What a year it has been: many highlights, many travels, a few challenges and heaps of gratitude.  It’s hard to believe – and a tad embarrassing – that we didn’t manage interim updates here since last year’s holiday missive, but perhaps that’s indicative of how occupied we’ve been with living life in the present.  Now it’s time to make up for that and provide a past-present-future update.  So, here we go!

2011 in a nutshell:  A year of goodness, happiness and restlessness.  A year in which we remained engaged-but-still-not-married.  A year in which April took at least one international trip per month for eight out of ten consecutive months and somehow managed to remember the time zone when she got home.  A year of REXiness for Jerry, building on the REXpedition platform he described in last year’s letter, and including REXperiments and more (keep reading).  A year in which we gave thanks every day for our blessings (we love this TED talk about gratitude), and remembered that our worries are pretty “lucky worries.”  A year of good health, more time with our families-of-choice, adventures, blending new and old friendships, and deep anticipation of what is to come.

Rewinding to January, we took a quick getaway to Laguna Beach, where Jerry played faculty to a group of public affairs pros (for him, kinda like being in the lion’s den, something he loves) while April enjoyed Laguna’s “winter.”  Big news came at the end of the month, when April learned she had been selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum – yes, the folks in Davos.  This honor framed the rest of the year in the most incredible and memorable of ways (which you’ll see peppered throughout this update; hear more of her views on global leadership in this video done for WEF).

In short, April gets to be a YGL formally for five years, during which time there are a variety of summits, forums, task forces (on everything from water to urban mobility, dignity, youth financial education and happiness) and other initiatives to join.  She’s part of the WEF community which comes with all kinds of perks – not least, the people!  It was hard for her to keep this information confidential for six weeks like WEF required; her poker face is pretty bad.  Meanwhile Jerry wonders if there is an Old Global Wizards club that he might join… (hey!)

YGL pretty much set the tone for the year: meet, learn, connect, explore, help, go-do-be-see-dive-in-and-help.  Honestly, April felt that if nothing else happened the entire year, that would be already more than enough “good stuff” for a worthwhile year.  But of course, there was more in store for both of us.

The spring kicked off with Jerry’s second REXpedition offsite. This time it was held locally at a neat space across the Bay called The NeXus, complete with Thai Buddha statues and bayside views (that’s the REX posse, poised for action, on the right). REXers addressed conventional wisdoms being proven faulty, such as “scarcity = value” and the Tragedy of the Commons, and wrestled with questions like “what is the future of marketing?”

April’s YGL news went public in early March, and shortly thereafter she attended her first YGL Summit conveniently held in Silicon Valley.  What a great way to see her own backyard in a new perspective.  The next week we participated in one of our favorite annual gatherings:  the Institute for the Future’s annual Ten-Year Forecast at Cavallo Point (Jerry’s worked with them for years).

From there, April departed to India to kick off the single largest WaterCredit program in the history of Water.org.  She met with many MFIs and spent time also in Goa and Varanasi (and visited the famed ghats along the Ganges River; full photo set here).  An unexpected highlight was being in the country when India won its first world cricket championship since the 1980s.  Imagine if when the Red Sox finally won the World Series in the US, they had 1 billion fans… that’s the kind of celebrations we’re talking about. Crazy fun, to say the least!

From India, April hopped up to Switzerland for meetings and a fortuitous visit to the WEF headquarters.  She spent time in Geneva and Zurich, with bonus time to hike along La Salève with a dear friend and meet other YGLs.  Zurich did not disappoint either, as she arrived just in time for the annual “Burning of the Böögg” to mark the beginning of spring.  Maybe 2011 should be called the year of unique festivals…

Still in April the month, April the person took two other short domestic trips to Kansas City and Boston, while Jerry did an East Coast swing through DC and upstate New York, at the end staying several days with friends who built their own cob house as part of a lovely intentional community. (Fwiw, using a dry composting toilet inside a beautiful house is trippy!) We did get to travel a bit together – finally – in the form of Palm Springs for the wedding of dear friends at the end of the month.  It was fun to revisit 1950s nostalgia and stay in a Jetsons-style hotel complete with bright shag rug carpet.

Believe it or not, life from January through April was tame in comparison to subsequent months.  There’s a shared calendar on Jerry’s office door which we both admit looked downright scary from May through mid-November.  True, it also meant many amazing travels and unforgettable experiences – but a miracle combination of energy + effort + good karma was required to pull it all off!

May kicked off with the Shareable conference in San Francisco.  We are both getting increasingly interested in sharing-based business models as one of the most innovative, growing ways to do business (think Zipcar, Craigslist, Netflix and Airbnb as examples; there’s a great book called The Mesh if you’d like to learn more).  Then Jerry took off on a long-awaited trip to Brazil, his first time there despite a dozen years spent growing up next door.

Jerry went to São Paulo and Curitiba, which is inland an hour’s flight south. This was not the prime tourist’s pass through Brazil: São Paulo is a huge, sprawling business center with few landmarks of note (and no billboards!). The picture on the right is an atrium decorated with Post-Its!

Curitiba was Jerry’s goal, because despite a complete lack of money, the city managed to reinvent itself in the 70s and 80s, sparked by an extraordinary mayor, Jaime Lerner. In Curitiba, Jerry attended a conference on innovative cities that featured Lerner and many others sharing their learnings and worries.

The Brazil outing was meant as a scouting expedition to bring a couple of groups to the country in October, but the global economy is mired in goo, so he’s postponed that plan into 2012 or maybe even 2013.

Meanwhile, April attended her first-ever MakerFaire – DIY fun extraordinaire – with local family and went to Colorado to run the Bolder Boulder 10K race with her nieces Ella and Amelia.  We had such a good time that we’ve decided to make the run an annual tradition.  She’s just trying to take the fact that they might be faster than her very soon in stride.

In June, we spent a long weekend camping at Point Reyes, one of our favorite spots on earth.  Because we went despite grumpy weather, we had the entire campground – perched high on a cliff above the crashing Pacific Ocean waves, a 6 mile hike from civilization – entirely to ourselves.  We also experienced a complete deluge the first night and seriously wondered if we might just get swept off the cliff!  The following week we headed to the Sustainable Brands conference in Monterey together; another one of our growing and shared interests is sustainability strategy, within companies, governments, communities and the world at large.

Shortly after returning from the coast, we headed to Asheville, NC, for another highlight of the year:  Jerry’s Retreat! One of the big draws to Asheville was that our friends Kevin and Rosa Lee had moved there to be closer to their family (Kevin’s the guy who introduced us in the first place). The other big draw is the stories they started to tell us about Asheville, which, much like Curitiba, had revitalized itself over the years. The Retreat group spent some time at super-eco-friendly Warren Wilson College, fording the Swannanoa to get to Kevin and Rosa Lee’s farm for an outdoor dinner, and watching the Universe’s story projected in an inflatable planetarium called a GeoDome.

A few days after returning from Asheville, April headed to Peru for WaterCredit expansion work.  Returning to Lima after five years, it was almost like another city.  There has been so much development and modernization of the capital, it now feels like some mix-up of Los Angeles and Chicago with a touch of pure Incan culture.  Highlights of the trip included meetings with families in urban slums, learning about how they get their water, how much they pay for it, and whether they have a toilet.  (April agrees, her job is not exactly what you’d call typical – but it sure is good for cocktail party conversations! And yup, that’s April in Lima as a water droplet.) Jerry loved every detail he heard about Lima, where he spent the first 10 years of his life.

