Beach or no beach?

Help!

Two working weeks gone now… After the drama of the previous day, things seemed to have calmed down just a tiny bit. Had a second management meeting in the afternoon to brief the top bod what had been done in the second week and what is to be done in the third week. The second in command was not invited at this one but will have a shorter version of this a day later. The most controversial item was, as I suspected, the organisation chart and responsibilities of each person. I said that I am not looking for an answer today but at this time next week.

I put forward recommendations which I classified as immediate, short and medium terms. Much to my surprise, the top bod accepted them all, subject to coming back to me re the org chart next week.

Left at the back of 7 again, had dinner, shower and crash out! Black out again! Managed to make do with my little fan; coped with the blackout and slept through the electricity coming back on and going off and even the early morning church service and had a decent sleep. What a difference that makes.

Will need to work most, if not all of the weekend this weekend, if my own set of obectives is to be met. These objectives are fairly stretched (even by my own standards) but I am going to do it. Why – am I mad? Yes, part of it is that but the better part of it is that the people involved here are very keen to learn and to make a difference for themselves and they have complied and done what is required of them. Of course, I would like to think that I am a good manager who explains the big picture as well as the detailed day to day work and keep people informed.

Knowledge sharing is badly required here and, of course, I am in my elements! As this concept is alien here, I started yesterday’s meeting with the sticks trick. Well, actually pencils. I gave a worker, six pencils and asked him to break them all at the same time and of course, he couldn’t. I then asked him to break one and, of course, he could. I said each pencil represents someone’s knowledge of the school… you know the rest. It was well received.

So far, subjects covered are IT, HR, accounting, management skills, Excel training… Very dull girl indeed.

More photos

Solo rehearsal

Ingenious adaptability!

List of visitors to the school

Visitors to the school

WD 9/20 part 2

 

Well, I never…

… believe that this working day could turn out like this. Temper was lost alright and there was an actual shouting match in the office, however, it didn’t involve me; well, not directly anyway!

It was like this. There is a bank account that supposedly is used to receive a grant from a donor, at specific points in time. The fund was then supposedly transferred to the school’s account, to be disbursed according to the terms of the contract. So far, so good. However, as a bean counting auditor, I felt that there was a jigsaw piece missing and I wanted it! So, I asked for the statements of this particular account and was told quite categorically that none existed. I said that this is not possible. To cut a fairly long story short, it transpired that banks here don’t send statements by post, they actually hand over the hardcopy statements in a (white, not brown!) envelope to cheque signatories. In this particular case, the bank manager told the person (that I charged with the task of pursuing this with the bank) that statements were in deed prepared regularly and handed over to a director of the school. When asked, this director, allegedly, replied nonchalantly that oh yes, he forgot that he did get them now and then and put them here and there (and everywhere) but he would go home and look for them immediately.

Well over twenty four hours had passed and still no statements, so I asked again. Well, this person came in, from his house, and shouted at the person who asked the question on my behalf and allegedly hurling abuse at her. I couldn’t understand very much of it as it was all in very fast and angry creole, but his body language told me aplenty. Anyway, this unfortunate person (a very sweet, gentle, French volunteer who is going home soon after 2 years’ service to the school) is barely a few months older than my Alice and she was very upset (and no little wonder, being yelled at is bad enough but in the office, in front of many other people and some of these, her very own music pupils). I con not stop the director without causing offence and perhaps making him lose face but at the same time I can not allow this ugly scene to continue…

I got up from my desk and walked over to the volunteer’s desk and literally hugged her and steered her away from facing the director. At this, she completely crumbled and sobbed her heart out and visibly trembled. I held her for a while and spoke to her in English – to the effect that she should try to maintain her dignity and not sink to this person’s level, i.e. maintain her moral high ground. After a little while, she composed herself; all the while, the ranting continued, but at my back… After a while, he stomped away … and you could hear a pin drop!

I sought out the top bod and reported the incident immediately. I said that this was not on and he agreed with me and said that he would deal with it.

For the avoidance of doubt, I have had no cause to think that there was anything improper as regards the bank account. My current gut feeling is someone’s inability to admit his own lack of organisational competence in this case. Time will tell…

Neil (of AfID), this human shield peace-making lark was not part of my remit of an accounting assignment! I want my money back (joke)!

