April and Jerry

Eid Sa’eed (Arabic) – Christmas aur Nav Varsh ki hardik shubkamnay (Hindi) – Trevlig Helg (Swedish) – Melkin Yelidet Beaal (Amharic) – Krismasi Njema (Kiswahili) – Buone Feste (Italian) – Frohe Weinachten (German) – Christmas Mattrum Inia Puthaandu Nal Valthukkal (Tamil)

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.

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Lots of good things have happened since our last post.  So many changes, yet at least a few things have stayed just the same.  (One example:  We’re still engaged, and still haven’t set a date.)

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!

We’ve been engaged all spring.  But that’s not the only change that’s come our way during this time, nor is it alone on the horizon…

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!