Lights - Another Ghana Apartment Adventure

It is a given...when I come to Ghana, and I take lodging, something, SOMETHING is going to be wrong with facility. It could be something minor like a door or cabinet not working correctly. It could be sinks, faucets, drains, toilets, a/c, water. Something will be not as it should. It doesn't matter how high end or low end the property is. Something will be off.

After many years of staying in a more 'non-outsider oriented' part of town to reduce my commute time (which can be substantial), I decided I was moving back to one of the 'foreigner' friendly sections of town. The building my apartment is in is fairly new, built within the last three years. The apartment itself is actually very nice. One of the nicer ones I've had in Accra. Could this be a time when I actually had a lodging experience with no issues?

Wednesday night. I am sitting in the living room of the apartment reading. The lights go out. The power is down. This is not an unusual situation. It has happened a couple of times already since I've been here. At a quality place like the one I'm staying, they have back-up generators. The back-up power usually kicks in after 3 to 5 minutes. 

3 to 5 minutes pass. No back-up power. 10 minutes pass. No back-up power. This isn't right. I look outside. Lots of apartments in my building have light. Hmmmmm. I look in the hallway. It is lit. Hmmmmm. I check the elevator. It's working. Hmmmmm. I go to the circuit breakers in the apartment. They are all on. Hmmmmm. 

I text the apartment owner representative. No response. I call the apartment owner representative. No answer. Finally, after another 10 minutes. I get a text back. 

"Boss. I am on it. I will get back to you shortly."

More minutes pass. A text from the representative.

"Ah. So sorry boss. We seem to have forgotten to pay for more electric power! We will get it taken care of." (In Ghana, you pay for power ahead of usage. If it runs out, the power is off until you buy some more.)

More minutes pass. Another text.

"Boss, we have it taken care of. You will need to input a code in the meter box."

I have actually seen this done...from afar. Have never done it myself. 

"The box should be 'here'."

I go to 'here'...no box.

"Try 'there'"

I go to 'there'...no box. (Remember I am doing this all in a dark apartment. Thank goodness Wife bought us tiny, strong flashlights to carry when we travel.)

Finally after searching many other places, the meter is found. Next I have to enter the 18 character code into meter box...in the dark with my flashlight and my cell phone. 

Success!

We have light back. It is now 11pm. I have not eaten. I'm tired and want to go to bed. 

But at least I know I am back in Ghana...for real. 

Wait, Wait, Wait...And Hurry Up

There is an old saying in the U.S. used for many experiences called 'Hurry Up and Wait'. It generally refers to a situation where you need to get something done or have an appointment with someone. You are dashing around to meet a time deadline only to encounter a significant delay from the person or organization you were rushing to meet with.

In Ghana, things are a bit different. Here there is Wait, Wait, Wait...then Hurry Up!

Example:

When I was here last January, I had meetings with the local Rotary club partnering on our grant. They were very interested in the other programs Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking Economic Development Initiative (say that 10 time fast!) had that might aid their club goals. Between January and now, I had numerous communications. I had indicated the dates I would be in Ghana and the days I had specifically set aside for meeting with club members. Crickets. Not a peep in response. 

Instead what happened was my primary contact told me he was meeting with the club on planning the day before the one I'd left open. On that Monday, he texted me and asked if I would be available for a Zoom cal at 5pm. That call led to two other meetings this week. Suddenly, there is all kinds of activity. 

Why should this surprise me? Some of you might remember I wrote about this during my very first trip to Ghana where I could not get anything scheduled before I arrived. But once I was there, I was overwhelmed with meetings. 

Somehow accepting certain aspects of the culture still seem to elude me.  

Breakthrough!

I was about halfway through this week in Ghana when a number of things hit my consciousness.

First, Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants' billings and collections for January and February were going to result in substantial surplus cash flow over our required monthly operating expenses. 

Second, assuming we can maintain this level of client billings (and all indicators are that we should), we will be able to accumulate all of the money we need for our annual office rent (we pay rent once a year in advance). This is the first time we have been able to pay our rent out of operating funds. 

Third, by mid-February, will have repaid all the salary arrears we accrued during the lean months of 2025.

Fourth, for the first time ever, we will not use any donated funds to cover operating expenses!

Fifth, instead, we have been able to get this week three major items that have been on our list of 'must haves' in order to be a truly professional operation.

• Truly reliable internet connection via a Starlink system
• Reliable power back-up through the purchase of a backup generator
•  Retention of a trauma counselor to provide this necessary resource for our people. 

Sixth, as we go into 2026, I have come to the realization that we really don't need to do any fundraising in order to be able to get TGVA up to snuff.  

