Chapter 1

Things have been making people pretty tense around here for the last several months. Rumors started spreading that a major employer in the area, the company my husband Todd works for, Central Electronics, may be going under. No one paid any attention to the rumors at first. The family-owned company has been in business and prosperous for almost one hundred years. When the rumors persisted my husband had a discussion with an old friend who works in the finance office. After swearing him to secrecy my husband’s friend told him bankruptcy has been discussed by upper management but the owners are struggling to arrange new financing since some of the long-time customers have begun getting their product from Asian suppliers and financial backers have pulled out.

Todd and I talked it over and although we hate to do ‘the practical thing’ it seems we have no other options. It had been our plan for him to work for Central Electronics until he retired. He likes the company and the people he works with but a lot of businesses have been going belly up around here lately. If he lost his job we could probably live on our savings for maybe a year if we were careful. But the chances of finding another similar job paying a similar salary around here are slim and none so he started sending resumes to similar companies all around the northeastern US. The response, or I should say the lack of response was depressing.

After nearly a month of hearing nothing from the company and getting no responses to his resumes except the terse letters saying they aren’t currently hiring but they will keep his resume on file the rumors were finally confirmed. The head of the Stewart Family sent out a notice that the company has been unable to find anyone willing to bail them out so it is forced to shut down and file for bankruptcy.

Todd and I attempted to convince ourselves something would come along. Someone would respond to his resume or, despite Mr. Stewart’s depressing notice, a miracle would happen and the company would get financing at the last minute. But with each passing day the chance of that happening seemed to be much less likely.

The plant finally closed up shop and Todd and I found ourselves spending a lot of time sitting around trying to decide on ways to economize in the hopes of making our savings last as long as possible. We had begun to look at areas across the country, far away from the little town we grew up in, the town we’ve lived in all our lives. Someplace with a booming economy, low unemployment rate and a reasonable cost of living which removed the West Coast from our search area even though they have a booming economy. People who aren’t tech millionaires, movie stars or movie producers can’t afford to live there and we agreed that the traffic there would drive us crazy in two days. Films we’ve seen on the evening news of the major arteries in the L.A. area remind me of recordings I’ve seen of lemmings ... except the lemmings are usually moving faster than the vehicles stuck in that rush hour traffic.

We were getting pretty frantic when out of the blue an old college buddy of Todd’s with whom he discussed our problem while looking for leads on new opportunities called and told him about a possible job opportunity if we’re open to the possibility of living abroad. The job would be doing the same thing he has been doing since he finished college but with better pay and more perks.

His buddy had been considering it when he heard about it but his wife absolutely refused to live anywhere outside of the U.S. Todd told him he’d have to talk to me and our daughter and he’d get back to him. His friend said he’d email him some information he found when he was looking into it.

When Todd came home that evening he had a folder full of information about Ghana, Boateng Electronics, and the city of Kumasi, the large city in which they’re located.

I have often thought it would be quite an adventure to live abroad. But when I daydreamed about it I imagined living in Germany or Italy or England. My dad was retired from the Army and among the many places in which he served his favorites were Germany and Italy. I was very young at the time so I don’t really remember my time in Europe. But my parents loved Europe and especially Germany. They loved the people, the food and drink, the clean, litter-free countryside. He talked about his time there a lot and I’ve always wanted to go back there now that I’m old enough to appreciate it. But Africa?!

I’ll admit I don’t follow the news from that continent closely. However, I have the impression the entire continent is a dangerous, violent place where towns and villages are constantly under attack, where poverty and diseases are prevalent, and where governments are constantly being overthrown ... sort of like how the Republicans have just overthrown our government and appear to be determined to put an end to our democratic system, primarily in an effort to give more wealth to the already wealthy.

