Doing Charleston - Day Two

Wife and I are in full travel mode now. We did more of the GPSmyCity tour today and then we did a sunset harbor cruise in the evening. As this led to many, many pictures, I have divided them into two separate posts. 

Before I get on with the pictures from the first part of the day, I want to return to the subject of dealing with history of slavery. I am not going to go on a long polemic. I think I can sum up my opinion thusly. (You are entitled to your own opinion).

1. Slavery has been with humanity for as long as there has been history. There is no society that I have studied in all my readings on history (and I read a lot) that can say they have been slave free. So let's start with the idea 'let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.'
2. Yet, I don't think that means we should ignore what happened in the past, or whitewash it, or give ourselves a free pass because "everyone did it".
3. The reality is, however, nothing we do now will change the past. 
4. We can change where we are now!
5. But it needs to be things that are going to cause a real change. This is where I feel the focus on the ills of the past degenerates into actions that make those who feel guilty, feel better, but don't actually do anything to rectify the conditions that either allow human slavery today, or change the conditions for those who were enslaved in the past. 

The End.

Now on pictures.

We picked up our tour at a section of town called Rainbow Row. This is a series of Georgian style row houses (supposedly the longest in the Americas) that had gotten colorful paint put on them during restorations in the 1930's and 40's. When originally built, they were waterfront properties but there has been much filling and building of land out since then.

A Study of Lamps on the Rainbow Row

Espouses Fotograficus Charlstonia

A neighborhood next to the Rainbow Row

Heading back to the center of town with St. Michael's as our compass.

The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon

This was where you registered your trade goods and paid your duties. It was also used as a prison at various times especially by the British during the Revolutionary War. There was a good self-guided tour with a guided tour of the dungeon area.

The Old Slave Mart

This with a self-guided tour and presentation makes sure the history of the enslaved is not candy coated.

French Huguenot Church

The Huguenots were French Protestants who were forced out of France when Louis the XIV doubled down on Catholicism in the late 17th century. Many came to the United States.

Saint Phillips Episcopal Church

Not on our tour but worth a photo nonetheless. 

(There are a LOT of sizeable churches in this city)

When hunger struck us we realized we were only a block from where we ate on Wednesday. We had enjoyed it so much and knew there were things we still wanted to try, so we went back

I decided to take a picture of the full street art from which I only showed examples yesterday.

Shrimp and Grits with a poached egg (Thumbs up!)

Fried Grouper Sandwich

Wife has decided she needs to order these without the roll because it is just too much food. The fish was excellent. The fried potatoes were a little weird. Seemed like they were extruded mashed potatoes.

Doing Charleston - Day One Pictures

 Well let's see how our internet works at 6:20am...GOOD! 

Later this morning...not so good. Worked with the property management company while we were out. They identified the problem and have given us other networks to connect with. So far so good.

We are making use of a very helpful app call GPSmyCity which for a very reasonable annual subscription rate (less than $20) give us access to maps, curated tours, ability to create custom tours, etc.  The GPS underpinning things is very good. Easy to use a quite accurate. 

Charleston is a city with over 400 years of history. It was one of the key cities of colonial, antebellum, and recent Southern history. It had great wealth. And wealth leads to great architecture. It has a marvelous cityscape and is very walkable city especially now in mid-autumn when the temperatures are very pleasant and the humidity is low. You wouldn't be making those statements in mid-summer when it is brutally hot and humid!

You cannot talk about the wealth and history of this city and avoid the history of slavery in the United States. For Charleston was one of the prime cities for the slave trade. I am not intending for this short visit to go into great depth on this subject. But I am not going to ignore it either. As a person who is deeply committed in social impact work now with dealing with modern slavery (via Theodora Africa and the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking), I obviously have some strong feelings on the subject. But because of my deep interest and ongoing interest in history, I also have some perspectives that might strike one as odd given my current work in this arena. That will be for a later post. For now, let's get on with our first day pictures.

Neo-Classical Architecture at the Hibernian Society

Did I know that Charleston and America's first fireproof building?

St. Michael's, Oldest Church in Charlston

Graveyard by the church with a couple of signers of the Declaration of Independence (we didn't find them)

Charleston City Hall by Washington Square with more neoclassical architecture

Low Country Architectural Repair Scaffolding

Notice the subtle differences from the European repair scaffolding

Misc Stuff walking down Meeting Street

Nathaniel Russell House

(Example of what can be done from the profits of slave labor)

Street Art and Street Scenes

Harbor Scene

Gastronomy

First night after much wandering and gnashing of teeth over $40-$50 entree prices, we found a Caribbean inspired place that was pretty reasonable

Wife had a Fried Fish Sandwich

I had a Chorizo Burger which had the chorizo mixed in with the ground beef. The slaw had some kind of hot chile in it. And look at the ripeness of that tomato!

On Wednesday, we ate (strictly by chance) at a well known local place

We decided to split two starters and one main. But the portions were so huge we brought half back to the apartment.

