The story so far...

So where to start? Unfortunately I’ve been late to set up a blog here in Uganda and I’ve learnt at my cost that you can’t always rely on a regular access to internet! I’ve resolved my connection problems for now however (with the purchase of my own mobile modem!) so hopefully even in here in remote Moyo I’ll be connected (as the the local internet service provider says – EVERY WHERE YOU GO). More on Moyo later…

Before I begin, a bit of background on me – I’m a former employee of KPMG where I spent 3.5yrs qualifying as an ACA and working in their Transaction Services department, London office. After qualification I knew I wanted a change so after saving some post-qualified salary I heading back out into the big wide world backpacking around South Asia, the Far East and the Middle East for 6 months. Thankfully AfID’s flexibility allowed me to plan well in advance when I would go on assignment, so I knew at the end of my trip (well, end of the backpacking part at least!) I would have a job in Uganda lined up! Which is where I find myself now…

So let’s go back retrospectively for a while to update on how my experience in Uganda has been so far! I arrived in Uganda back at the start of September, flying BA direct to Entebbe. I was due to travel first to Lira along with Elizabeth Garland, a member of staff of IRT (International Refugee Trust), the charity I will be working for. Lira is a city in middle North Uganda and capital of the Lira district. IRT has a relatively new partner there called the Obaya Community Association (OCA), and it is with them I was scheduled to spend my first 10 days on assignment in line with Elizabeth’s schedule.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) had flown to Uganda a few days prior to me to first visit an associated partner in Arua in North West Uganda, which gave me a couple of days to settle in and relax in Kampala. It’s a fairly amiable capital city, and super safe too. I spent my time just have a walk around, and even managed to hook up with a couple of other AfiD volunteers for a coffee (and huge slice of chocolate cake!). First meal I had? Nandos. Not proud of that… But when you see that Rooster symbol, sometimes you just can’t say no…

Lizzie arrived on the next Saturday morning, and she soon set the tone for our next few days! She had run out of cash and couldn’t withdraw any on her IRT card, so she desperately called me in a flap pleading for help… I had met Lizzie before, and I’m sure she won’t mind me saying – but she tends to attract drama… My arriving to assist was the first of many ‘saving the days!’. That evening we settled down for a Nile Special (local beer – one of three very good local beers too!) overlooking possibly the busiest street in the world where our hotel was located (seriously – day and night this place is crammed with huge lorries, people loading and unloading to none-too-obvious places, and hoards of pedestrians). Travelling in India I thought I had found the most manic place in the world, but this street is up there!

Mad street - Kampala

The next day Richard Adupa, CEO of the OCA, arrived to collect us and drive us all up to Lira. We were also travelling with a Sister (a nun) from Sudan and one of her colleagues. Both are from a partner of IRT in Sudan and had been invited to travel with Lizzie during her stay in Uganda in order to learn about some of the processes of IRT partners in Uganda which will be relevant for their own projects.

The journey to Lira gave me my first chance to see some true East African scenery. I just love the red earth here… and EVERYWHERE is so green and lush. The contrast of the red earth (exposed on the roads) and the greenest of greens foliage all around feels good on the eye! That together with many stereotypical images such as women seamlessly carrying huge loads on their heads on the sides of the roads and men on bicycles cycling between towns made me feel I had truly arrived… It felt it was fair to say I was going to love this place! We also crossed the Nile at a point of some big rapids – the first time I had seen the Nile since visiting Egypt many years ago! It all felt very African! In the future weeks I’d be moving very close to the Nile further North in Moyo with some other IRT partners, but more on that later.

We arrived in Lira in good time and settled in to our hotel. I felt I had lucked out a bit with the timing of Lizzie’s trip since we were staying in a good standard hotel and paid courtesy of IRT. If it had been me alone I would have been straight to the most budget option in town!! I can’t help shaking off my backpacking habits! I liked the feel of Lira instantly. It’s around the 5^th or 6^th largest city in Uganda and unfortunately the Lira district was one of those affected by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) insurgency, displacing thousands of people from their land into camps. Now people are returning to their land to try to pick up the pieces, and that’s where groups like OCA come in to help. They run various projects helping local communities within the Lira District primarily through education and training of agriculture and healthcare.

Since my stay at Lira with OCA coincided with Lizzie’s visit, it gave me the opportunity to see OCA’s work first hand. Lizzie’s visit was timed to attend a week long training course the OCA team were running in the Aloi Sub-County for 60 identified vulnerable local residents. The course was entitled ‘Farming as a Business’ – the idea to train the local people how to turn from subsistence farmers to commercially driven farmers. OCA with IRT’s support have already provided the same 60 individuals with bee hives or citrus saplings with the end goal of allowing them to harvesting their own honey and growing citrus fruits for sale in local markets to provide an income. This week’s course focussed on the means of how to do that and growing their operations.