 We still need to develop a reliable new business acquisition system. That takes years but we are getting started. We still are very vulnerable to the loss of clients. But for the first time since we started, I believe we can say we are truly a business capable of paying its own way.

 

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.

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.

Theodora/Ghana Trip Round-Up

I'm back in Albuquerque, back in the day-to-day saddle, and reflecting on the trip just completed to Ghana. A LOT was accomplished. 

• We kicked off open book management and got great involvement from the team as I related in my earlier post.
• We met with our Ghana board and advisors and believe we have renewed engagement from them.
• Met with two potential joint venture partners and have agreed to put together a test (more on this below).
• Purchased four badly needed new computers for the team.
• Put 'teeth' into the idea of 'participant management' with a set of definitive projects the team is to work on (more on this below).

JOINT VENTURES

During the last half of 2024, I met and had ongoing conversations with two other social impact organizations in Ghana dealing with the same problems related to disadvantaged & trafficked women. One, Muslim Family Counseling Services (MFCS), has an excellent track record meeting people 'where they are', and gaining trust. The other, Breaking The Chain Through Education (BTCTE), specializes in getting trafficking survivors and giving them education and skills training so they can build a better life. Both these organizations face the same challenge...they've been unable to come up with the means to provide solid employment for those they serve. Thus, when they learned about Theodora, they were both very intrigued.

This led to the local heads of both organizations coming to our office in Accra to see for themselves what has been accomplished. They met with our team, learned about their backgrounds, the challenges of transforming into those that could do our work, details of the actual work being done, and their feelings about their own future and the future of Theodora. Both commented on the magnitude that had been accomplished. And both have indicated they would like to see what we might do collaboratively. 

If we were to develop a collaborative effort, these organizations would fill two big gaps in Theodora's potential growth plan...the recruitment of new candidates (MFCS), and providing the basic training fir new participants (BTCTE). We've agreed that an initial concept test would be the next step. We are hoping to have the design of this test for our respective Boards by this summer.

OWNERSHIP ATTITUDE CHALLENGE

There is a saying, be careful of what you ask for, you might get it. In the case of my Theodora participants, I would rephrase that to, be careful of what you question your CEO's decisions, you might get the task to resolve it. Thus on my last day in Ghana, I handed out the following to the team.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PLAN (Mary F) – This has been mostly built out. Mary needs to move it into implementation and provide a results tracking system.

 

FUNDRAISING (Ann & Mary M.) – You have your system built. I need you to BLAST OUT the new content and talking points I’ve given you.

 

AI STRATEGY & TACTICS (Miriam w/Mary M & Benedicta) – We want something we can be implementing by the second half of the year.

 

OPEN BOOK MANAGEMENT (All) – Start ‘really’ studying the financial information. Ask questions!

 

TIME WORKING IN VS. OUT OF OFFICE POLICY (Open) – I’d like to see something by the end of February.

 

CLIENT’S PAYING VA BONUS POLICY (Open) – We should have something approved and out to our clients by the end of February.

 

PAYROLL, COMPANYWIDE SYSTEM  (Open) – This will be a hard one. I’d like to see some preliminary ideas no later than the end of April.

 

ROTARY FOLLOW-UP (Benedicta) – We need to be going to at least one meeting per month & make sure all are comfortable with and can use the talking points. We need to start collecting names of contacts we make at these meetings.

 

PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN (Miriam) – Establish list of PR contacts by the end of February. Begin sending press releases by March.

This should keep everyone engaged for a while!

Putting On The Ownership Attitude Jacket

Here in Ghana, we are continuing the process started last summer of building Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants' ability to be an independent business...which primarily means focusing on the ability of the women in the program to manage their business. Viewed objectively, this is a massive undertaking. Viewed in context of what we've already overcome, it is no more massive than the entire project as a whole.

One of our promises to the people in the team was that Theodora would become an employee owned company. We are hoping to have our Employee Ownership Trust in place by the end of February. With that in mind, going back to the summer, I have been talking to the women about what an owner does. We've talked about the tradeoffs an owner is constantly making particularly when it comes to money. One of our people, Ann, back then coined a phrase as she was discussing why she'd made a client decision.

"I put on my Ownership Attitude Jacket!"

I warned the team prior to this visit that we were going to take 'Wearing the Ownership Attitude Jacket" to another level because I was going to institute 'open book management'

Open Book Management is a philosophy that encourages ownership and leadership to share financial information with those being managed. It goes counter to common practice in business where most owner/managers feel they don't want their employees to see what is going on in the business, in particular, how much they make. 

