We meet a couple who got engaged amid the ashes of the LA fires. The ring survived and was found in the ruins of their home. Also: grandmas bringing power to remote villages; and how going viral got a lost soft toy home.
Chapter 1: What is The Happy Pod about?
And I'm Brian McShay.
And you're listening to The Happy Pod.
On the BBC World Service.
This is Andrew Peach and on the way how Stephanie and Brian's engagement ring survived the LA fires.
We're both kind of in the mess of our home. My tears under my goggles and glasses. I remember saying at least we got engaged in this house.
We did, we were inside the house. The grandmas bringing solar power to parts of Madagascar.
Meine Tochter geht zur Schule und jetzt hat sie eine Flugzeuge, um nach der Schule zu studieren. Das hat uns wirklich viel verändert.
Und warum ein ehemaliger Soldat und Triple Amputee einen Solo-Sailing-Rekord setzen wollen.
Wenn jemand gesagt hätte, ich wusste nicht, ob ich aufstehen könnte, oder ich wusste nicht, ob ich etwas tun könnte, bis ich dich gesehen habe und dir wirklich geholfen habe. Ich denke, da wäre ich so, wow, ich habe wirklich das, was ich wollte.
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Chapter 2: How did Brian and Stephanie's engagement ring survive the LA fires?
Let's start with the story of a man who feared his marriage proposal plans had gone up in smoke in the LA fires. Brian McShea had been planning to pop the question to Stephanie Rayner and had hidden the engagement ring at their home in San Gabriel Valley until the right moment. But when their house and all their belongings were destroyed, he assumed the ring had been lost.
The couple, who met at Music College in 2013, told their story to my colleague Harry Bly.
Ich habe den Ring etwas weniger als einen Monat früher gekauft. Es war eine große Sache, die ich das ganze Jahr geplant hatte, um den Ring zu finden. Ich bin mit meiner besten Freundin gekauft, um den Ring zu bekommen. Und es war in der Kante meines Desks, in meinem Musikstudio. Als das Haus aufging, war ich wirklich schockiert, dass ich zurück in Square One auf dem Vorschlag bin.
Ich dachte einfach nur, dass ich, wenn ich super glücklich bin, einen literalen Diamant in der Strecke finden kann.
Stephanie, can you tell me what it was like to return to the house, or rather the remains of the house that day?
Es ist einfach komplett gelagert. Und ich denke, wir beide waren im Grunde in Tränen. Es war ziemlich unreal, auch wenn wir es gesehen haben. Nur um alles zu sehen, was du besitzt, alles, was du gesammelt hast. Ich hatte Sachen, die ich seit meiner Kindheit hatte, die nicht da waren. Es war eine unrealische Erfahrung.
We had kitchen colanders from Target, like not even real sifters, we had just kitchen colanders. And we had all the PPE that the National Guard was giving out, these checkpoints in our house. And I went straight to the spot where my desk was. I'm digging through and you see like a ring hanging out from something. You pull it out and it's a washer.
Und es gibt all diese falschen Alarmen und Weiden, die man durchdringen muss. Aber wirklich nur einmal, man drückt den Ring und am Ende ist ein Diamant. Ich meine, es ist alles schwarz, außer für den Diamant. I was just in disbelief and I was already on my knees and I heard myself say, hey, showing her, will you marry me? And I also remember being like, ah, dude, hey.
I had a big plan for this originally. You get one chance. I had a whole thought of how I was going to say this and hey was not what I had imagined presenting the ring with.
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Chapter 3: How are grandmothers bringing solar power to Madagascar?
These classes are run by the World Wildlife Fund and an international NGO called Barefoot College, which trains communities worldwide to be self-sufficient. Fast 100 Frauen haben hier trainiert, Solarpanel zu installieren und zu fixieren. Aber sie lernen auch über Frauen- und Kindesrechte, Mikroentrepreneurschaft und Gesundheit.
Vor dem Training hatte ich keinen echten Job.
Aber jetzt weiß ich, wie ich meinen Namen spreche. Ich lerne auch, wie ich lesen oder andere Wörter lese. Das hat mein Leben wirklich verändert. Als ich von dem Trainingszentrum zurückkam, hat mich die anderen Frauen gefreut und ich bin für sie eine Inspiration geworden.
At 43, Mom has four children and two grandchildren. I visit her at home in Kivalu, while she's peeling vegetables for dinner. The fishing village can only be reached with small wooden boats, and only in the morning, when the water between the mangroves is high enough to traverse it. Like most villages in Madagascar, it's very far off from the electricity grid.
After finishing her training at the college, Mom has come back here to bring power to her community.
So Mom is now installing a small solar panel on the top of a wooden hut. She can't climb up there herself, so she's instructing all the boys and men around her. And she knows exactly what she's doing. Bevor die WWF und die Barefoot College started training Grandmothers in this village, people used petrol lamps, candles and torches to have at least a little bit of light after the sun sets.
Eine Familie würde 30 Batterien pro Monat leichter zerstören. Das ist teuer und macht viel Wast. Aber das war nicht der einzige Schaden an der Umwelt.
Die Menschen schneiden jetzt weniger Bäume, weil wir unsere Lichter aus Solarpanels bekommen.
Bevor, we often made fires to have enough light to prepare fish for dinner. The sun is shining all year round, even during the rainy season. So using solar panels is really good for us.
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Chapter 4: What efforts were made to reunite a lost toy with its owner at Pittsburgh Airport?
Craig Wood was just 18 when he lost both of his lower legs and his left hand in a roadside bomb while serving with the British Army in Afghanistan. 16 years later he's hoping to become the first triple amputee to sail solo non-stop across the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to Japan.
Before setting sail, Craig talked to my colleague Shabnam Yunus Jewel and told her why he decided to take on this challenge.
I want to try and change people's perception on what people with disability are capable of achieving. And when people look at me, they might not think that I could sail across an ocean, never mind on my own. So I'm hoping to dispel some of their thoughts.
Yeah, so why sailing then in particular? Was it something that's already been part of your life then?
Yeah, sailing was a really logical choice for me because I actually live on the boat that I'm sailing across the ocean. So I've been sailing around the world for the past eight years now. It just made so much sense. For example, we just did a 600 nautical mile passage from Costa Rica to Mexico. As the sun was setting, my son and daughter would sit next to me. We'd watch the sunset.
There's dolphins in the background. It really is so magical. We got to the marina and the guys in the marina were asking what planet it was amongst themselves. And my son... Es war 3. Oh, es ist Venus. Weil wir die Sterne in den letzten 6 Tagen angeschaut haben und jeden bemerkt haben. Er lernt es. Wie ein Pirat.
Aber er lernt es. Warum hast du dann so viel Zeit auf einem Boot gespart? Was gibt es dir?
Für mich ist es eine Leveling-Plattform. Mein Skillset ist das Skillset einer able-bodieden Person. Das nivelliert das Spielfeld für mich. It means I don't have to walk very far to do any of that sort of stuff. I'm a water baby anyway. So it all really suits my lifestyle. I like minimalist things and I don't feel like I need a 10-bedroom house to feel like I'm winning. I've got a
Vier-Stunden-Katamaran und nur Content.
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