All of that happened in June alone.  Are we tired yet?

Come July, we did catch our breath a little bit.  We house-sat for friends in Sonoma and took lovely, long rides through vineyards.  We went on our first-ever “urban garden walking tour” and learned how to make a salad entirely out of foliage in Golden Gate Park (!).  We then headed to the magical town of Galisteo, New Mexico (near Santa Fe, in a basin revered for its natural energy) for another REX offsite. Here REXers shared their personal REXpeditions in the context of their work and goals.

Galisteo kicked off an autumn in which we both hit our strides and “dove deep” into what we do, why we do it, and learning of all kinds.  For April, it was also the first in a series of eight awesome events between the end of July and early December (happily, Jerry attended four of them plus others of his own; April also wrote a short blogpost).  In August we returned to Colorado for April’s high school reunion which was much more fun than she’d expected, and certainly more fun than high school itself.  Next Jerry made a quick trip to Minneapolis, while April headed to Sweden for the annual World Water Week in Stockholm.  She enjoyed the benefits of Scandinavia in midsummer, including jogging between archipelago islands and exploring Södermalm district (of hipster and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame).

August also heard Jerry’s ThinkPad give off a death rattle. He made the radical decision to go back to Apple and bought a sleek, almost miraculous MacBook Air (the new 13-inch one). It’s his first Mac since 1992 (there’s an original 1984 Mac in the basement).

In early September, Jerry went to Cape Cod for a geeky conference while April began spiritual work with a shaman.  We then both attended the SoCap conference, another one of our favorite annual gatherings, and the next day April departed for China.  She spent a week in Dalian at the WEF Annual Meeting of the New Champions, aka “summer Davos.”  Hands down it was one of the most extraordinary weeks of her entire professional life so far.  The theme of this year’s meeting was “Leadership & Quality Growth”, and the gathering was a who’s who of Asia and beyond.  April wrote an op-ed about yin-yang (im)balance and leadership styles for it, and decided she wants to write more.  Although seeing the growth course China is charting for itself is a bit scary, it’s also a reminder that we live in an incredible world. It’s undergoing change at unprecedented pace and magnitude, and things are never “going back to how they used to be” — that’s for sure!

It took a while for April to recover from China (in many ways – some of which she’s still working on), and before she’d gotten over jetlag we were off again: to Google’s Zeitgeist conference in Phoenix.  Time for a Camelback Mountain handstand redux and supper with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor!  From there, Jerry jaunted to Toronto for the SIBOS conference, where he participated in a maverick track on the future of banking and currencies.  By the time he returned, Occupy Wall Street was underway, which became a common thread in our news + conversations.  Entering October, we attended our first Quaker meeting together (Jerry had regularly attended in Connecticut years ago) and geared up for our first long-ish international trip in almost two years:  Mexico!  We attended Opportunity Collaboration, a poverty alleviation conference in Ixtapa, where we co-moderated the Colloquium on the Common Good.  Afterwards we spent time in the nearby pueblo of Zihuatanejo and enjoyed taking a much overdue mini-vacation together. Back home, Jerry and some buddies went karting, which turned out to be much more fun than he expected.

As we moved towards November, Jerry took a couple of fun work trips to Seattle and San Antonio, working with a cruise line and a military “information operations” group, while April continued pursuing WaterCredit expansion opportunities.  It’s been a very exciting year for Water.org.  CEO Gary White and co-founder Matt Damon were named to the TIME 100 list (of most influential people in the world), and water remains ever-more present on the global agenda.  The WaterCredit initiative continues to scale; we’ve doubled our MFI partner network and nearly quadrupled our funding base, so there’s a lot to do!  April now spends more of her time looking at potential new countries and channels for Water.org/WaterCredit expansion, mainly in South America and Southeast Asia.

Similarly, Jerry is busy building his REXpedition, first by adding a virtual, global offer called REXlab, and then by prototyping a workshop called Building the Wecono.me that finds new opportunities in one economic sector per workshop by taking them apart, juggling them in the air (conceptually) and reassembling them differently. His partner-in-crime for this project is hot studio, a (hot) user experience design firm in SF. They held a live-fire rehearsal of the workshop in November and will roll it out in 2012. Jerry feels like he has a huge idea by the tail in the Relationship Economy notion. He’s trying to keep if from flopping him around on the deck, and is gradually gentling it.

With the wecono.me wrap, April left the following day for her last international trip of the year: Spain!  It was a multi-stop trip, including time in Kansas City and Atlanta before heading to Europe.  In Atlanta she returned to Emory University to give speeches on water and microfinance, and really enjoyed a trip down memory lane.  In Spain, she attended the Global MicroCredit Summit in Valladolid – a treat of a town, which was the capital prior to Madrid – and made a quick visit to Salamanca, Spain’s Renaissance treasure.  Although it was a great trip, she was very happy to put her passport away at the end.

At the end of the month, we both attended a workshop on greater consciousness with a friend who’s been initiated as a shaman in multiple traditions and brings that awareness to practical folk like us.  We’re both deeply focused on developing our “relational awareness” and bringing this back into the world-at-large as well.  What is really amazing is that, when one regrinds their lenses in this way, the path towards a brighter future – one that’s not based on fear, zero-sum transactions or false notions of scarcity; one that not only acknowledges but embraces humanity’s vulnerability and deep desire for authentic, non-materialistic connections – seems strikingly clear.  We are in the very early stages of a global shift that will radically change much of the world around us:  how we do business, what we prioritize, how we treat one another.  We’d like to be champions of that process and more humane, positive relationships too.  (Don’t judge this statement by the photo…)

Speaking of better ways to spend one’s time, we also realized that this was the first time in five years that we were both in the US for Thanksgiving.  We wanted to be of service and do something new, so we decided to volunteer.  We delivered hot meals to the homeless and homebound in San Francisco.  It was a meaningful experience, despite the drizzle, and – we hope – set the stage for a holiday season focused on community and serving others more than ourselves.

And here we are in December.  We took another local getaway earlier this month, to Santa Cruz for Jerry’s birthday and a small conference called Highlands Forum.  What a wonderful retreat, and so close to home – we plan to go back, hopefully many times.  April then took back-to-back quick trips to Kansas City and Washington DC, and we now have only one trip left this year:  Colorado for Christmas with family, as we’ve done the past few years.  Snow angels, here we come!

As we look towards 2012, there is much on tap already and even more eager anticipation for what’s not known.  April travels to Cambodia in February and Bolivia in April, while Jerry’s next Retreat is in May near SF.  April will attend a 2-week YGL leadership training course at the Harvard Kennedy School in March and the next WEF/YGL annual summit later in the spring, which she is excited-beyond-words about.  She’ll also take a trip to Indonesia sometime over the summer, and Q3-4 travel remains TBD.  We plan to go elephant seal-watching near Monterey, continue to explore locally, make more trips to Colorado, and may attempt some kind of “shareable” experiment (details still murky).  We’re toying with the idea of a trip to Cuba and possibly (depending on the global economy) a Jerry’s Retreat in Brazil.  We’re planning an extended trip to New Zealand in early 2013 – very excited about that, and all recommendations welcome!

Our goals for 2012 and beyond are fairly simple (even though our lives seem complex sometimes):  Worry less.  Write more (FYI Jerry is becoming a featured blogger on Forbes, and there’s still a book in the works). Finish designing our home garden.  Dive deeper into sustainability, relationships and leadership.  Be happy.  Keep connecting our life-dots and how to best use those to help others.  Slow down.  (Yes, April means that!)  Remember more.  Be still enough to appreciate the present and understand what’s next.  Express joy, gratitude for being alive and in this world today.

We wish you all the best imaginable year ahead (it’ll be 2012! don’t let the world end!) and are so glad you’re in our lives.  We’d love to hear from you (email and Twitter are easiest).  Last but not least, thank you for reading this far!

Lots of love,

April & Jerry

PS:  as last year, for the brave and curious, here’s 2011 in context in Jerry’s Brain.

Happy, festive holiday greetings!  We hope this finds you thriving and having enjoyed a fulfilling year.  We’re not quite sure where the time went, except quickly and full of neat and meaningful experiences.  And before you wonder (or lest we leave you in suspense), we’re still engaged but not married, still haven’t set a date, still overwhelmingly grateful for each other, and still appreciate life’s myriad blessings every day.

Also before you ask about our globetrotting this year, let’s just say that April started writing this letter in the Himalaya… but that’s getting ahead of ourselves, so let’s go back to the decade’s beginning first.

2010 got off to a great start, with a happily laid-back schedule compared to last fall’s whirlwind travels.  April took work trips to Toronto, New York City (where she met Natalie Portman at a SoHo gym!) and Kansas City.  She continues to enjoy leading WaterCredit at Water.org, which is expanding in exciting ways (keep reading) and gives her ample opportunity to learn and grow professionally.  In February, Jerry hosted the latest of the agenda-less Retreats he’s run since 1996, this time at the Marconi Center near Point Reyes. At 90 people, this one was the largest ever, and full of good people + good ideas + good intent as always.  We took many a weekend cycling diversion, especially as April got a new bicycle (christened Silke) – happy to be two-together-on-two-wheels again!

In March April took her first of two trips (this year) to India.  She got to experience World Water Day first-hand at one of the largest such gatherings in the world in Tamil Nadu (watch this video, with nifty time-lapse starting at :52). She also got pretty horribly ill, prompting her first trip to an India doctor, which turned out to be a memorable lesson in the kindness of colleagues and strangers.  On the way back she swung through Cambridge, Massachusetts for more meetings and a bonus Beantown happy hour with some of you.

From April (the month) through June, we were both hard at work.  There were a few updates on the home front – a rebuilt deck, a stolen motorcycle (RIP Thumper, we miss you) – though rather miraculously neither an iPhone 4 nor an iPad showed up on our doorstep. (That will change in 2011 for sure!)  We ran the Bay to Breakers together; it was Jerry’s first time experiencing the only-in-SF-costume-party-you-call-this-a-run? extravaganza.  We took some independent work-related travels, April to Washington DC, NYC and KC (again) and Jerry to Paris.  And perhaps most memorably, we enjoyed several local getaways together:  Cavallo Point (part of Jerry’s IFTF advisory work during the year); Carmel for seaside and sunshine (on a different gig of Jerry’s); and a gorgeous, hiking-and-wildflowers Point Reyes home-swap.

Despite the fact of having traveled halfway around the world a half-dozen times in the past three years together, we still hadn’t made the 2.5-hour flight to Colorado.  In July we finally changed that and took a trip down memory lane there.  We spent a week around July 4 enjoying time with April’s sister Allison, brother-in-law Stefan and best-ever nieces Ella and Amelia in Denver, and managed day trips to Colorado Springs and Boulder.  Jerry finally got to “meet” Mom and Dad at the cemetery, and we reconnected with old friends and family (even high school teachers!) at their favorite haunt Jose Muldoons.  In addition, our timing corresponded perfectly with a reunion in Denver of April’s law school friends, the “Wonderful Women,” who met for Tuesday night margaritas for three years straight while at Harvard and have stayed in touch ever since.  That group has now expanded to include husbands, significant others and a few wonderful kiddos. It was such great fun to spend relaxed, agenda-less time together.

This summer in San Francisco was particularly cold and foggy, so April was all too happy to return to warm India again at the end of July.  Despite doing her best to stay healthy, however, this time she ended up in the hospital.  (She’d heard many stories about Indian hospitals and must admit had wanted to visit one, but preferably not as a patient.)  Turns out she was allergic to an antibiotic that she’d taken before the trip even started, but which took 3 weeks to make itself known.  Thankfully the diagnosis was straightforward and the itchy, blotchy rash went away just in time to come home.  On a brighter note, she also had some great meetings and site visits in Kanchipuram (a town near Chennai), Ahmedabad and Delhi, and a bonus visit with a dear Indian friend from Oxford days who now lives in Gurgaon.

Post-India, we were both happy to have more quality time together closer to home.  In August we finally took a much-anticipated bicycling trip near Napa.  We stayed near Healdsburg and took lovely rides through vineyards, drinking 15 wines in one day and still managing to walk straight at the end!  September was a fabulous month, which kicked off with Jerry going to Bighook (one of his favorite annual geek gatherings) in Woods Hole near Cape Cod.  The following week we went to Paradise Valley, Arizona for Zeitgeist, Google’s partner forum.  Jerry participated and April tagged along with her WaterCredit work, though was able to attend sessions – and fit in a sunrise handstand on Camelback Mountain too.  We had a fantastic time.

At the end of September, April and Jerry combined a variety of fun activities in the Midwest.  April took advantage of another work trip to Kansas City to fly into Minneapolis instead, visiting a dear law school friend in St. Paul (with fun side trips for hiking, Stillwater and quirky outdoor sculpture at Franconia) and then taking a road trip through Des Moines (visiting other friends and taking a 12-mile “city tour run”) before ending up in Missouri.  Jerry met her there and was finally able to meet her Water.org colleagues and see the HQ office.  We also had a fun time exploring the city, including KCMO’s renowned fountains, barbeque and jazz. (That’s KC, MO, to you non-locals.)

We made it back to San Francisco just in time for an awesome conference, SoCap (social capital and social enterprise, “where meaning meets money”), where we both presented as we’ve done in years past.

Right after SoCap, Jerry launched REX, the most important venture of his decade (we occasionally indulge in hyperbole, but we mean this). REX stands for the Relationship Economy eXpedition., and is a lifestyle business that brings together Jerry’s talents and passions atop a nifty business model.  Here he explains it himself:

Put a different way, a small group of peers pay a membership fee to be part of a private REXpedition that Jerry guides.  That group has calls twice a month and meetings twice a year, taking the ideas deeper and spawning experiments together. The general public can engage with the Relationship Economy thesis on the public website and related media.

As if that wasn’t enough for the month, mid-October April returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts to formally join the U.S. Board of Directors of the World Wide Web Foundation.  She’s thrilled by this honor to get more involved on issues related to technology and development, and to work with some of the world’s premier internet experts.

