The accountant is in town

I’ve been in Rwanda for 5 nights now and it really is time for a proper update. I’m sitting comfortably with a flask of tea so I shall begin.

 

So who am I and what will this blog be about?

Well I would expect many of you know that I’m Jen Steel, a 26 year old Chartered Accountant from London, and previously Norfolk. I’m off to Rwanda for 2 months to work with DIZA, a charity based in Rwamagana Rwanda, who aim to assist in the provision of education to vulnerable children and orphans.

I decided to volunteer with AFID (Accounting for International Development who set up the placement with DIZA) as it seemed a great opportunity to use my skills for a good cause. I wanted a break from work and live somewhere different.

DIZA started off supporting orphans of the genocide but has now moved on to supporting other vulnerable children (specifically those suffering from or affected by HIV / AIDS). They are currently constructing a school, classroom by classroom. The first classroom is going to be a nursery school for 3 and 4 year olds and it is hoped it will be opening in January. However there’s still some building work to be completed (flooring and windows) and all the equipment to buy so a decision will be made in the next couple of weeks as to whether it can open.

 

Working with Eric, DIZA’s only paid member of staff, I’ll be assisting them with their financial management, specifically budgeting and also reporting for the new school. Eric looks after the day to day running of the charity; administering funds to children, contacting donors, and doing all the office and financial management.

Today was my first day proper at work.
 

To aid the decision on whether the first classroom can be opened in January as planned, Eric and I started the morning by preparing some budgets of the cost to get the school ready on time and the cost of running the school once it’s opened. People don’t really buy things from the internet here so estimating costs is difficult and we’ll be taking a trip to Kigali in the next week or so to try and get some quotes.  

 

After that Faustin (the Executive Secretary of DIZA) visited us with a colleague of his, Arielle from the US Peace Corps. She’s organising a scheme whereby charities and community centres in Rwanda can apply for free books. All the charities need to do is meet some of the shipping costs. It sounds like an excellent scheme and DIZA will definitely be applying. After this it was lunchtime and then this afternoon was spent reviewing DIZA’s records and visiting the bank. A pretty good first day.

 

After the excitement of reading about my day at work I expect you are hoping for some juicy gossip and some gritty detail about life here.

 

Being British I will start with a comment about the weather. It’s the rainy season at the mo and that means a day of baking sunshine and then a day of sunshine punctuated by a couple of tropical rainstorms. It rains seriously hard. There are a few tarmac roads here, but mainly there are red dirt roads / tracks. As soon as it gets wet there your shoes and feet get caked in a sticky red mud. Luckily everything dries out pretty quick. The views are beautiful wherever you look.

 

 

Yesterday I went to church. Jean Marie (the president of DIZA) very kindly invited me to visit his church. It was a pretty interesting experience. The service started off with 4 different choirs singing 2 songs each. First up were the kids who got properly into it, grooving and rapping to us. Then a male choir, then a female choir and then a mixed adult choir. All the songs had a kind of Caribbean type backing and were really upbeat. After that things settled down a bit until collection time when various members of the congregation came up and after donating money started a full on boogie in front of the stage. It was like being in Soho on a Saturday night. It’s a very different way of holding a religious ceremony compared to the UK and European traditions but it seems a very happy one.

 

I’m nearly done but a few titbits first. I’m watching The Shield on my laptop at the moment and it is BRILLIANT. I highly recommend you all go out buy a box set and say goodbye to your friends for a few weeks. I have a two hour lunch break so I’m planning to fit a daily lunchtime fix in. Apart from watching The Shield I’ve also been eating a lot of goat brochettes (kebabs). Delicious and cheap.

 

I’m going to be in Rwamagana for 2 months after which I’ll be off on a 6 week adventure around East Africa and hopefully will get to have an up close and personal encounter with some hippos, some elephant and maybe a giraffe or two. Insert joke here.

 

Finally, here’s a list of some of my hopes/aims and fear/concerns before I embarked on my adventure: