Adventures in the Pearl of Africa

The Richards left the following day, and Lizzie Richard left that evening on a flight back to London.  Monday morning I was on a bus at the un-godly hour of 6.30am. A 10hr bus journey too… I was on my way all the way to Moyo (another AfID partner) – far in the north of the country very close to the Sudanese border (and close to where the Nile enters Sudan). This was where I was to spend the next 2 months working with two of IRT’s partners – the Moyo Babies Home and the Redeemer Children’s Home (affiliated homes for orphan babies and children). I’ve had my fair share of long bus journey’s in my time, but this one was a toughie – cramped seat and unforgiving roads. Nevertheless I got to enjoy more great scenery (including seeing the Nile) all the way and banter from some of the locals wondering what the foreigner was doing on the bus.

 

 

I had agreed to call Sister Maureen, who is the Director of the Babies Home, so she could arrange for me to be collected from Moyo town bus station. Upon arrival I instantly spotted the tell-tale head wear of a nun, so I was relieved to see my lift was waiting. What I wasn’t expecting however was the babies had come to the bus station too! A group of 10 or so had travelled with Sister in the Babies Home pick-up and gave me a royal welcome in song! It wouldn’t be the last time I had this sort of treatment… In fact the next was a mere 10 minutes later upon arrival at the Babies Home. Even before the pick-up had arrived on the premises I could see a small army of youngster run out to meet the vehicle, jumping up and down and cheering – for me! It can be a non-stop ego boost at times around here! I was welcomed with flowers and more singing from the gathered group of babies (up to the ages of 5).

 

 

 

 

After more introductions, I was shown to my room where I would be staying for the next month at the Home. There is a visitor’s room on-site that had been reserved for me – which is great in the sense my walk between my door and the accountant’s office was approximately 8 seconds. It also saved any hotel bills! However the Babies Home currently has no running water so for the next month it would be bucket is the shower-time whenever i wanted a wash… That felt more authentic anyway, so I wasn’t grumbling!

 

The Babies Home is run by the Sacred Heart Sisters, a community of Catholic Nuns. They have a large presence in Moyo, together with other communities around Uganda and Southern Sudan. They are super-hospitable, always concerned about your comfort and ensuring you never go hungry or thirsty for a second! They are also great banter, with one or two really exceptional characters!!

 

After a day of acclimatisation, I got down to work with the resident accountant – Alfred (or Henry, or Vuni – pretty much the first thing he told me was “I have three names – you can call me any you please”. Most of the time I just alternate – keeps him guessing). Typical to almost all Ugandans, he’s absurdly friendly and polite too… He has a diploma in Accounting from a well-known university in Kampala, however he has only been in the job for a year or so and with limited prior practical experience. Whilst the diploma has given him a good foundation, I think the course only teaches the very basics so there was plenty to teach. In addition, computer literacy is a common area of weakness – and at the Babies Home was no exception.

 

 

I was armed with a lap-top and another copy of Quickbooks already purchased by IRT prior to my arrival in Uganda. The main task in hand was therefore to shift the Babies Home accounting system from a written form onto the computerised system, and ensure Vuni was trained up to handle it himself. The next couple of weeks were primarily focussed on just that, spending most of my days with working on Quickbooks with Alfred, training on its everyday use to capture all transactions and to transfer all transactions since 1st January 2010 onto the new system. Whilst it’s true that Quickbooks is very simple and user-friendly, to be completely self-reliant and be able to capture all relevant accounting information, it is necessary to have some accounting knowledge – therefore an understanding of double-entry accounting is required. This was one the biggest challenges in training – since I’m sure all accounting students can remember the sheer confusion this creates upon first glance. Bit by bit however, Alfred started to understand the concept and learn to apply it as necessary to some of the more complex or unusual transactions.  

 

Once up-to-date with the transactions, we moved onto the reporting functions of Quickbooks. That was the real joy from Henry’s point of view – whereas previously all transactions types would have to be compiled manually and added up, with the click of a couple of buttons you can drag up all sorts of information filtered for account name, date range, transaction type etc. Most importantly from IRT’s point of view, it meant we could now provide timely P&L and Balance Sheet reports on a monthly basis (most importantly to show expenditure for the month, and the cash position).

 

In the coming days, we progressed from monthly reporting to look at more detailed quarterly reporting. Previously the Babies Home had just sent quarterly reports to IRT with a brief written introduction – brief being the key word. I recommended reporting on an actual vs budget basis each quarter, with a variance analysis performed for each account. Setting up an easy to follow pro-forma in Excel, each quarter the actual figures could easily be extracted from Quickbooks and input into the spreadsheet (already containing budgeted figures). A note for each significance variance would then be made in the report sent to IRT.

 

The Babies Home is located around a kilometre outside of the town centre, so I try to make it into town whenever possible to show my face and get to know the locals a bit. Since the community is Sister-heavy, the church plays a fairly big role in daily life too. Mass on Sunday mornings is a serious affair – in that virtually the whole town turns up!! It gets really animated inside developing into a festival atmosphere with lots of clapping, dancing, singing and pretty much shrieking!! I turn up in traditional dress every Sunday now much to the joy of the locals (dress courtesy of one of Sisters that’s also a tailor). Apparently I look great in it, and I’m often met with the comment “you are SMART!!” (probably as opposed to my usual casual appearance!), however I can’t help feeling like a bit of a plum in it!

 

  

 

In the latter stages of my stay at the Babies Home, the work was more focussed on the paper work and controls elements of the accounting function. Both were lacking in quality and existence prior to my arrival so they were significant areas to improve upon after the initial task of getting the computerised system up and running. I introduced Henry to bank reconciliations and regular petty cash counts – the latter extremely important since all expenses were paid in cash, in addition to expenditure reviews and a simple authorisation processes.

 

At the end of the month at the Babies Home I felt I had achieved an awful lot, and Vuni agreed he had learnt so much. Coinciding with the end of my month was the arrival of Adrian Hatch, the CEO of IRT, together with 3 significant IRT donors on a trip around Uganda to visit some of IRT’s projects. I was pleased to have the chance to introduce my work directly to the Big Cheese. Adrian has spent a lot of time in Africa over his career working primarily in Uganda, Sudan and Kenya, and I was delighted that he was impressed and pleased with how the new procedures I had introduced were going to assist IRT. 
 

So that leaves me pretty much up to the present day… I have completed a full month at the Babies Home so have now just moved to the Redeemer Children’s Home and commenced work on getting the accounting function here ship shape! More to come!