Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

Saturday May 18 Solanto

Today is the 2nd full day of our stay at Solanto house and we have committed to staying put for the day and just enjoying the water, the Solanto house and the freedom of having a day with nothing planned. It is a bit cooler than typical for this time of year in Sicily but fortunately we all brought some form of wetsuit making swimming and paddling pleasant, particularly with a splash in the hot tub to warm us up. We have now more or less figured out all of the various systems at our new residence and get through a day without needing to contact our host

I have a bit of work that I need to do over the weekend with a call this evening and then a couple of calls this coming week. I am hoping by end of next week much of the pull back to Seattle work will have subsided giving me more of an opportunity to check out a bit more for the last six weeks of our travels.

Sunday May 19 Solanto

Today is the 3rd full day of our stay at Solanto house. It is 11AM and today so far I have slept in a bit, had a lovely morning session of coffee and reading news and Melinda’s “Moment of Lift” watching the fishing boats come and go, enjoyed a long swim and snorkel and a family Stand-Up-Paddle board outing with the three boards at the house, finished a 45 minute session on the exercise bike and soaked in the hot tub – not a bad start for a morning of water front relaxation.

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

Next on the agenda is a short trek into Santa Flavia for a pizza lunch and to restock a bit of produce and fish. To our surprise, almost everything is closed on Sunday, but one of our local fish markets so we can get the “basics” – a big chunk of local swordfish.

Max and I are spending more time in Solanto catching up on math, working on both linear equations and wave equations – various concepts, applications and then techniques for solving problems.

With a slightly cooler evening, we try our first dinner inside. The Solanto house is all about outside space with five different sitting areas with a total of perhaps 50 seats and one common sitting area inside with four seats – definitely a more limited space if the weather is limiting. The one indoor space is lovely and combines kitchen, dining room and living room all into one space. For the evening we decide to watch the Godfather as long as we are in Sicily as we are trying to watch movies that are relevant to the places we are visiting (Though the Godfather is perhaps

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

not the same level of academic quality and relevance as learning things we have done other places).

Monday May 20 Solanto

Today has a couple of missions, first we need to review overall progress on home schooling and make adjustments as needed. This reliably comes with a plea from Max for less writing (which he needs to work on and is improving steadily) and more math and science. Max’s science comprehension is very strong and for me one of the greatest pleasures of this time is our daily science conversations now with sufficient time so that the threads from one day connect with the day before and the day ahead.

We are also back onto home schooling with a couple of Great Courses on quantum physics and biology, math problems, physics discussions and writing paragraphs. I am also doing more Gates foundation work than I had planned but am hopeful that this will

subside with a late night 3-hour phone call on Friday.

I also have a mission today – we are down to only two days of Nespresso capsules and replenishing them will require a trek into central Palermo (because the Nespresso store is on the trendy shopping street of course). Initially Lori and Max had planned to join me for this trek and make an adventure of it, but after the “stress” of the home-schooling review Max decides he needs to stay and get ahead on his writing. I head off on my

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

own for what turns out to be an almost 3 hour odyssey of Palermo traffic and then re-supplying at what I believe is the Italian version of Walmart (my father would be proud) and then a lovely drive down the coast stopping at my new favorite fish stand and a farmer’s truck or two arriving back by 2PM with supplies for the remainder of our two weeks. This gives me time for a good swim and a bit of afternoon reading along with a bit of math with Max.

Evenings here are lovely with the breeze turning cooler, large hunks of fish on the bbq and local produce from local stands washed down with local wines. A really good local wine is $6 a bottle. We have also discovered Aperol aperitifs, which like pastis can be made very weak and sipped in the late afternoon with no effect other than passing the time. I have particularly fallen in love with the small local pomodoro tomatoes which are hard to believe have any relationship to store bought tomatoes.

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

Tuesday May 21 Solanto

We are starting to settle into a rhythm at Solanto house of mornings enjoying the warm sun and cool Mediterranean breeze with strong coffee and a bit of reading followed by an Italian breakfast of smoked fish, salami, cheeses, fruit and bread and then various sorts of exercise – in our private gym in the boat cave, swimming in the cool water or on the paddle boards – this will be a hard routine to give up. It does create a bit of dilemma for us, as there is much to explore in Sicily but equally appealing is to break our usual need to do everything, take advantage of everything, see everything and be constantly on the move with just enjoying the moment for the moment (which Max seems to have mastered better than either of his parents). We decide everybody should pick one adventure (Lori picking two) for our 14 days here leaving us 10 days of largely just staying put (actually it turns out 11 days of staying put as Max has opted to stay at Solanto house for his adventure day).

I also can’t help but fiddle with and fix a few things at this lovely Sea house. There are many things here that are brilliant and ideas I will take home as new projects for our own Salish Sea House. I particularly like the use of a Jib sail and rigging turned sideways as an awning. There are also a number of small things that need fixin or

adjusting here and I can’t help myself but tinker a little.

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

Tonight, I have a call back to Seattle which will interrupt aperitif time a bit and then, as is now our pattern, a bit of wine as the sun fades, wonderful veggies and salad and then some sort of grilled seafood – in this case local tuna.

