' pictures

Three Cheers for the Impresario of our Remodel

WIFE!