Three passports, a couple of visas…

A word from my guest columnist, the hubster, George.

Meredith has kindly allowed me to write an entry on her blog. I doubt that will happen very often, so I appreciate the opportunity.

The title above is a line from a Talking Heads song (Life During Wartime), but it accurately describes what Meredith and I have obtained to prepare for our departure in ten days. I managed to get approved for a second US passport (possible if you expect to have to apply for many visas) in the spring, and just got an e-mail a few hours ago that my Nigerian visa has been approved. We both already have gotten our Ghanaian visas. The Ghana visas were issued in two days with minimal paperwork required from us; Nigeria took ten days and lots of paperwork. Lately, most of the companies involved in the Stanford SEED West Africa program have been Nigerian — not surprising, since it is the largest economy in the region. Others have been located in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Benin, Senegal, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso, so it is possible I might be traveling to any or all of those countries over the coming year, as a coach.

Some bumps in the road in getting ready to leave for a year. The biggest mishap happened while we were in Europe a month ago (when we did the “Tour de Mt Blanc”, a 200 km circuit of the Alpine trails around Mt Blanc). I opened an e-mail from someone named Seth (not a name familiar to me) saying: we think we lost your car and think you should file a police report.   Meredith recognized the sender’s e-mail address and said it was from the company she had hired to ship her Honda CR-V to our daughter Gabriella in New Orleans. However, there was no indication WHERE the car had gone missing (key info if we were going to file a police report). Several weeks, one police investigation and an insurance claim later, the car was found – in the wrong end of a large lot in Chandler, AZ, where it was mistakenly put up for auction. Car is now safely in New Orleans, and Meredith is disputing the $1500 fee charged by the trucking company (which had been recommended by someone in the business – which apparently is known for some very sketchy operators).

Other issues were relatively minor in comparison to a lost car: I discovered, when I started on the list of required vaccinations needed for Ghana last May, that there was a nationwide shortage of yellow fever vaccine (apparently the only factory authorized to produce the vaccine in the US had just been forced to close, and all vaccine was being sourced from Europe). A doctor at my local healthcare provider in Santa Cruz threw up her hands and said she had no idea where to send me for the yellow fever shot. I ended up driving to the Oakland airport office of a nationwide network called Passport Health (which we highly recommend for any readers thinking of visiting us in Ghana). The only other snag came when we were setting up all our bills for electronic billing and payment: our small electric utility in South Lake Tahoe (where we have a vacation home) does not accommodate electronic billing – you can pay electronically, but have to look for a monthly invoice via mail (so last century). One pleasant surprise during the past week: we discovered that while we have to pay for each checked bag on our flight from San Francisco to New York on Delta, there are no baggage fees for the next leg from New York to Accra.

I feel very fortunate to be part of the SEED program, now in its sixth year in West Africa. We have been following the blog of one of the current coaches (with whom I worked some twenty years ago in Silicon Valley).   In her final post, dated today, she said she has had an unforgettable experience over the last year.   We are looking forward to having the same.