OCA team in action live

Group hug with participants of the 'Farming as a Business' training course at the end of the week

In addition to attending the course for a couple of days, I also had the opportunity to visit some of the other groups OCA support and a local bee hive farm to learn more about the honey business. I’ve subsequently become a big fan! Its labour non-intensive requires minimal land and inputs, and it supports the environment by breeding bees for continued pollination. Not only that, but honey is highly medicinal and outright delicious! I’m convinced there’s a strong market for honey and based on the samples I’ve had of the locally produced stuff, North Uganda produces a premium product! Give it a few years and we could see a trade worth exporting… Coincidentally I’ve had honey pretty much every day since!! Now even having it in my tea!



Posing with school children at village school




School children in village




Honey - its the future!




Kids chilling in the shade




Check out the colour of that road!

 With the OCA team very busy with the course and the hosting of a representative from IRT, they didn’t actually have a huge amount of time for accounting! It was a couple of day in before I was able to have an initial talk about the existing finance function of the 5 strong OCA organisation. What I was delighted to discover, and I must admit a bit surprised, was actually a very efficiently set-up system. There were numerous financial controls already in place and effectively working. In addition the filing system and documentation of receipts etc was also very good, which was all quite contradictory to my expectations. This was all largely due to OCA’s super CEO, Richard, who has a strong background in accounting having studying it at University, worked for an audit firm and had prior experience in accounting for NGOs. The rest of the OCA staff, whilst not from accounting backgrounds, were also all highly competent.

All told after a solid morning of investigating how the current accounting systems work, I could identify only minimal weaknesses. It became a question of how to increase capacity and grow rather than alleviating the weaknesses therefore. To that end, the most obvious area was the computerised system of accounting. Currently OCA were using ledgers set up within MS Excel. Whilst the programme (Mango) is not bad, since it is not a formal accounting software package it has some inherent weaknesses. I therefore recommended the use of a simple accounting package and setting it up whilst I was still in Lira to allow me to train the accounts staff as necessary. Thankfully, Adrian (the CEO of IRT) agreed to support my recommendation (after twisting his arm over the phone) and we swiftly arranged the purchase of Intuit’s Quickbooks Pro 2010 accounting software online.

The next challenge was downloading this from the internet… As previously alluded to I’ve had no end of problems with the internet, however Lira is relatively good for access (being a largish city). However it doesn’t matter where you are – you are pretty much guaranteed a painfully slow connection. OCA have their own modem so we left the download running overnight – an estimated 8hr download time (probably 15mins in the UK!!). That meant not a lot else could be done in the meantime, which was frustrating from the accounting point of view, but it there’s always a lot of entertainment around the OCA offices! Andrew Anywar is their Programme Coordinator (or second in command as I like to call him) and he’s an absolute legend! The guy can talk your ear off, and loves a good story. I like to let him just go and allow him to entertain me! Lizzie was also back in the office that day so I got to tease her about the previous few days (shrieking like a baby girl when a small spider ran along her side of the car whilst on a field trip, shrieking like a baby girl when she saw a bug on Andrew’s arm whilst on the course, shrieking like a baby girl when she spotted a mildly dirty cloth drying her plate in a local restaurant, and so forth…).

We discovered the next day that the download has failed overnight because Richard’s laptop didn’t have enough spare RAM. Again that was pretty frustrating since it meant no Quickbooks related work could be done for the entire day, having to re-start the long download. It also actually meant we would have to wait for the following Monday since this was on a Friday, and Richard takes his laptop with him to Kampala on weekends, where he is studying another course in Financial Management (seriously – this guy is my hero. The model man of modern-day Africa).

That left us to enjoy a relatively relaxed weekend… Saturday involved another field trip to visit some of the 60 beneficiaries at their homes and see their land (with bee hives / citrus plants). That evening I persuaded Lizzie to join me at the local disco we had heard about from the OCA team – Club 24. It was literally a stone-throw away from our hotel so I figured we had to give it a go while we could! A Bell and a Club later (second and third of the three aforementioned top local beers!) to get in the mood, we entered the unknown… and it was incredible! Seemed like half the city had flooded into the only Disco in town that night and Lizzie and I were treated like the guests of honour. By the end I think we had danced with everyone in there and we were virtually given a round of applause upon our late exit (this place stayed open even later to 6am!). We left Sunday for relaxation – thankfully.

Monday morning Quickbooks was finally ready to play with. I never got so excited to start-up an accounting package back in the UK… must be something about Africa??! However, based on Lizzie’s schedule I was planned to leave for Kampala again on Wednesday morning so I only had two days to get it up and running. So with a couple of intense days I sat with Sylvia (the accounts assistant) and Gloria (a volunteer who is currently studying a bachelors in accounting and plans to join OCA full-time upon completion) and commenced training on the basics – primarily the logging of transactions.

Getting down to business: Intense Quickbooks training with Sylvia and Gloria

Quickbooks is designed for people from a non-accounting background so it is very user friendly and it’s difficult for anyone to get lost in any accounting lingo. For a 3yr+ qualified accountant therefore, it takes less than an hour to get your head completely around all functionality. A lot was achieved in the two days with my most enthusiastic of students, however inevitably we ran out of time.