The last week of October, we went to San Diego for TEDMED.  Jerry participated in the conference and ran a workshop afterward for 50 RWJF grantees, and April took her own work along and had a beach-front view to do it.

We loved the Hotel del Coronado, and – most memorable of all – were lucky to have a photographer-friend generously offer to do a photo shoot.  He mostly took pics of April doing handstands and cartwheels until she was wobbly (urp!), but he also took some fun ones of us together.  Now if only we can both still do cartwheels 50 years from now…

November marked the time when April’s travels really heated up, and Jerry dove even deeper into REX on the home front.  Just to put things in perspective, April’s November-December whereabouts looked something like this:  San Francisco – Washington DC – San Francisco – Los Angeles – Bangkok – Kathmandu – Pokhara – Annapurna – Mumbai – Nairobi – Cairo – New York City – San Francisco – Colorado – San Francisco.  Basically an around-the-world odyssey in five weeks.

(Anyone need a sleeping pill yet, or a time zone converter?  Needless to say, she made her 1K gold frequent flyer status this year…)

She kicked things off in DC, where she attended the SEEP Network conference for microfinance practitioners and hosted a happy hour with friends from almost all chapters of life.  We then hosted a pre-holiday party at home with so many dear friends – we love you all!  A few days later she began her Nepali adventures (and first vacation since joining Water.org).  After arriving in Kathmandu and spending a few days checking out the capital and visiting local friends, she headed to the airport for her flight to the Himalaya.  However that was not to be; after waiting for six hours, her Buddha Air flight was cancelled at sunset. (Hardly a Zen moment.)  So in a bit of a pinch, and with her trek starting the next morning, she opted to hitchhike.  Nine dusty, spine-rattling hours later, having experienced a few white-knuckle moments in the car with sheer drop-offs, no highway lighting, and a couple roadblocks, she and her new Nepali friend Niraj arrived in Pokhara.

Tweeting without Twitter!

The effort was beyond worth it, for the next two weeks April spent trekking in the Annapurna region, completing the Annapurna Sanctuary route plus various add-ons like Poon Hill.  She joined a group of seven other women, with three women guides and six women porters, and had an amazing, unforgettable time.  Stunning scenery, challenging hikes, rustic “teahouses” for accommodation (no heat or hot water; electricity if you’re lucky), daily ginger-lemon tea and dhal bhat tarkari, and such happy friendly Nepali people that she quickly became smitten with the country and reminded of just how much she loves to trek.  (Everest next time, anyone?)  She reached Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) on Thanksgiving Day, which was a perfect opportunity for gratitude.  Plenty of pictures resulted; the album is here – favorites include a Poon Hill handstand, fiery Tadapani sunrise, and breathtaking ABC panoramas.  After the trek April spent several more days hiking in the hills around Bandipur, a beautiful area of rich Newari culture and architecture, before returning to Kathmandu and catching her onward flight to Nairobi, with a stop in Mumbai.

After checking out Juhu Beach and Bollywood’s finest en route, April arrived in Kenya.  Jambo! She was excited to be back and start implementing a WaterCredit expansion program in East Africa.  With her terrific colleagues, she’s busy forging partnerships with microfinance institutions (MFIs) and helping them develop credit and savings products to meet the water and sanitation (WASH) needs of their clients.  It’s tremendously rewarding work, and she’s humbled to be at the intersection of financial and WASH innovation.  She was based in Nairobi for two weeks, mostly filled with long days of (interesting but exhausting) meetings.  She did have a chance to take a lovely hike in the nearby Ngong Hills (where Out of Africa took place) and of course did a handstand there too!

Finally, finally we reunited at home in San Francisco in mid-December, just in time for the holidays.  April unpacked yak shawls, stashed her hiking boots, and got ready to go to Colorado for Christmas.  We’re heading there in a couple of days, to enjoy the snowy Rockies, playtime with nieces, a festive spirit and knowing just how fortunate we are.

We’re excited looking towards 2011.  We’ve got some fun trips and activities already lined up, like Switzerland, Brazil and a family reunion, and lots more TBD.  Jerry will be recruiting more people into the REXpedition and deepening the Relationship Economy thesis. We might go to that long island off the coast of Miami, schedule gods willing, and April will almost certainly be back in Africa and India (and maybe Latin America too).  Definitely more parties at home with friends, and more connecting good people and good ideas.  As for what else, well, you’ll just have to stay tuned!

Love, peace and joy to all,

April & Jerry

PS: for the visually and geekily adventuresome, 2010 in context (in Jerry’s Brain).

We spent the better part of the week in Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder.  Despite having traveled halfway around the world a half-dozen times together in less than three years, we still hadn’t made it to Colorado (where April spent many years growing up).  So we were overdue for a “trip down memory lane” and to reconnect with family and friends.

We were blessed with great people, great weather, and great fun throughout our time.  (Bonus: three out of four flights were upgraded to business class!).  We spent time with April’s sister Allison and her family: husband Stefan, 10-year old niece Ella and 6-year old niece Amelia.  They are all thriving, and we really enjoyed catching up, playing and hanging out together.  Favorite memories include riding scooters in the street (yes, April can still fit on one) , waving sparklers by night, jogging in Washington Park and watching Cupcake Wars and World Cup matches on television.  They are building a new, larger home in the same neighborhood (Pearl Street), so we went to see construction-in-action.  Gorgeous!

The timing of our trip also coincided with a reunion of my eight “wonderful women” friends from law school.  We met every Tuesday for three years for margaritas in Cambridge, and are now scattered around the country doing all sorts of interesting things.  All but one of us was able to attend, along with significant others and a few adorable kids in tow (plus a baby-on-the-way shower).  We had a lovely time catching up, taking red canyon walks, eating delicious food, and even taking in Toy Story 3 en masse.

Jerry particularly enjoyed fly fishing with the wonderful women’s other halves, up near the basin of South Park in which the TV series is set.

Going back to Colorado Springs was interesting.  For April, it was terrific to return to favorite spots:  Garden of the Gods, Old Colorado City, Coronado (all still looking good).  Downtown was a bit depressing given the lack of tax resources to take care of things like flowers in the median; Cascade Avenue felt like a shadow of what it once was.

For both of us perhaps the biggest – albeit bittersweet – highlight of our visit was going to the cemetery so Jerry could finally “meet” April’s Mom and Dad.  (April could just tell they were thrilled to meet him.)  We wrapped up the day with an extra-special, extra-fun family-and-friends reunion at Jose Muldoons, April’s parents’ favorite restaurant.  Relatives, neighbors, church friends and even April’s high school teachers showed up!  We left feeling very loved, happy and lucky.

We’re now back in San Francisco and will stay put (relatively speaking) for a little while.  That means that April heads to India this week, but “only” for 10 days.  She’s planning a bigger trip to Nepal in November, for a lifetime-dream trekking adventure in the Himalaya, and we’re both looking at Cuba for 2011.  Onward!

Warm, Happy Holiday Greetings to All!