She crab soup on the left, fried chicken with hoppin' john (black eye peas and rice) and collard greens, mac and cheese. I gave high marks to everything. Even the hoppin' john had good flavor (which is often not the case)

Doing Charleston

That would not be doing THE Charleston. For that would be dancing, not something I do anymore. No Wife and I are traveling! Albeit, just here in the USA. Earlier this summer, faced with the long wait for my new passport and the need to get a new Ghana visa, I couldn't bear the thought of going five months without any travel. (Please no snarky remarks on how five months is not that long to go without travel for most normal human beings. No one has ever said de-I is normal.) So I looked at a list of places in the U.S. I'd been wanting to visit but hadn't gotten to. Hence, our short trip to Charleston.

Charleston has a lot advantages for travelers like Wife and I. There is a ton of history. It has a relatively compact old town with tons of historical buildings and very photogenic cityscape. It is flat! - Good for old folks walking. We aren't even renting a car, just using Uber to get us from our rental to the areas we are wanting to visit. And it is a great eating destination too!

We flew in on Tuesday without a hitch and were in our rental apartment before 5pm local time. We set out looking for something to eat and to get provisions to cook breakfast. As usual we ran into our home country nemesis, USA food prices. It drives me nuts to see a basic main course cost $40 to $50 when just about anywhere else in the world we visit the cost is far, far less. But we finally found a Caribbean inspired place where we had a very good, and reasonably priced meal.

There are no supermarkets in this part of town so we had to settle for corner market (which here because their are SO MANY tourists and other visitors that the main products sold are various types of drinks and snack foods. Yet we were still able to get eggs and butter. 

Today we went for our first trip into the old part of town. Unfortunately, our rental internet is not working very reliably. So Wife got on first and has taken most of the night to get her pictures up. I am going to try in the morning to do so.

Breakthrough!

 There was a time not that long ago when a disciplined approach to teaching and learning was a key factor in developing capability in Theodora. I don't think calling our participants 'lazy' is fair. I think it was more a function of arrested development, combined with a national education system in Ghana that does not encourage critical thinking. Though our participants are in their upper 20's, I felt their attitudes toward learning were more like people in their early teens. Hence the need for a lot of structure. 

Now let's fast forward to today. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw a proposal we sent out to a new prospect. It had these elements in it.

As per our conversation, we will take over the task of managing your LinkedIn page and creating and distributing newsletters to your contact list. 

 

LINKEDIN

 

·       Profile Optimization:  We'll optimize your LinkedIn profile. This includes using a professional profile picture, writing an engaging headline, and crafting a compelling summary that reflects their expertise and objectives.

 

·        Content Strategy: We will create and curate high-quality content that is relevant to your industry and target audience. This will include a mix of text-based posts, articles, images, videos, and infographics.

 

·       Content Calendar: Develop a content calendar to ensure a consistent posting schedule. We recommend at least 3-4 weekly posts to maintain engagement and visibility.

 

·       Audience Research: We will identify the client's target audience and create content tailored to their interests and needs. This will increase the chances of attracting the right followers.

 

·       Engagement: Actively engage with your LinkedIn community by commenting on, liking, and sharing relevant posts. This will help your page get noticed by others and build connections.

 

·       LinkedIn Groups: Join and participate in relevant LinkedIn groups and communities. This will help in expanding your reach and connecting with like-minded professionals.

 

·        Networking: Connect with industry peers, thought leaders, and potential clients. Building a robust network on LinkedIn is crucial for growing followers.

 

·       Analytics and Tracking: Regularly monitor your LinkedIn page performance. We will track key metrics such as post engagement, follower growth, and content reach to ensure that we are on track to meet the 1000-follower goal. 

 

·       Reporting and Evaluation: We will provide regular progress reports and suggest adjustments to the strategy as needed. This will ensure that we are continuously working towards the follower growth goal.

 

 I did a double take reading this. I didn't know we did this. Content curation? We've been totally staying away from content writing. Audience research? Analytics and Tracking? Where did all this come from? The answer? They took it upon themselves to learn all this stuff because their clients were asking them to do it.

 

So where did this change in attitude come from? When did they move from people who had to be convinced to learn, to people who of their own volition took it upon themselves to learn, and learn big time? I don't know. But it is exciting to see. 

 

What to hear about this right from the women themselves? Listen to this 25 minute presentation they recently gave to a virtual conference about business learning in developing countries. 

Travel Webspinning Coming Together

I gave a business talk today. That is a subject of another blog post altogether for I'd not done a physical presentation in over a decade. But my sponsor, my good friend, fellow traveler, financial advisor, sadly rooting for Chelsea, but now finding the bliss of Hessianhood, the Count, and I related to each other that while others thought travel planning was a chore, we felt it was one of the most enjoyable parts of the travel adventure. I am happy to say that a significant number of our planning issues have started to come together. 

• I think we are going to be able to use frequent flyer mile to cover the first leg of our journey to Taipei, Taiwan. That's going to save us big bucks.
• We've decided on the location (Krabi, Thailand) for our post Empress Pu Li Sha adventure in Shanghai, and have booked our Airbnb there.
• We've established communication with our teenage grandchildren 2.2 and 2.3 on what kind of living quarters we should get in Taipei.
• Wife is now looking at the Ghana part of the trip.

Progress is being made and our trip is starting to come together.