Nevertheless, I had come to love it in Lira and working with the OCA team. We had shared a lot of laughs and got along like a house of fire at work and over the odd beer (Club mostly  - Andrew’s favourite) in the evenings. To that end, I decided there and then I would return. My AfiD commitments meant I was to move on to two other IRT partners in Moyo for the next 2 months, but that would still allow me approximately a week or so after before my Ugandan visa ran out. I therefore committed myself to return after my stay at Moyo to ‘finish the job’ so to speak and agreed this with IRT and AfiD.



Lizzie with the OCA team



Having a giggle with Richard and Andrew - standard scenes

Wednesday we travelled back to Kampala via Jinja – where you can visit the source of the River Nile. Richard had kindly arranged just this for us and we took a small boat out to reach the spot – where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile. There were even a few bubbles visible which a local told us was the actual source under the water.

THE Source: posing with Richard and Lizzie

Back in Kampala we met with another of IRT’s partners – and ANOTHER Richard (seriously there are A LOT of Richards in Uganda) from a project in Gulu. I decided I was just going to call Lizzie Richard as well that evening to make the full set and get everyone well and truly confused over a couple of beers (Bell this time…).

The Richards left the following day, and Lizzie Richard left that evening on a flight back to London. I staying in Kampala for a further couple of days to wait for the weekend since by pure chance a good buddy of mine was on holiday in the region. He arrived in Kampala just in time for a Friday night out on the town. I had got wind of a club called ‘Ange Noir’ (Black Angel) and had by insisted to go by a number of locals (none more enthusiastically than our most hospitable of hotel receptionists in Lira, Francis. He was another character too – in fact this place is just full of them!) Again, my friend Darren and I went down a storm in this club (Nile Special the drink of preference this time) and we didn’t end up leaving til half 5 in the morning (things still in FULL swing).

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 – 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 all the way and banter from some of the locals wondering what the foreigner was doing on the bus.

The bus went via Gulu, probably the most well-known area affected by the LRA and with a heavy NGO presence. Four hours further up the ever worsening road we finally reached the Nile again. This time it had become a very wide flow, maybe as much as half a kilometre in width. We waiting for the ferry to take the bus and numerous foot passengers across to the other side, which gave me a chance to stretch my legs and admire the local scenery. The setting at this river crossing is pretty spectacular. The river itself is beautiful with lush vegetation all around and huge beds of reeds floating along. More so on the other side there is a large rock cliff seemingly over-hanging the river. It’s an impressive sight from the eastern bank. I’m going to climb that rock before I’m done in Moyo which lies just the other side! I’m convinced the view will be a million dollars.

Crossing the Nile

I had agreed to call Sister Maureen, who is the Director of the Babies Home, by the time I reached the other side so she could arrange for me to be collected from Moyo town bus station. Upon arrival I instantly spotted the tell-tail head wear of a nun, so I was relieved to see my lift was waiting. Was 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. The Babies Home is right next to the Catholic Mission, so the sight of nuns on the run is never far off when you are walking around! They are super-hospitable too, 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.e being shown around the town and meeting more people, 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). Henry is ridiculously tall, and pretty skinny so he looks like a broom! Typical to almost all Ugandans, he’s also 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, in think the course only teaches the very basics so there was plenty to teach. In addition, computer literacy is an 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 then, 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 1^st 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.  



Alfed kicking ass on Quickbooks

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.

When not busy with the accounts team I made it a point to make a name for myself in the town. Moyo is a pretty small place, and Moyo District is fairly remote (in the very far north, and west of the Nile so is somewhat cut off with no direct road access from the east (there is a ferry service as previously mentioned!). I think the surrounding countryside is stunning however, and being further north, it enjoys better weather from an Englishman (or Mad dog’s) point of view. 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.

Spotted by primary school kids on their way home

In fact i get a similar reaction most places i go! Here the population of a nearby school whilst on a trip to a market 12km outside of Moyo Town came running out to look at me! One even said "you are looking like Van Damme"! Obviously all those press-ups must be making a difference ;)

Since the community is Sister-heavy, the church plays a fairly big role in daily life too. One of the most amusing things for me has started since I was semi-pressed ganged into going to Mass on a frequent basis… which has ended up with my taking a permanent position in the choir!! 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! I think I look like Colonel Gaddafi!

The other great thing about working at the Babies Home are the babies themselves. They are so much fun and love having me around! Every afternoon when the older ones are back from primary school (and after a little siesta) they hunt me down to pull at my legs, arms, back… pretty much anywhere they can get their hands on! They all either want a ride on my back or for me to pick them up and swing them around my head or upside down! I duly deliver…

More fun with the primary school kids - as if i don't get enough attention from the Babies, there is a primary school right next door so everyone knows there's a foreigner in town!

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 area 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.

Me in the Gaddafi outfit - i love it really!

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.

Sun setting over Moyo and sun setting on my time at the Babies Home - Redeemer next!

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!