We hope this finds you well and enjoying the holiday season in peace and among loved ones.  What an extraordinary year it has been, once again full of changes (mostly wonderful, alongside a few hiccups), international travels, fulfilling work, friends and gratitude for each day and one another.  We’ve also both found our Twitter-strides, so if you’re looking for even more details about what we’ve seen you might want to check out our Twitter streams too (Jerry and April).

Last we checked in (at least for those of you not checking our website or April’s blog more often), we had just returned from east Africa and were gearing up for “a year of being open” to the world.  It’s probably safe to say: mission accomplished!  Wow.  So let’s take a deep dive into this year (you’ll understand the water analogy soon) and what we’ve been up to.

January seems like a very long time ago.  We spent a lovely week in Atlanta with April’s Italian family.  April decided to leave her job at Unitus (come March) because it wasn’t a good match for her longer-term professional goals (in particular, not wanting to be pigeon-holed into “lawyerly” responsibilities). Later that same week, on April’s birthday, Jerry proposed! The setting: Crissy Field in view of the Golden Gate Bridge, on a glorious sunny day, under a stand of maritime pine trees. April was caught completely off guard – and very happy.

Spring was spent hiking, interviewing, attending conferences and exploring next steps by April.  Jerry emceed several conferences for the Institute for the Future and began framing a new platform for his work.  We took some local getaways, like Cavallo Point and home-swapping in Point Reyes.  April took further trips to Cambridge, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and NYC; Jerry went to Fontainebleau (outside Paris), Palo Alto (lots), San Diego and Washington DC.  In May, April’s “adopted godparents” hosted a wonderful engagement party with close friends.  “Family of choice” was the overarching theme, and we are eternally grateful for all of you!  These months of meaningful and lower-key events were a complementary preface for the busy-ness, intensity and (exciting but sometimes exhausting) travels of the rest of the year…

Come June, things both personal and professional seriously picked up steam.  April began her new role as Director of WaterCredit at Water.org.  WaterCredit is an innovative initiative that links the microfinance and water/sanitation (“watsan”) sectors throughout the developing world.  With 2.5 billion people without access to finance, and 2.6 billion people without access to safe watsan (that number is slated to rise to 4 billion by 2025), there’s plenty to do!  As director, April is responsible for developing global strategy and partnerships with microfinance institutions and watsan organizations.  She loves it; Jerry says she’s a “fish in water.”  (She hasn’t met Water.org co-founder Matt Damon yet, however – but that could happen in 2010…)

No sooner did April’s deep dive into WaterCredit begin, it was time to take another trip for IDLO and teach the penultimate law-and-microfinance course together – this time in Jordan.  We spent 2 weeks in June in Europe and the Middle East.  Our first stop was the English countryside, where dear friends got married near Malvern and we took long rambles on verdant hillsides.  From there we flew to Amman and on to the Dead Sea, where the IDLO course was held.  We could see the West Bank directly across, and the lights of Jerusalem twinkling on the horizon at night.  It was a fantastic gathering of participants from Egypt, Palestine, Yemen and beyond.  We are truly blessed by our increasingly global communities, and bobbing in the salty sea after class was a lot of fun too.

With work done, it was time to see the rest of the country.  We took a local bus down the Desert Highway to Wadi Musa, where we explored the magic of Petra at day and night, standing up and upside-down (see photo).  Then we picked up our rental car and hit the road!  We drove the entire King’s Highway from south to north, taking in Wadi Rum (where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed), castles at Karak and Shobek, cliff-hanging gorges at Dana and Wadi Mudib Nature Reserves, mosaics in Madaba and a loop around Mount Nebo (where Moses apparently saw the Promised Land).  Favorite memories include eating entire watermelons from roadside stalls, capturing a thermometer reading of 117 degrees F, and the looks April got when driving – women really don’t drive in Jordan at all, much less a blond woman with no head scarf!

We spent a few days in NYC en route back to San Francisco in early July.  No sooner than we returned, we learned that April’s grandmother Dorothy had passed away.  We went to Arizona for her funeral and what became an impromptu family reunion.  We miss her – and her spunky spirit – lots.

What came next on the WaterCredit travel front even makes April’s head spin.  Between July and October, she went to 4 continents, 9 countries, took some ~40 flights, held more meetings with MFIs and watsan organizations than she can count, and was home for only 3 weeks during that time.   Jerry was a terrific supporter, and we both appreciate the impact of this work though don’t want to make this kind of schedule the norm.  (Thankfully we got to take the Italy, Berlin and Point Reyes trips together.)  Perhaps a brief recap is best:

• August: Washington DC – Uganda – Kenya – Ethiopia – Sweden (for World Water Week) – Pictures
• September: India – 8 cities in < 3 weeks! Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Tiruchirapalli (such a fun city name to say…) – Pictures
• October:  London, England; Frankfurt, Germany; Los Angeles, Kansas City and Point Reyes
• November:  Italy (Rome, Bergamo and the Cinque Terre) – Pictures; Berlin, Germany – Pictures

(Are you tired yet?  We are!)

There are too many highlights, extraordinary experiences and memories to list them all here.  A few include Stockholm’s Gamla Stan in midsummer; the SoCap conference in which we both participated; the amazing hospitality of April’s Water.org colleagues in India and Africa; learning first-hand about watsan issues in the developing world; sunrise jogs around Rome’s Villa Borghese; hiking the Cinque Terre surrounded by lemon trees, olive groves and autumn colors; Berlin’s Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas markets with glühwein) and exploring funky post-socialist neighborhoods like Prenzlauer Berg; and of course, spending time with dear friends and “family of choice.”

We have concluded that Italy is becoming prohibitively expensive (9 euros for an espresso doppio?!?) and tumbling down a precipitous socio-economic-political hill, Berlin is an absolutely charming and fascinating city, and it’s immensely enjoyable to travel in Europe off-season (if you don’t mind drizzle).

Come the holidays, we’re happy to spend them low-key at home in San Francisco.  After such an intense spate, it feels great to stay put for a while.  We’ll celebrate with old and new traditions and look eagerly towards 2010.  April is probably going to Indonesia and west Africa, along with return trips to India and Africa and a host of domestic trips.  Jerry began a project with the Environmental Defense Fund, and is focused like a laser on “getting things done” with his business platform starting two businesses: one with colleagues to help organizations learn the social media dance; the other solo, convening a think-and-do tank.  We often dream about trips to Cuba, Brazil, New Zealand and Nepal but it’s anyone’s guess as to when those might happen (April votes for soon).  Meanwhile we intend to enjoy each other, life’s blessings, our communities and environs and just being alive every day.

Here’s to a peaceful and joyous new decade, celebrating the amazing world we live in and discovering new and more ways to make it a better place for all!

April and Jerry

April has mostly been traveling in her new role with WaterCredit.  It’s a perfect fit for her; Jerry likes to call her “a fish in water.” She’s been to some 12 countries in the past 4 months, taken close to 50 flights (no comments about her carbon footprint, please) and had more meetings with MFIs than she can count.  East Africa, India, Europe (three times) and various domestic trips have kept her fully occupied and happy.  You can read and learn more on her blog and — most of all — Twitterstream.

Jerry continues to win fencing tournaments and intends to be on the first spacecraft that lands on Mars.  He’ll tweet there too.