Wednesday May 22 Solanto

After an early morning session of Gates Foundation work along with a lovely sunrise

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

today’s plan is delightfully simple, cook a couple of meals for Max and Lori (we are a two meal a day family), exercise in the gym, paddle and swim, do a bit of work, read two books, do a bit of home schooling with Max and otherwise just enjoy time with Lori and

Max with a warm Mediterranean sun and a cool breeze.

I finished Melinda’s book, “Moment of Lift today.” I see Melinda in a whole new light. The book is inspiring, it is a deeply thoughtful read on gender issues, it is a rewarding read thinking that I have had the privilege to be a very small part of the journey she describes with my 15 years at the foundation and it is challenging read forcing me to reflect on what it means to me and how I show up as a man, as an ally of colleagues at work, a mentor to younger staff, as a husband, as a father. Coincidentally, I am involved in a manufactured drama with my Gates Foundation work team where I am trying to be helpful in spite of being on leave. As I see the “business” decisions unfold I see decisions being taken, particularly in how we are treating people very much in conflict with what I read as Melinda’s expectations for us in “Moment of Lift” – I am not naïve and appreciate real organizations always disappoint, but perhaps not as much as the current “moment of descent.” This is made starker to me as the aspirations for the foundation (and its accomplishments) are so extraordinary but the internal politics so petty. This book also reinforces for me how glad I am that I am taking this time with my family now, in spite of the fact that my six months of leave has been manipulated in part to create the drama at work.

With finishing of Melinda’s book, I am onto Steinbeck’s “The Log from the Sea of Cortez.” When I was in graduate school, I spent (or mis-spent) a great deal of time diving, spear fishing, kayaking and leading trips up and down the Baja Peninsula and this book is a favorite that I have read many times as my travels have to a certain extent mirrored Steinbeck’s narrative. We decided to do two family book club books for this 3rd leg of our travels - “The Log from the Sea of Cortez” and Hemmingway’s “Old Man and the Sea.” Our dilemma was which to read first and which second. Max’s solution, we should wait for Hemingway until we are in Nairobi staying at Hemmingway’s Hotel (no relationship that I know of). I note to the interested reader - my favorite page of writing of all time is in the first part of Steinbeck’s book – look for the tale of the Sea-Cow.

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

Tonight is cooks night off with a return to La Rotunda following a sunset Aperitif, a bit of math and a physics great course.

The people of Sicily are as warm and welcoming as anywhere we have been. Our blond and increasing tall and handsome son Max (taking after his mother) is a source of constant attention with a beautiful 20-something woman at the next table showering attention on Max to his humiliation, mistakes we make ordering in Italian being corrected by a coalition of guests and wait staff and other random conversations across neighboring tables making us feel like we have joined a family reunion instead of stopping at a local restaurant.

Thursday May 23 Solanto

Max’s quote of the morning – “this is the perfect place to do nothing.” Indeed, that is what is on schedule for today with the exception of the now somewhat regular Seattle evening calls. Morning coffee, morning gym, morning swim, morning paddle – all good for the start of the day.

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

Today’s morning routine is lightly interrupted by a few workmen, first the power company to increase the amount of power to Solanto house to accommodate some of the new toys installed by Giovanni and then the folks to fix the giant sun umbrella that was damaged in the storm. I had not anticipated how delightful having the umbrella

fixed would be, creating a new perfect place to enjoy the afternoon reading.

Friday May 24 Solanto

Today begins much to our delight as the other days here with warm sun and our now increasing perfected routines. We will need another fresh fish run, but instead of running out by myself, Lori and Max join. We stop at a small bakery on the way to my favorite fish stand for some wonderful fresh baked loaves (about 50 cents each) and a few morning breakfast treats.

An elegant older man stops us in the small bakery town to ask us where we are from and when he hears America, spends a handful of minutes sharing his observations on his

Week 17 – May 18th – May 24th Sicily

homeland Sicily – “a land of contrasts, a land of immigrants and gateway to the world for Italy, a land of many peoples.” We have been doing a bit of learning about Sicily as part of our visit and part of Max’s civics homeschooling at it is indeed a land of contrasts – from our lens, economically somewhere between Berlin and New Delhi. The themes this gentleman had on his mind for our short unsolicited conversation are particularly interesting given the news of the day – the Trump Circus, Modhi’s election win in India and others.

Next stop is my favorite fish stand in Acqua dei Corsari about halfway from Solanto to Palermo on the coast. This is my third visit. On the first visit I had some trouble communicating and although it all ended well, I think I annoyed the fisherman who was running the stand. With this third visit, bringing Lori and Max, I am welcomed to the small fish stand as if I was family, with my friend cutting the best bits of what we ask for, suggesting other things we should try and his wife bringing a pan of some sort of local marinated fish and sweet onion delicacy from the back insisting we must take along with our other treats. We make it home from our adventures in time to organize a lovely lunch followed by reading, paddling and for me a bit of reading and thinking about a

work call this evening.

Friday closes with a 3-hour call with the “Discovery Leadership Team” at the Gates Foundation from 9PM to midnight – this is the leadership for my team of 15 years. It certainly provides an interesting perspective to have stepped away from work, then to be drawn back in for a crisis, to receive various communications many confidential from various sources and then participate via telecon to a long call where I can only hear, but not see the participants. Hopefully the team is making some progress, but there are still clear gaps in what different people are hoping to achieve and how they are going about it.