Mind you, I think I have earned some respect because of this – just an almost imperceptible shift in how other people interacted with me the rest of the day. More than their usual normal helpful selves, right from the beginning.

I left the office at 7:30 pm almost 12 hours after I entered it, totally spent!

Watch out guys, Grumpy is coming!

WD 9/20

I shall have to watch myself today as once again, I had very little sleep last night. It went like this… trying to get to sleep when it was hot and I was itchy from mosquito bites and prickly heat (more on this later) … and eventually drifting off at long last but not for long, as the electricity came on, about 10 hours late, just before midnight. Of course, the whole house burst with lights which were left on and they woke me up. It went off again at its usual time, 2am, and again, it woke me up because the big free standing fan stopped. Had a bit more sleep before getting woken by church service at 5:30. I must watch myself today and not be too grumpy! Wish me luck.

Prickly heat – strange animal that I am, even although I was born in Bangkok and lived there for 9 years, I remember always suffering from prickly heat during the hot season. Sometimes it got so bad that I had to get medication. (Alice – sorry, you seem to have inherited this annoying thing from me, among many others!)

Fast forward a few decades. I am now exactly where I was, in prickly heat term. Despite 3 / 4 / 5 cold showers a day, very limited exposure to the direct sun (apart from last weekend) and antihistamine tablets, I am plagued by prickly heat. Imagine lots of sharp needles prickling away at your body in random places but most of the time… Last few trips to the Far East lulled me into a false sense of security as I did not suffer from prickly heat then. So, I never thought of bringing calamine lotion this time. It is so bad now that I will take myself to a pharmacy this morning and there is one across the road from…the school, next to the barber’s and the grocer’s (but it does not sell Prestige).

Let there be light, please

End of working day 8 (of 20)

Ooh, it is scarey, putting it like this as there remain several mountains of work to be done.

When I came back to have my lunch at the back of 2:30 today, I was not too concerned that there was no electricity at the house. Went back to work after a quick lunch and shower, still unconcerned about the lack of electricity. (The school has its own generator and uses it every day until the electricity comes on about 2pm). When I got home today, at the back of 7:30, the house was in total darkness! Bother! (except that I didn’t actually say “bother”).

It is now 9pm and I am in bed (to keep away from the mosquitoes) typing this with one hand and holding the laptop with the other, my chin is keeping the torchlight in place. My wee fan is whirring away, hooked up to my own battery which is about 70% charged up. My ipod and ipad are sufficiently charged to tide me over tonight, I hope! (oopsie – sorry Kate, I did bring all 3 of my Is, i.e. phone, pod and pad; but they have kept me a little less disorientated than otherwise!) What more could I want? Yeah, right! On a serious note though, I will leave here in a short space of time whereas for an overwhelming majority of the population here, this is reality 24/7!

I was teaching one person to enter data (from a one sided entry petty cashbook) on a spreadsheet and I explained that this will be used as a basis to prepare the school’s accounts for the first 10 months of the current financial year. He nodded sagely at my explanation and asked no questions. He told me that he was done today. I was a bit surprised as I thought there was quite a bit of data to deal with. So I went over and had a look at the source documents and could see that there were a lot of sheets that have yet to be entered. After discussion, it seemed that this teacher had only input data that he wrote himself and left out data that was written up by a colleague (who is not around for a little while). When I asked why he didn’t enter these, his indignant reply was “These were not MY entries so I shouldn’t have to deal with them”. So taken aback, I was lost for words, but just for a few seconds though… I guess there is some logic in that if you are not used to collaboration! Anyway, I explained patiently that that may be the case but we need to deal with it all the same and if he is not happy doing it, it will have to be either of the other 2 teachers or me that would have to do it. After a bit of grumping and groaning, he did work on it. I must admit that it never entered my head that I had needed to explain this. I shall take nothing for granted from now.

I got woken up at 5:30 this morning by hymn singing. Could not get back to sleep, so, I started reading the contract between the EU and the school. Mad, I know! It was not riveting reading although it is in French. Pity that it did not send me back to sleep!

Hot chocolate anyone?

End of Day 2, week 2

For the last 2 days, I have been a very dull girl indeed, all work and no play – forget about anything resembling 9 to 5! All the music people went away on Sunday and so, the real work begins for me. I am working with 3 music teachers, one female French secondee and 2 male, permanent, Haitian personnel.