I'd given them the information before I arrived. And we went over it when I got here. Of course, it is not that easy to dig into numbers when you're totally unfamiliar with financial reporting. Nonetheless, the women did pick out a couple meaningful things that led to substantive discussion. Compensation was one which led to me giving them the task of developing a compensation program for the company going forward. (Good luck with that team. LOL. For as long as I've been in business, I've never met a business that was happy with their compensation system!)

Another very interesting example had to do with our hours at work. We struggle because of the need to be responsive to clients in time zones far different, offset by the advantages of having our people in an office to stimulate collaboration, work ethic, and culture. My two managers felt we'd gone too far in the direction of being a 9 to 5 culture which didn't work with the level of service we need to give to our clients. Discussing this as a team, they came to the conclusion that we needed to establish a set of rules that balanced the two requirements.

This led to a last conversation. One of my managers and I knew we had a very long day running around getting new computers and looking at potential new offices. My manager wanted to leave early, there not being anything going on at the office requiring our interaction. I was concerned about the image this presents. In the spirit of our collaborative management approach, I told the manager that we'd bring it up to the team. (This is an easy thing to do since we are small and they all sit in the same room).

I brought up my concern about how a leader should set the tone by example. And if I was leaving the office early, what message did that send to them. One of my people, Mary M, said the following.

"Michael, if I have work I need to get done, I stay late. If I have an early client meeting, I come in early. If I'm done with my work and it is early, I go home. I trust all my teammates. I know they are doing the same. It makes no difference to me if manager M goes home early or comes in late because I know she is doing tons necessary for us to succeed. I know you are committed to us. I don't need to see you in the office to know that."

I didn't breakdown and cry though I felt like it because hearing something like that you KNOW they are owning the Ownership Attitude Jacket.

Musings On Social Impact Start-Ups In Cultures Very Different Than Your Own

Two Posts ago, I went on a tangent and began musing on perceived prospects of the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking, Economic Development Initiative versus the Theodora Project. I made the statement.

"This isn't because I think the concept is bad, unworkable, or have the potential to make it. The problem is I don't have the time and the energy to make the start-up work."

Daughter #3, who has spent much of her recent career in the business start-up space, commented on her observations related to the massive amounts of time and energy that start-ups take, She further related that in the past she never questioned the costs that extracts on other parts of your life, but now she does. And she asked me to go into more depth with my related to my statement related to EDI. So here goes.

I would start by observing that not all start-ups are equal. For example, the start-ups that #3 has mostly been involved with - technology based, aggressively funded, with massive expectations for success are a special kind of artificial pressure cooker that can totally consume and grind down people. On the other hand, the kinds of small business start-ups that I have dealt with over my career, that often relate to the livelihood of those involved, have a different kind of pressure. Most that pressure is self-generated and relates to the need for the business to succeed in order for the founders to avoid financial disaster!

All start-ups take a lot of time and energy. I have always equated it to the laws of physics. If we think of Newton's First Law of Motion (special shout for extra credit from R in Madrid for using a physics reference), an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an external force. Think of the start-up business as an object at rest. It has no customers. It is not producing a product or service. There is no cash flow. The external forces that start to change this are the time and energy of the entrepreneur / founder (or plural as the case may be) and capital. In the tech rapid growth world, much more capital is used to hire lots of bodies to do things. In the small business, it is the entrepreneur / founder who applies energy and time in lieu of capital to do things. 

In both cases, there will be a steep learning curve. No matter what one has thought the model will be or the prior experience one has, there will be lots of changes and adjustments along the way until a dependable model is moving along and the amount of energy, time and money can be backed off. In the small business start-up that almost always takes about 5 years.

Now look at the kind of social impact models with which I've been working. These have all the characteristics of the small business start-up but with the added complexity of simultaneously requiring complete culture attitude change. This takes the challenge to a substantially higher level. 

As I have slogged through all the learning necessary to get Theodora to a level of sustainability, I have begun to realize why most attempts to build new sustainable business models in less developed worlds fail...people simply are not willing to put in the massive amounts of time that are necessary to change the inertia of the existing cultural models. In my personal case if I had not been so 

a) determined, 

b) obsessed, 

c) crazy, 

d) stubborn, 

e) a & c, 

f) b & d, 

g) all of the above, 

I certainly would not have gotten us to where we are today.

Hence my comments related to EDI. It is a different model. The nature of the cultural challenges and change that must be overcome are different. I can see the energy and time that will be required. And I don't have it. And even if I did, I doubt I'd be willing to make that kind of commitment again. I will try to do somethings that involve more people to see if I can get at least a prototype started. But I would have to say overall, I'm not optimistic this one is going to happen.