Todd admitted he had the same early impression of Africa but he had looked through the information his friend sent him and although it can’t compare to a European country, Ghana seems to be much safer and have a much more stable government than many African countries. There is a lot of poverty in the country and there are a lot of diseases. There’s also quite a bit of corruption. But hell, we have all those things here. Maybe that’s why one of the most dishonest men in the country, a convicted felon facing trial in courts all over the east coast for even more felonies was just elected president again.

We talked it over and then we talked it over with Vicky and decided we all have questions and doubts but jobs are scarce right now and getting scarcer. If Todd applies for this job and gets it we can at least give it a try. If it turns out we love it then great. If not, it could provide a more than adequate income we can take advantage of to get us through this tight job market in the US. That seems like a better option than living off our savings until they run out. And then what? Begging on street corners and living in a tent?

Todd put in a phone call the next morning to Mr. Boateng, the owner of the company who, coincidentally, is currently in the U.S. in an attempt to drum up more business. While he’s here he’s apparently keeping an eye out for new employees, well-educated Americans with experience who can improve his company and hopefully draw more clients to Mr. Boateng’s company using their contacts.

After a telephone interview which lasted more than an hour Mr. Boateng told Todd his business in the United States is nearly complete and he’s flying home in two days. He said he’s impressed by Todd’s qualifications and experience and invited him and his family to dinner at his hotel the following day. Todd hates driving into or anywhere near New York City but the conversation had gone well. Mr. Boateng had impressed him and we don’t feel like we can pass up the opportunity in light of the present predicament we’re in. He agreed to meet Mr. Boateng at the restaurant in his hotel tomorrow evening.

We talked for most of an hour about the conversation he just had with Mr. Boateng and his impression of the man as a person and as a possible employer. It’s too soon to get our hopes up but suddenly we’re all a lot more comfortable with the idea of moving to Africa.

Mr. Boateng is staying at one of the poshest hotels in New York City. Todd spent much of the evening planning his route to the hotel. Our vehicle has a navigation system but we’ve learned from past trips into the city that they can’t always be relied upon for accurate guidance. That seems to be especially true in large cities. Once he had planned the route he figured out how long the trip should take and planned on leaving at least an hour before that to allow for wrong turns and problems finding a parking space. He printed off the route and then spent some time seeing what he could find out about Mr. Boateng and his company on the internet. As it turned out there wasn’t much information available but what little he was able to find was quite complimentary.

While Todd was doing that, Vicky and I made certain our little black dresses weren’t in need of a touch up and I made certain Todd has a dress shirt which doesn’t need a touch up with an iron.

All three of us were nervous the next day. I think Todd was more nervous about driving into the city than he was about meeting Mr. Boateng but the drive wasn’t that bad. It was in between rush hours so the traffic was only terrible. We had no trouble finding the hotel and we didn’t have to worry about finding a parking place. The hotel has valet parking.

We had an hour to kill before meeting Mr. Boateng but dressed as we were we weren’t comfortable walking around window shopping. As luck would have it, there’s a huge bookstore across the street from the hotel. All three of us love a good bookstore so we spent about half an hour in there before returning to the hotel. We informed the hostess we’re meeting Mr. Boateng. She smiled that friendly hostess smile and led us to his table. After we were seated she informed us that Mr. Boateng will be joining us in a few minutes.

Ten minutes later we saw the hostess escorting a large, distinguished looking black man to our table. Todd rose to his feet and Vicky and I pushed our chairs back with the intention of standing when our host smiled a very friendly smile and waved us back into our seats.

He thanked the hostess and apologized for making us wait. Before we could respond he turned to the waitress who had just appeared at our table and is handing out menus. Mr. Boateng ordered a bottle of wine and three glasses. Then he asked Vicky what she’d like. Vicky asked for a soft drink and the waitress scurried away.

Mr. Boateng informed us that dinner is on him. Todd and I were both relieved. I’ve never eaten in a restaurant that didn’t list the prices on the menu. Just seeing it made me nervous even though we could have afforded a meal here. Todd doesn’t have the job yet and we’ve already begun to be more careful with our money since his employer went out of business.