I keep having to check myself – these 3 teachers have been working flat out for the last 3 weeks, so they are possibly slightly less keen to make progress than I do? My sometimes (too) high standards  could be another potential issue as well as my appreciation that  there is quite a bit of work and training to be done AND so little time in which to accomplish this. However, the real stumbling block is the lack of managerial and organisational experience, even at the most basic level. A simple illustration: there are 3 people supposedly dealing with finance; I asked for the bank statements and the reaction I got from all 3 was “I don’t know”! Great start to an accounting assignment, I tell you. I also have the impression that the 2 people at the top do not tend to sing from the same hymn sheet, hmmm… I have got my work cut out!

On a lighter note, I got accosted by the cook when I got home tonight. I got asked very sternly why I did not drink the hot chocolate she made for my supper last night. Fact is, it was SO hot, I did not really fancy a very stodgy, sticky, very sugarey hot chocolate. I don’t like very sweet things at the best of time. Not wanting to offend her, I only said that it was too sweet for me.

When I went down for supper tonight, she beamed at me and said – I made you hot chocolate without sugar. Really sweet of her but Aaaargh….

Beach, music, Prestige, beach...

First weekend – playtime!

2 teachers and I went to a beach on Saturday morning after their rehearsals. The scenery was nice, the sea nice and warm but the beach has too much rubbish for my liking. I guess the last time I was at a “foreign” beach was in the south of Myanmar, on a tiny island, in the middle of the Indian Ocean! It was good to swim in the warm sea though. Left the beach about 4.30pm, back to the house, showered and another disco nap!

Disco nap was NOT long enough! The concert started in time at 7pm and went on till … 10.45 pm with no interval! It was so incredibly hot anyway, but I guess with the body heat of 500 people (including pupils…) made it unbearable. The music was good though and the jazzy piece “Tequila” as the finale was just incredible. There was a girl sitting beside me who cannot be more than 2 years old – she slept quite a lot of the time but when Tequila came on, she woke up and started to bogey… It was lovely to see her sleepy, serious face light up with the music.

There was a party afterwards for dignitaries and volunteers but, I was a party pooper, escaped and went to bed instead. Bad girl!!!

Got up at 6.45am as one of the volunteers and I wanted to get to the Bassin Bleu before the whole world gets there. It was lovely, ice cool waterfall coming down from the mountain. Spent about an hour swimming and headed back to town. Went to another beach for the afternoon. Came back exhausted at about 5 pm and went to bed at 7pm, totally spent! I need to learn to pace myself better in this heat – it is just SO energy sapping to be doing much more than sitting and sipping Prestige! Wonder how long it will take me to get as laidback as this?

More photos

Music cabinets

There are about 10 of these music cabinets. Currently, trying to find a particular score is somewhat challenging!

Janet teaching... 

Rehearsal time 

2 music teachers at the barber's, but... 

...ah, are they talking about music though?

The night after full moon 

This is what woke me up at 5am a few mornings ago! The bright lights you see are from a church, right across the street from our dorm! The lights and the hymns / sermons kept me sleep deprived since I arrived (not parties!)

Jume's survival kit: 1 of 2

Local produce: baby pineapples, giant avocados, slurpy mangoes, green oranges and orange papayas...adorned with bougainvilleas...

Jume's survival kit: 2 of 2 

Look at the size of the avocado as compared with my glasses: the Swiss knife "must have" of: knife, corkscrew and bottle opener; a cute little fan that is powered off my laptop and of course, Prestige!

A gal has got to set the right priorities!

From my balcony, about 6pm

Recital time...

One full (work) week gone…

On reflection, it was a good move coming during the last week of the camp – it gives me time to get over the jetlag as well as seeing what the music school is about before plunging straight into work. There was time for quite a bit of work, getting to know each other, getting used to the new environment… it was not “wasted” time.

The morning was spent mapping out what requires to be done, following from the meeting the night before and writing up the minutes of the meeting for distribution.

