SUCCESS! On The Road

We are in Munich on our way to Portugal. With all the craziness of Covid traveling and past canceled flights, I didn't want to post anything until I knew we were going to be successful. But despite some scares about documents not being accepted, all was cool and we have traveled without incident. I have yet to come up with a catchy name for this trip but will soon.

Safe Haven

 #2 and her three children arrived this afternoon. In the end they had as good an air connection coming her as could be expected. According to her, it was insane trying to get out of China with multiple tests and check points to finally get on one of the only planes that would return someone to the United States. 

Despite a lot of mental agonizing on our part on how we would arrange things in the house to fit everyone in while we were in the midst of trying to arrange our own departure, it all meshed together very well. Hearing my daughter relate the details of what was happening on the ground in Shanghai, I have much more empathy for decision makers in the United States deciding to get their people out.

It looks like #2 and family will be here at least through June. That is kind of nice for Wife and I as we will have family staying in the house for the whole time we are traveling. And in truth, it is probably a lot less stressful for the daughter not having to worry about how they are imposing on our lifestyle. 

And finally it is a joy to see our child and grandchildren (though we miss the son-in-law) even if it is under these trying conditions.

The Storm Before The Calm

 Wife and I hopefully (in our still needing Covid test negative travel world) will be off next week on a five week trip to Portugal and the Netherlands.

Originally, we had planned this trip when we were contemplating an expat relocation. This was to be the research on whether we were game for it. However, as I've related , we decided that dream was no longer going to fit our needs. But we still had the tickets to fly there. We decided we'd just do one of our normal travel trips. We were also supposed to go to the Netherlands last February but that got canceled due to a Covid outbreak with the #3's. With them relocating to Denmark this summer, we realized this might be the last time we would visit Amsterdam. We added a visit there into our itinerary as well. 

It is a matter of normal practice for something to go amiss just before we go on our trips. We just expect it. We've had computer crashes, phones dying, lights falling off the ceiling in the garage, irrigation leaks, and so on. Usually it is on the day or evening before we leave. This time though we seem to be going for earlier and bigger complications.

Complication #1 - Daughter #2 and children forced out of Shanghai, China and having to come here

If you have followed the Shanghai Covid situation, you know that city of 21 million is on complete lock down, meaning no access to food or medical care. Our government decided that was too dangerous for the non-essential people working at the Consulate. So they ordered them home. On a Monday. With the need to be packed up and out on Thursday. With no place for them to go to. Our daughter naturally looked to come here and we naturally want to give her that safe haven. But now we have to figure out getting her family moved into our house right when we are trying to get ready to leave with a ton of Theodora related complications. Not to mention there was great uncertainty on exactly when they might actually show up, the degree of complication dependent on exactly when they will arrive. 

Complication #2 - Mega Bank Account Hack!

We had decided to try a highly recommended different means of wiring money to Ghana called WISE. Going through the normal bank wire route was very expensive. On Wednesday morning, Wife logged in to the new account we had set up. We'd done one wire successfully. Now as soon as she logged on a series of false transfers popped up sucking over 50% of our available funds in a matter of minutes! I was at a doctor's appointment. She immediately called WISE but they needed my authorization. A couple of hours we finally got through and had them start the process of stopping the wires. But later that afternoon, Wife checked the bank account and saw all the transfer debits were pending. So it was calling the bank fraud department and getting stop payments put on. Fortunately through Wife's quick actions, we did everything on the same day as the attempted fraud so the stop payments took effect before accounts settled that evening. We were on pins and needles until we checked the account this morning and saw all the funds back in the account.

While we are happy to be our daughter's safe place, we are also trying to figure out how we are going to get all our packing done since the normal space we use will be occupied.

BUT none of us is dying. We are all healthy and have the means to deal with such issues. However, it will be nice to get on the trans-Atlantic flight and be gone on a trip.

Spoiled - Spoiled Rotten

 Let me throw myself on the sword of humility for truly I am not humble. I am spoiled. Spoiled Rotten.

Wife and I took a quick trip to the Salinas Valley & East Bay areas of Northern California to visit friends and family. As I mentioned in our last post, the visit with our friends was most relaxing. Then we had a too short, but joyous visit with #1 and family, meeting for the first time their dog, Auto (a really well behaved dog and pleasant dog I must say - this coming from a non-dog lover), and planning a trip in June with 1.1. and 1.2 to New York City.

But what this post is really about is my reaction to the traveling itself. Because this was just a normal, domestic, economy class travel trip. YUCK!

For almost all this pandemic era since 2020, my travel has been international and international business class. Priority boarding, lie flat seats, plenty of food and alcohol, I had virtually forgotten what it was like to fly like a 'normal'. It was, how to put it, unpleasant. Crowded together. Loads of people with no awareness of how their actions affected others. Cramped. Ugh. Truly my years and years of being the road warrior are behind me. 

If my embrace of the comforts and privileges of international business class put me in the category of the snobbishly, entitled elite, well then so be it. I know how I am going to focus my remaining years of traveling.

Recuperation

 We are in Salinas California visiting our dear friends Steve and Diana. We have seen them physically in hears. There is a long history intertwining business and personal for decades. We did some of our very first epic travels with them when we first started. And they have been big benefactors to Theodora Project. They have a home that is one of the most beautiful, restful places I have visited in all our travels. It is a place that heals.

Since arriving here Wednesday afternoon, I have spent an inordinate amount of time napping, resting, lying around. I don't think I realized how much energy and effort I have been expending so far this year. The down time is very appreciated.

Foodie Post Sadness

 Great Foodie post still born 

😭 

 I made grilled chicken with a Southeast Asian Curry Paste, Indonesian soy, citrus marinade. 

Chicken halved and grilled while being pressed with a heated brick. 

So cool right? 

FORGOT TO TAKE EVEN ONE FREAKING PICTURE! 

😤

The chicken was awesome however.

Getting To Work

Back in Ghana, our team is in the process of trying to find a new location. We have nice offices but they are as far away from where any of our people work as can possibly be. Accra is no different than many large cities in that finding affordable housing is not easy the closer into the city core you get. Given the transformative nature of our program, you can be sure that our women start looking for better housing as soon as they are comfortable with their new economic status. That means moving way the heck out. we are looking for funding to facilitate our move and created this video which shows what a typical commute looks like.