It's tough but we're making progress

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I woke this morning feeling extremely sorry for myself. Before I went to bed I spent a good half an hour squishing insects including mozzies. It’s a high risk area for Malaria so I can’t take any risk. When I was in the bathroom I actually saw a mozzy crawl through a closed window!!!! Then another promptly followed. So out came the spray and I sprayed all around the window. Unfortunately this has taken the paint off the window (whoops). But I’m past caring because my health and my life is more important! What’s more, I have a mozzy net with holes in! I spent about an hour the other night sewing them all up and then I get in and see another. So after breakfast I asked for a replacement net. It’s too hot to sleep properly (no fans or air conditioning) and I can’t eat because I’m too hot all the time.

I went to work and actually felt really grumpy. As I write we’re back in the dark again (evening)!!!

They were ready to start work today which was very pleasing! I suggested a plan of action which was to focus on getting GHYO accounts in good order. I am only here for 3 weeks so I don’t want to start something I can’t finish. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using excel and manual accounting and I gave them the option. They said they’d like to try excel so I asked them to turn the computer on. Slight problem, we have no power. OK…. so the power has been of I’d suggest for 75% of the time we have been here so manual accounting it is! The power didn’t come back on until around 3pm so computerised accounting isn’t an option for this organisation.

I asked for the records so that we could start working on them only to discover that they were incomplete. So my sixth sense must have kicked in here! It seems that donor records in good order. It through me completely. The morning started off extremely slowly! After some thinking time and consulting with Gentry the director, I then had a clearer idea of what we need to attempt to achieve and I asked Blessing to go to the bank for a bank statement. There was some deep discussion over the cost of obtaining a bank statement. It turns out it costs £4!!! Here that's almost the price of a mobile phone! Later in the day it turned into a conversation about how often they could do a bank reconciliation cost effectively!

Because funds are so tight they don’t like to use things unnecessarily. I asked if they had a new cashbook we could use and they said no at first so we attempted to draw one on A4 paper, then we stuck two A4 pieces of paper together with masking tape. I became frustration because it just wasn’t working and then we found a new book, thankfully!

By the end of the day we were all delighted as we’d made really good progress. We’d prepared a cash book for the bank account for four months and reconciled each month. We started November and as I will be here to the end of November so I hope we can do another reconciliation (depending on cost).

When we finished I saw the delight on Blessings face. We reported to Gentry what we’d achieved that day and he said it’s wonderful because now we know how much money we have in the bank! Now that’s what I’m here for.

So it seems I’m making a big difference, not a small difference as previously anticipated.

I brought some very small gifts to Malawi for GHYO. AAT provided some pencils, highlighters and calculators, my colleague Bethan gave some memory sticks from her husband’s business and I brought some eagle multi colour pens and highlighters. When I gave them, they were impressed with the memory sticks but promptly put the rest in a locked cupboard. So I thought they were not particularly impressed. Today when we started work, out came the equipment!

Half way through the day I was called out of the office to attend a certificate giving function. GHYO does some fund raising by providing computer training to local youths. I was of course formally introduced (and asked to stand for it). I can see that the youths can’t decide whether to look at me and the girls were very giggly when photos were being taken, but equally very keen to see what they looked like on the camera!

So I achieved a lot today including being left to call my own bicycle taxis to make my own way for lunch! I’ve walked back and too to work confidently even though I’m loathing the heat. Anybody who knows me will be astonished that I’m praying for cloudy weather! They said the rains are due very soon and it will be much cooler. However, that means orange mud rather than sand! My feet are filthy – I can’t get them clean.

I love the evening walk home. It’s cooler, quite windy most days and I can hear the Muslim call to prayer mixed with the African gospel style singing. Despite all of these wonderful experiences I can honestly say I don’t enjoy being alone in the evenings. I’m already missing having regular contact with my family.

In Malawi most business is done by cash. I had to pay for my guest house accommodation in cash this week (thank fully Blessings escorted me to and from the Bank). So tomorrow, we are going to be working on preparing a cash account record.

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Photos

Blessings and Charles
Working on their new cashbook

Charles drawing up a cashbook
Charles drawing up a cashbook with the equipment provided by AAT

Gentry the Director
Gentry busy working on paper stuff as there is no electricity

Cash for my guest house
You have to pay in cash for everything here

Certificate giving ceremony
The out of school youths attend for one month, every day for around £11 in total and they learn Excel, Word and Powerpoint.

Comments

[Anna]

Me again :)
Reading about the malaria scares me keep taking those tablets you! As if you had mozzys crawling through closed windows that's scary lol!! Then wrecking the place with your spray :p all your pics look good very documentary! Keep going mummy love you xxxx