The afternoon saw me sorting out the various gifts that volunteers have brought and wrapping up those that are going to be used for prizes. It takes an amazingly long time to do such a simple task, but in the heat, cramped office and with lots of little people watching and asking questions! It got done in a couple of hours. Went back to the house to have a “disco nap”…

There was a recital in the evening, from 7.30 to 9.30. It was a real mixture: some played amazingly well and some, not so well. However, what was obvious was the love of music, the enthusiasm that greeted all musicians and the pride of the audience (doting parents and other family members, no doubt). There must have been at least 200 in the audience (in addition to the pupils themselves.)

Beach time for the next 2 days. Apparently, beachside restaurants do very good (and lethal) rum punches!

Funny, fourth day

Tension is mounting…

Too many pupils or too few teachers, not quite sure which, but the end result is the same. Or is it artistic temperament? Whatever it is, there is definitely something in the air.

I did not have a good sleep the previous night and the day started pretty funnily; with me, walking to the school with an empty (beer) bottle in my hand, to return it to the barber.

The tedious work of writing a manual did not help. I struggled valiantly from 8 to just about midday. So, I left the school at noon, came back to the house, doused myself with lukewarm water and went to bed, having asked a fellow volunteer to keep some lunch for me but she should not, under the penalty of death, wake me up from my slumber, for food! Must have had about an hour’s snooze and felt infinitely better for it.

Went to work at 2.30pm and worked right through to 9.15pm as we had the first management meeting scheduled for 7.30pm but which did not start until 8.15 and it went on for just over one hour.

Came home, had very late supper and back to bed again.

Good result – another tedious manual has now been drafted. The meeting was good in that I have now the buy-in and authority to do what I am here to do.

At some point in the late afternoon, the now customary Prestige was very welcome. Shortly after this drink and I put it down to being a lightweight and got touched by the combination of heat and Prestige…  when an annoying “blan” (i.e. blanc, or white) individual who had been trying it on with me, verbally, since I arrived, and who would not take a barely disguised “Get lost”… I could not believe that I actually said to him “Boyo, stop it. I am out with your league!” Golly, do I cringe when I think about it now! BUT, he got the message!

Where has the time gone?

Third Full day

I truly believe that I entered a time warp zone when I arrived here on Sunday afternoon, local time. The last three days just passed me by – so much happened, good and not so good.

The “Not so good” bits were things that I had expected anyway: intense heat and high humidity, loads of mosquitoes, very poor standard of living, dirt, dust, electricity cuts, rationing of water… but still, it can, at times, be a little overwhelming, especially when one is tired and did not have enough sleep (before you even think it, not because of late night parties, I must add!).

The really good bits are a sense of achievement, the certain knowledge that what I do MAKES a difference to the school, in terms of achieving greater efficiency for mundane tasks… which means that the staff have more time to dedicate to teaching the kids, which is the school’s main raison d’être.  And when I reflect that what I do, has the potential of making a positive impact on the current 1,200 pupils on the school roll, year in, year out, it is simply awesome (in its truest sense, I don’t normally tend to use this overused word).

Today was BORING! Aaarrrrgh… writing up a Users’ Manual is just SO tedious, even for the music library database for the Ecole de Musique Dessaix – Baptist of Jacmel; but still, it will be very useful. Don’t know how I kept going, from 8 am to 5.45 pm with about one hour off for lunch break – sheer bloody mindedness, I suppose.

Tomorrow will be no different from today as I will be writing another manual, from the designer’s perspective. This will allow the school administrator to understand the mechanics of the database and deal with changes / improvements as may be required in the future, on an informed and effective basis. OMG, with at least 4 other databases to design (accounting / reporting, HR, pupils, instruments... ----> at least a further 8 manuals to write... Thank goodness for the reliable supply of "Prestige" nearby.

But until tomorrow, I make hay (the sun still shines, in fact). My little daughter has been commissioned by me to upload photos that I shall email her, to my blog. The internet speed here is just too slow for me to attempt to do it myself from here. So, look out for Jume’s survival kits in Haiti! ;-)

Got home today, pretty tired but had a smile on my lips when, in response to my “Bonswa”, the sweet little old man who seems to be working as a joiner at my house, replied with “Bonswa ma belle”! It cannae be a bad end to my third day!

Photos

My super cool mosquito net!

Just outside our house!

The school

Watering holes - the green building is the barber, the cream / pink one is a grocer. Either is good as a supplier of "Prestige"! They both are just opposite the school mmm....