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.

Meanwhile At The Other Project

Other project you say?

What other project?

 

As I perused my blog posts over the last few years I noticed a rather interesting gap, a lack of posting related to another project I have been working on in parallel with Theodora Africa. This is the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking Economic Development Initiative or EDI for short.

 

The story behind EDI is a classic tale of ‘Be Careful What You Ask For. You Might Get It!  😱

 

Let’s start at the beginning.

 

Once upon a time there was a cynical man who wanted to use Rotary for his own half-baked scheme to give back. He successfully got a small local club to not stop him from running off to Africa in the name of the club pursuing a dream which any one of thousands upon thousands of prior social impact Westerners could have told him was grounded in all the wrong assumptions.

 

But as fate would have it, the powers that be had decided to use him instead! And thus the crazy ride that became Theodora Africa was launched. But it was clear that this project didn’t belong in the small club where he had started with. The Rotarian who first had me join Rotary told me of the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking. I joined and was quickly tagged to be on the board.

 

But, I was frustrated. I saw our founders had a great vision. They saw this club as a force motivating the power of Rotary International behind this one mission. However, there was no clear pathway to action. There was a lot of talk and focus on Awareness. Awareness is certainly important. But awareness by itself will not overcome a problem. There needs to be tangible action.

 

In my mind, based on my Theodora experience, I was convinced that lack of economic opportunity was one of the most significant root problems enabling human trafficking. I had a bunch of ideas how, we as a Rotary club could build a program. Partnering with one of the members I’d recruited who was an entrepreneur facilitation expert, I began doing research and wrote a White Paper to present to the board calling for us to develop our own economic development program.

 

We have very, very few people in our club who are business people. I was pretty darn sure that the board would smile politely and shelf the whole thing. I would have made my attempt and could go back to being a backbench member. It was to my shock and horror that our founding President LOVED IT! She said it was going to be our foundational effort.

 

Damn.

 

Fast forward one year. We held our kick-off meeting last Thursday. We had one of the largest turnouts of any meeting since I’ve been in the club. 37 people from four continents were there. We had 8 non-club members from Africa alone. We have our first pilot project MOU in Tamale Ghana to be signed in August (I will be there in person). We have another Ghana organization, the Kumasi Central Mosque, interested in partnering with us, an NGO in Lusaka Zambia, and another organization in Jos, Nigeria.

 

As I said in the beginning, be careful what you ask for.

Theodora Update - The Baby Is Growing Up

It's like parenthood. It's not easy. It takes a long time. There are many times along the way when you are pulling your hair out. You wonder if you and they are going to make it.

Then.

One day.

You look at that person (or in this case venture) you nurtured and agonized over for so long and realize...

"I think they're going to make it. I think they're going to be okay."

 You know there is a long way to go. Life is a long, long, long series of tests that never stop until you give up the ghost. So, sure, there are going to be a lot more crises and events. But you have this feeling that your young charge has the ability to rise to the occasion. 

Let's go into some specifics.

The first quarter of the year we hit breakeven, even made a little profit. But we still had a bunch of bumps in the road. The attempt to move out of an office and go completely virtual bombed completely. The person I'd tried to make manager (over her objections I should state) imploded and we had a near revolt among the staff. We finessed the situation. We found a new office. We achieved peace.

Then I went through my own personal crises. I realized I had to stop working so hard. I kind of made an ultimatum to the team that they to had to take responsibility for the day-to-day stuff that was stressing me out or I was done (we maybe should do another post on how in Ghana no one listens to you until you are an asshole). This led to another outcry among the staff. But we worked our way through that as well. 

Now is where it gets interesting. Call it the law of unintended consequences working in your favor. 

The one person on the team who I've felt has the most potential and talent, but who has resisted mightily taking on more responsibility, suddenly starts acting managerial!

Two of our weaker people opt out, one by taking a leave of absence without pay, the other going to contractor status (so we only pay based on what we bill). This brings our payroll down so we are now in balance with our billings. It gets all our people to a point where they are being fully utilized.

Our ex-manager, now contractor, is producing at a prodigious rate, is handling a couple of our toughest clients, and projects. She's happy. We're happy. it is great.

The few issues that have come up that would normally have eaten at me, have been taken care of by my two managers without me even. 

I am teaching these two how to manage cash flow week-to-week. We had a meeting today. One of them said, "de-I you seem so happy now." I answered, "Sure I do. I am happy. Because you two are taking charge, thinking through the problems, and coming up with solutions so I don't have to. I can be a true CEO and work on the big picture now."