We’re together in Rome right now, connecting with the IDLO microfinance posse that we’ve trained over the past 2+ years throughout the developing world.  It feels kind of like a family reunion, with participants from 30+ developing countries and many stories to share.  We’re doing our best to enjoy the city outside of work as well — sunrise jogs through the Villa Borghese grounds, proper espresso and fresh gnocchetti al tartufo bianco (white truffles) around the corner, and wandering among golden- and rose-hued Renaissance architecture in giddy awe.  April’s rusty Italian is coming back with a vengeance, and Jerry’s isn’t half bad either; bonus is that we get to speak Spanish and French with our microfinance colleagues too.

We’ll be writing a holiday letter-post in the coming weeks but wanted at least to say a quick online hello before then, if nothing else than to let you know that we’re still together, well and doing our best to carpe diem, appreciate life (and one another!) every day.  It’s almost time for the un’aperitivo romano, so until the next post — ciao!

Just before that fateful day on Crissy Field when Jerry proposed, April announced she was moving on from her legal-strategic role at Unitus.  It was time to design a more fulfilling career and develop skills extending “beyond microfinance” (though still focusing on serving the bottom of the pyramid).  Since mid-March, she’s been busy with outreach and learning — about everything from impact investing, to myriad new social enterprises, to how many many trail miles she can hike in a week (answer: a lot).  This afforded her opportunities to consult, attend conferences at leisure, discover weekly wildflower changes and travel to places like Boston, NYC and Kansas City, Missouri (if this last one seems unique, keep reading).

Although we haven’t traveled internationally in recent months, we have discovered some all-time favorite getaways in our own backyard — like Cavallo Point Lodge.  A divine sojourn there and to Sonoma, coupled with special gatherings with our “family of choice” have been highlights of the season.

After several weeks, April finally figured out what she’s meant to do next and announced she’d be joining WaterPartners International as Director of its WaterCredit initiative.  WaterCredit represents a unique opportunity to put microfinance tools and access to catalytic capital to work to address the needs of the poor for clean, safe water.  WaterPartners is one of very few organizations globally that’s pioneering scalable, sustainable financing solutions to meet one of humanity’s most basic and widespread needs.  She’s excited to be an early trailblazer  and advocate in this blended “H2O + MF” space.  (Oh, and WaterPartners’ primary U.S. office is in Kansas City — though she remains based in San Francisco.  Hurray!)

Up next for both of us is travel.  Destination: Jordan, with bonus stops in the English countryside and New York City.  We’ll be teaching the next installment of IDLO’s law-and-microfinance course series on the Dead Sea, then heading south to explore Petra and hang out with Bedouins in the Wadi Rum desert.  You can track our footsteps and observations on Twitter — Jerry here and April here.

After the Middle East, April has trips planned to Africa, India and Bangladesh; Jerry heads to Denmark; and we both somehow will find our way (together) to Rome this fall.  (No, not for a secret wedding in a village chiesa.)  So it’s good we’ve been able to catch our breath closer to home.

A lot of challenges have faced us already this year, which we’d like to think have made us grow and become a stronger couple.  Now, it’s time to take that and “dive deep” into this next chapter and series of adventures!

]]> http://www.aprilandjerry.com/blog/2009/06/spring-changes-just-add-water/feed/ 0 http://www.aprilandjerry.com/blog/2009/02/12909-aprils-birthday-engagement/ http://www.aprilandjerry.com/blog/2009/02/12909-aprils-birthday-engagement/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:11:29 +0000 April http://www.aprilandjerry.com/blog/?p=50 It’s been a good month, including a special trip to Atlanta to visit April’s Italian family there, fun get-togethers with friends and gloriously sunny weather in SF.  But the highlight definitely occurred on January 29 (April’s birthday) just before sunset, along Crissy Field between views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the lavender-pink-gold hues of the city and bay beyond…

Jerry proposed; we’re now engaged!

The setting was perfect, and the moment caught April quite by surprise.  After a lot of smiles, laughter, hugs and just a few tears, we celebrated with some very good wines, our favorite Noe Valley restaurant and to-die-for gourmet cupcakes (with lots of frosting, of course).  Since then we’ve been sharing the news with family and friends, and the outpouring of love from them has been tremendous.  We feel truly blessed in life!

No other details are available yet (‘cept a picture of the ring).

Stay tuned!

Holiday Greetings, dear friends!

Hujambo – Namaste – Seulam – Bună ziua – Здравей – Goddag – Saludos – Saluti!

We hope this finds you happy, healthy and enjoying this year’s holiday season and the myriad reasons to be excited about 2009 and beyond. Despite the global turmoil swirling around us all, hope and change are also afoot – always remembering that we are still among the most fortunate people in the world for the blessings and opportunities that we have.

This has been an intense, challenging and rewarding year for both Jerry and me. Lots of adventures together – from the Serengeti (east Africa) to Tamil Nadu (southern India) to rural Bulgaria, along with those closer to home in San Francisco. Lots of work – Jerry’s consultancy continues to flourish (see his website, blog, tweets and photostream), and my legal and strategic role with Unitus, and continued law-and-microfinance teaching for IDLO keep me more than busy. Oh, and I blog, tweet and post photos online too! Thankfully this year has also included lots of fun, so let’s begin the annual review…

The first couple of months of 2008 were all about change and adjustment for me (with Jerry as loving observer and coach). In my new position as Director of Venture Development for Unitus, almost every day has meant some new challenge or opportunity to tackle. Unitus does both non-profit and for-profit investment in international microfinance, which basically means that we’re on the cutting edge of the sector. Some of my favorite projects have included establishing a merchant bank for microfinance institutions (MFIs) called Unitus Capital, establishing a Unitus office in Kenya, and working with lawyers from around the world. It’s been fascinating to learn about everything from Indian employment law to Singaporean tax law.

We managed a long weekend getaway to Big Sur in January but otherwise stayed nearby until mid-March, when we headed to southern India for 3 weeks. The main purpose of the trip was to teach the next IDLO microfinance installment in Chennai (Madras) – especially because Jerry has also now been taken on as IDLO faculty and teaches a module on ‘Social Media for MFIs’ so it’s truly a tandem collaboration.  After time in the capital of Tamil Nadu, we headed south to Mamallapuram and saw the areas directly devastated by the 2004 tsunami. From there Jerry had to head back to the U.S. while I continued on to Pondicherry (and the wacky yoga-utopia of Sri Aurobindo‘s ashram and ‘international peace community’ of Auroville) and then over into the region of Karnataka, spending time in Bangalore (where Unitus also has an office) and the fantastic cultural capital of Mysore. It was great to have an opportunity to travel ‘on my own’ again like years past, though I must admit I far prefer having Jerry along as a travel-adventure-life partner – so much more fun!

Back in California, it was nose-to-the-grindstone again for another spate of intense work through early summer. We attended our first gay wedding wearing matching traditional salwar kameez outfits from India (while someone yanked the stereo from our car), had friends visit from Europe and took several local hiking excursions, but otherwise laid fairly low… until July, when it was time to travel again for IDLO – this time to Eastern Europe!

Our first stop was London, where I took Jerry down memory lane and enjoyed being back in England (without having to work round the clock). From there we headed to Bucharest to teach; it was an amazing experience to be with Kosovars when Karadzic was captured (new age healer?) and Bulgarians when their country was stripped of €2 billion in EU accession funds due to ongoing corruption concerns there. Speaking of Bulgaria, post-Bucharest we hopped over the border and explored some of the beautiful mountainous regions of the north. We based ourselves out of Veliko Tarnovo and had a great time exploring quaint villages, stone-cut monasteries and frescoed churches (complete with an impromptu choral concert which left us speechless). Jerry also managed to get pulled over in our Romanian-rented car by the Bulgarian police… twice!

We returned to San Francisco on the eve (literally) of one of the year’s highlights – a visit by my sister Allison, brother-in-law Stefan and nieces Ella (8) and Amelia (5). We had a great time enjoying the Bay Area through kids’ eyes (and got a crash course in what it would be like to have little ones in Noe Valley). Favorite memories include the Exploratorium, some nearby secret slides (‘best use of taxpayer money,’ according to Stefan), rides in Jerry’s 1962 Sunbeam Alpine convertible named Fiona, and running the SF half-marathon/5K together.

Exhausted but very happy following the family visit, we settled in once again to several weeks of uninterrupted ‘local time’ and hard work in late summer / early fall. It was really nice to have this period to tackle various projects, see friends and basically enjoy our backyard (well, that and our garden are under construction but you get the gist). It was also a good time to spend together, as we knew that our respective travel schedules would soon heat up again. And indeed they did!

Between October and the holidays we spent more time on the road than at home. It was a wonderful period for both of us, though there were instances when we couldn’t remember what time zone the other was in… and quite honestly we’re happy to simply be safe, healthy and still standing at the end. Jerry’s itinerary included Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan and NYC, while I traveled to Washington DC, London, Cambridge (for a Harvard reunion), Ethiopia (via Syria) and Kenya. Ultimately we met up in Tanzania in November – hurray! We then spent the next few weeks teaching in Dar es Salaam, exploring wildlife and local communities near the Serengeti and wandering around Zanzibar and the Spice Islands.

Highlights from east Africa are too numerous to list. For me it was eye-opening to meet with cabinet ministers and present about microfinance in Addis Ababa, and to spend time in rural western Kenya (read: no electricity, hot water or indoor plumbing for a week) doing MFI site visits and microloan disbursements. I also got to meet Obama’s paternal grandmother Sarah in the very far-flung village of Kogelo. The entire east African region is overtaken by Obamania; we were thrilled to be among the first post-election unofficial “foreign ambassadors.”

The IDLO course was perhaps the best one to date – the group of participants was energetic, engaged and excited to learn (8 blogs already established!) and the venue on the Indian Ocean was perfect. From Dar we took a 10 hour bus ride north to Arusha, our jumping-off point for a mini safari-hiking-biking excursion through local villages.

We saw lions, hippos, elephants, giraffes, wildebeests and much more at frighteningly close range in the Ngorongoro Crater, cycled on muddy rutted paths through banana plantations and hiked along the Great Rift Valley with our local Maasai guide. (Observation: The real life of Africa happens far off paved roads and is both inspiring and sobering – Tanzania’s average per capita income is $283 per year). From here we flew to the island of Zanzibar – seeing snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro en route – and finished this letter. As appropriate for a visit to the Spice Islands, we’ve tromped through clove, vanilla, cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, annatto, cacao, henna, curry leaves, lemongrass and nutmeg/mace groves and sampled jackfruit, breadfruit, star fruit, passion fruit and giant green grapefruit. We’ve also enjoyed the pristine white beaches (dolphins swim nearby), the delightful labyrinth of old Stone Town and the Swahili culture – a fusion of Arabic, Persian, African, Indian and European influences.

Come December, all we can say is… wow. We are grateful for the tremendous opportunities we have had to see, do, explore and learn this year and all the truly inspirational people we have met along the way. It’s hard to say for sure how things will unfold for us in the new year, though we’re happy to stay home for a little while at least. We know already that our plans for 2009 will include time in Jordan, Italy, Atlanta and Colorado, but beyond that… well, let’s just say that we are very open and excited to the many changes that are underway in the U.S. and beyond (though plan to keep roots in San Francisco!). There is so much need in the world, ways to collaborate within the global community and potential for bringing about meaningful positive change. As to where and how we might be part of that, well, you’ll have to stay tuned for next year’s letter!

Sending you all warmest wishes for a peaceful holiday season and an extraordinary 2009,

April and Jerry

Make no mistake, we still love handwriting notes and putting pictures in frames, but sharing picture, videos and updates online is so much more efficient — and green! The days of sending emails around with pictures attached are numbered. So herewith a guide to finding where we live online.

Right now, you’re reading our joint blog (or weblog). We each have our own blogs, too. April’s is called Borrowing Great Ideas; mine is Do You Sociate? If you’ve been receiving April’s email travelogues over the years, her blog will feel familiar. Mine will probably seem alien, unless you’re in the tech business or really curious.

We’re not the most prolific bloggers, but we’re better at microblogging, yet another new thing. The most popular microblogging service is called Twitter. You can find our tweets (each time you post to Twitter is called a tweet) here and here.

If you want to get to the good stuff, though, you may want to see our shared photos, which are on Flickr, a very popular photo-sharing service. Here are links to April’s and Jerry’s picture streams.

Flickr now accepts videos that are under a minute and a half in length, so Jerry’s been using Flickr for those lately, but he also has some longer videos on that well-known video-sharing site, YouTube. You can find his YouTube videos here.

Jerry also does one thing that’s unique: He publishes his Brain online. TheBrain is a concept-mapping application that  Jerry’s been using for eleven years. You can see it by following this link.

We’re also both on Facebook, and would love it if you would “friend” us there. Our profile pages are here and here.

We hope that’s not all too confusing or exhausting, but thus is life in the early 21st Millennium. All of these links will stay in the sidebar here (see “Links” to the right), so they’ll be easy to locate.

Happy Holiday Greetings!

Wow… I think that 2007 might be the most enjoyable annual letter I have ever written – and at least parts of it might even shock (and hopefully delight) you. What a year it has been!

Last year at this time, I was ‘looking forward to more roots, more microfinance, more time playing outdoors and hopefully at least a few more interesting travels,’ ‘spending more time with friends and loved ones’ and ‘might buy a (small!) place in San Francisco.’ Well, all that has happened and then some – including situations and opportunities that have prompted me into expanding and refreshing my own perspective and outlook on life – most of all, meeting the man with whom I plan to spend the rest of my life. So as I often say in my travelogues, if you are interested please keep reading…

January and February were fun, mellow months, filled with weekend kayaking and hiking excursions, time with old and new friends, and deepening my knowledge of quirky Bay Area locales – wine bars, farmers markets, staircases, boutiques, trails and the like. I regularly took advantage of nearby Point Reyes and Marin for getaways and enjoyed simply being in one place long enough to do things like participate in a book club and purchase a (pink!) kayak. In January I went to a Patagonian reunion with dear travel friends in Texas and to NYC for a Wall Street microfinance conference. February meant the 7^th annual Valentine-A-Thon with dear law school friends in Minneapolis (read: group of women + hearts + homemade chocolates + wine + the coldest weekend on record, -38ºF!), and in March I went to DC for work and an overdue visit.