So there you have it. We have many more dramas to come because that is life. But I feel these young women are taking ownership of their business and future...at last.

 

Around The World In 72 Days - International Incident or At Least I'm Not In A Ghanaian Jail

Let's be clear.

Africa World Airways (AWA), the home airline of Ghana, is, bar none, the WORST AIRLINE I HAVE EVER FLOWN! Period. There isn't even a close second. (Well let's not forget the horrible JetStar Asia experience. Or the Spring Airlines in China either). But for pure malicious incompetency, lack of caring, combined with a rigidity designed to fleece their customers of as much as they can get from them, I am not sure any other airline in my half a century of flying can meet this standard.

Let's just list what we experienced this trip. We had three scheduled trips encompassing four flights over a three week period.

First - Accra to Takoradi

 

This was our last day in Accra when we had the torrential downpour and it took over an hour to get to the airport that was less than 5 miles away. Do you think these kind of things might happen often in a tropical climate like Ghana? We got to the check-in counter two minutes past its cutoff. They told us we had to rebook on a later flight even though at that point the airline knew the flight we were on was running hours behind schedule due to the weather. This little rigidity of policy extracted double the cost of the original ticket from us, and had us waiting five hours to finally depart.

 

Second - Takoradi to Accra connecting to Kumasi

 

We check in Takoradi, no one knows how to do a connection. Evidently this must be something of a rarity. We are hit up with an overweight baggage fee. We're told when we get to Accra, we cannot just change planes. We have to exit security, go to the ticket counter and get some kind of form. (BTW there is no way at the Accra domestic terminal to go directly from arrivals to departures. You have to walk out, around and up a long traffic ramp to get back to departures. 

 

Getting to the ticket counter, we are told the flight to Kumasi is canceled. We have to go to a different office (where two people are dealing with everyone off this flight) to rebook. We've done this. Our earliest option is late afternoon the next day. Meaning we loose one of our two days in Kumasi. Working with my team we decide getting a driver who can go the five (hellish) hours of Ghana roads is the best, and safest option. Once again we arrive late and exhausted, having spent four times the amount we would have paid. 

 

Third - Kumasi to Accra

 

We'd debated. Do we chance it again with AWA? Or do we just bag it and get a car? We didn't want the added expense or having to deal with Ghana roads again so we took our chances with AWA. Our flight turned out to be an hour and half late. But it was at the check-in counter that our incident took place

 

The Incident

We're checking in  (imagine one line, a small dingy building, no modern equipment one associates with an air terminal). I get to the agent. They weigh our bags and tell us we need to pay an overage fee (this will involve getting out of line, going to another line, paying, getting back in line, so you can actually check in.). I tell the agent, 

 

"Comp us. Your airline's errors have cost me over $500 over the last two weeks. You owe us."

 

"I'm sorry sir. I can't do that."

 

"Yes, you can. Just print out the baggage tags, put them on the bags and be done with it."

 

"No I can't. Our system won't allow it. You will have to talk to our manager." She points to a door with a darkened glass wall."

 

Now I am starting to lose it. The weeks of dealing with various issues in Ghana all coming to a head. Normally when I fall into my notorious temper, Wife, will pull me to one side and get me calmed down. Not today. She is pissed too. And it is not easy to get Wife pissed.

 

I go back and forth with the agent. I keep insisting she must comp us and print out our baggage tags, she insisting she can't make the system do it without paying the extra fee. Finally, I take out a 100 Cedi note (the cost is 70 Cedi) and throw it down on her station. (BTW, the cost was about $5, but it was the principle of it all.)

 

"Here take it. Print out our baggage tags."

 

"No you have to go over to the payment line, make the payment, and come back."

 

Now I say loudly so everyone in the line can hear it (and the line is getting quite long at this point), "I am not going anywhere. No one else is going to check into this flight until you have someone get the payment done for me."

 

And that's exactly what I do. I just stand there. Finally, the agent gets someone else to take the payment over. She asks me to leave the line. I refuse. I tell her I will stand by the side watching her until I'm sure my baggage tags get printed out and on my bags. This takes about 15-20 minutes, I there glaring the whole time. 

 

Almost two hours later when we are getting ready to finally board our plane for the stupid 40 minute flight to Accra, I'm telling Gloria,

 

"Listen, if they grab me and take me into custody. Just get on the plane. Call our people in Accra when you get there. Get on the plane Sunday and get back to the U.S."

 

In the event, we are in Accra at our hotel. And thus far, I am a free man.