Otherwise, my biggest time commitment in the spring was tackling the San Francisco real estate market. What an experience! I spent several weeks exploring neighborhoods (where is too hilly for any sane person to jog? where are coffeehouses within reasonable walking distance? where can I practice my Spanish just walking down the street?), made a couple of offers ‘just to learn the ropes,’ and then at the end of March fortuitously stumbled upon the place I now call home.

1133 Church Street is a 1908 Edwardian in the heart of Noe Valley (sandwiched between Mission Dolores and Cole Valley, more or less). It is the largest place I have lived since high school – 3 bedroom / 1 bath – though still compact by most North American standards. When I first moved in, it echoed – but I figured it was better to have a nest I could grow into. One of the bedrooms was slated as an office (or as I like to call it, my ‘inspiration room’ – full of maps, travel guides and photographs) and the other as a guest room. It has a lovely terrace / deck with views of the Transamerica building and SOMA, the East Bay towards Berkeley, and Potrero Hill. The bells of the nearby Mission are audible and remind me of Italy, my commute to the office at the Embarcadero means a 10 minute walk to BART plus an 8 minute train ride, and – despite the butterflies that stayed in my stomach for a few weeks – I am completely smitten with the place.

In April I went back to Cambridge for the first time since graduation. It was a fun ‘trip down memory lane,’ and I participated in microfinance symposiums at microfinance The Fletcher School and Harvard Business School. I also continued my quest to connect microfinance with the legal community, which has resulted in some 250+ attorneys at my law firm (and many others from elsewhere) expressing interest in the sector, the introduction of 17 new microfinance clients to my firm, projects underway globally, and gradually becoming known as a law-and-microfinance ‘expert’ of sorts. I am thrilled with this progress, which happened more quickly than I ever expected – more on what this means for me below…

So now, fast forward to June – and one of the most amazing, wonderful things that has ever happened to me. June 5 (the 13^th anniversary of my parents’ accident, for those of you who have known me that long) I met the person who I have since come to know as my life partner, soul mate, best friend, fellow travel adventurer, handstand companion and future collaborator. His name is Jerry Michalski, and the joke is that he Googles well (see his website www.sociate.com, for starters) but in-person introductions are far preferable. We have more complementary interests and strengths than I can recount, and which continue to grow every day.

Jerry is American but was raised in Peru and Argentina (his Mom was born in Germany and met his American Dad in Cochabamba, Bolivia – our fathers seem to have shared a passion for exploration). We both love foreign languages, international travel (and now, together too!) and ‘bucking the trend’

generally in order to do things joyfully and in our own way. Jerry is an independent consultant who focuses on new media, social networks and the ‘relationship economy’ – a job that is wonderfully flexible and lends itself to collaboration – for which I will be eternally grateful in many ways…

and now, some words from Jerry himself!

Thanks, Love! Gratitude is definitely in the air, as is amazement. On June 5, I really didn’t know what I was getting into. Nor did I understand the significance of that day, the depth and love of the woman for whom that day is special, or the beauty of the community that surrounds her. Now I’m starting to; it’s a delightful journey. I’ve already met a whole bunch of members of that community. I look forward to meeting you all over time. For now, though, back to trimming our first Christmas tree together.

Summertime as a whole this year was basically a blur for me, and focused entirely on Jerry and our blossoming relationship. What fun! We spent endless weeks going back-and-forth between his treehouse-home in the Berkeley hills and my city-pad in Noe Valley, went for rides in his 1962 Sunbeam convertible named Fiona, shared many long days full of iced coffee and sunshine, and marveled at the joys of getting to know one another better. During this time I was also blessed by a fun-filled long weekend visit by my ‘Italian sister’ Jessica (the most uber-full weekend I can remember!) and other reunions with dear out-of-town friends. In August I took a mini-vacation to attend a local travel writing and photography conference that I had dreamed about for many years… and which also served to reconnect me with aspects of my past and look towards the future in new and inspiring ways (including a reinvigorated interest in ‘doing something more’ with my travelogues). Stay tuned!

Jerry and I spent the summer locally based in part because we knew that much of the fall would be spent traveling. Indeed, between Labor Day and Thanksgiving we took 6 trips together (2 of which were international), and Jerry made an additional 3 business-related trips. It was the first time I have traveled (or shared a suitcase – !!) with another person, and although initially I was nervous about how things might go, I now can vouch first-hand for how doing so can bring extra joy, enhance the experiences and broaden one’s perspective. Jerry and I are definitely ‘cut from similar cloth’ in this regard. Yippee!

Our first destination was Cambridge, for the wedding of law school friends of mine and an opportunity for us to retrace steps from that chapter of my life. (The weekend in-between we moved in together.  Wheeee!) Next came China, where we did tandem handstands on the Great Wall (seriously!), jogged around Tiananmen Square, rode bicycles around Beijing, and I taught lawyers and policy makers from China and elsewhere in Southeast Asia about the legal aspects of international microfinance. Then came two domestic trips – first to Arizona for my grandmother’s 90^th birthday party and where Jerry met many other family members (including Allison, Stefan, Ella and Amelia), and then Palm Springs for a conference. A few days later, we were off to Mexico – first Oaxaca for one of Jerry’s extraordinary ‘retreats’ and a mini-vacation that coincided with the exquisite Day of the Dead celebrations, then on to Mexico City where I taught more lawyers and policy folks about law-and-microfinance in Latin America – in Spanish. Finally, we spent several days at Thanksgiving with Jerry’s Mother in northern Virginia. Our together-travels were terrific – eye-opening and exhilarating shared adventures, and contact with so many wonderful people. Combining work and meaningful travel is highly recommended, and we are now exploring ways to facilitate more opportunities to do this moving forward.

There is more shared excitement for 2008 and beyond than either Jerry or I perhaps has ever felt. Most of all we look forward to building our ‘raft,’ which hopefully will enable us to collaborate together (the use of new media in the microfinance sector, for starters) with flexibility and on our own terms. Although I recently announced my ‘professional independence’ from law firm life, it appears that may not last long as I was offered what seems to be a dream opportunity in the microfinance sector, details of which should stay under wraps for now (but I am excited beyond words). I also plan to resume writing in greater earnest, focusing on responsible travel and economic development (blogging is soon to be underway – please feel free to bookmark www.aprilkrinne.com and www.borrowinggreatideas.com  – and I’ll post links to photo albums too). We already have work-related trips planned abroad to India, Romania and Tanzania, and are having fun figuring out whether we will tack on camel rides, safaris or further-flung adventures to those journeys. Closer to home, we plan to spend time in New York, DC, Colorado, Big Sur and wherever else friends and family may give us reason to go. We ponder whether we might explore Hanoi, Havana or Auckland together first – as a place perhaps to spend more time off-and-on in the future? – but all in due course. We have enough to contemplate and be joyful about as it is, and most of all just want to enjoy these special times and one another. And, I still have to get used to the word ‘we’!

As always, out of sight is not out of mind and it would be wonderful to hear from you and how you are doing. If you do not yet have it, updated home and contact information for both of us is below. Sending you love and warm wishes for a meaningful, peaceful and mindful year.

April Rinne & Jerry Michalski