Collaboration required...

Second Day

“The” model got a once over by an important stakeholder, i.e. the school Administrator, Fabrice. It was a useful and robust discussion as Fabrice was able to identity another step in the model that would be useful to the school. After this healthy discussion, I fiddled about a little bit more on the model. Thereafter, Fabrice and I tested out this improved model and he seems quite happy with it. I showed him how to search for a particular piece of music for a certain grade… AND… it …works!  Woo hoooo…

I explained to Fabrice that the model is now fully designed (until further refinements are required). He has identified 2 EMDB personnel who will now take this on board. I will therefore transfer the model on to the school’s server and I will go over the saving and backing up procedures in due course. Fabrice will teach the school personnel that he had identified and will take ownership of the database from now. I explained to Fabrice that doing it this way gives him and his helpers plenty opportunities to test the model while I am here.

I will write a “How to” manual in French, then it’s done! Over the next 3 and bit weeks, I will still be on hand to deal with any adjustments as may be required. In a way, I hope that there will be adjustments needed, as I would then be able to coach the personnel here how to deal with these as well.

I am very pleased how this first assignment had gone: collaboration at its best (between the 2 end users, i.e. the school and one of the Donor's principal representative, Professor Janet Anthony, of BLUME Haiti and me, an AfID volunteer, the designer) . And the school seems to understand  my approach and where I am coming from…

Next thing on my “To Do” list is the preparation of the agenda for the first formal management meeting between the school and me, as prescribed by AfID. Talk about doing things back to front, but then I think that is my trademark – strictly no comments please!

OK, it is still only 20 minutes past noon now but my day’s work is nearly done ;-) I shall go back to the house shortly and slap on even more Deet stuff. The little b***** of mosquitoes seem to find my blood very sweet. Maybe, they too, are partial to “Prestige”?

Me, teach bassoon - you MUST be kidding!

My first full day

Breakfast was served at 7.15 am (bread, lovely avocado, bananas and passion fruit juice).

Briefing meeting at 8 am and then left to my own devices. This is, of course, the last week of the annual music camp (3^rd and last week). Volunteers are even more scarce this year so, those who are here are       stretched to the full!

Janet asked me this morning: Don’t suppose you can teach bassoon? Dead right, I can’t!

Janet made 5 minutes free before her classes started this morning to brief me. That was enough time to email me the Excel that was set up to record the entire sheet music library of the school. We discussed VERY briefly the school’s requirements.

 

My assignment is to review what is set up, take into account the school’s requirements, design as appropriate, fine tune it with Janet tonight, before / after dinner. Hopefully, the design should be ready by my bedtime tonight. If this is fulfilled, then subsequent days can be spent teaching the appropriate personnel to take ownership and to start using it. This SO reminds me of a few databases that I set up for an Oil & Gas service company and an Oil & Gas operator. Same difference!!!

I am pleased that the model passed Janet’s scrutiny.

Next scrutiny is scheduled for the morning of Day 2, with the school’s Administrator.

First full day happened in a blur, 4 am start, till 6.30pm (not even a nap break, tut tut!). Very full on but very productive!

Lauren – you will be proud of me. On my first day here, I have located a supplier of beer… “Prestige” is indeed very gluggable! Apt end for a first day here! (The barber, who is located just opposite the school, has a "cool" fridge, full of Prestige! Very random, a beer selling barber but... quite handy!) And as you often said on a certain trip....amaaaaazing!

 

I got the first round... and was promptly told that I could not possibly be Sco'ish!

36 hours door to door...

36 hours, door to door...

... from my Aberdeenshire home to my new Haitian home…

I left my lovely Steading at 11.30 am on Saturday morning for my flight from Dyce to Heathrow. Changed at Heathrow for JFK. Overnighter at JFK, then JFK to Port au Prince (PAP).  Arrived at PAP, got collected and roughly according to plan. There had been no delays at all at any point along the chain…but still, it had taken me over 36 hours to get here!

I arrived, dusty, sleepy, tired, thirsty and hungry… The only casualty so far, seems to have been my toiletries bag and my “liquid” bag, they must have got left behind at an airport security point, but which one?

Met up with Janet who showed me to my dorm, made sure I got fed and watered, had a shower and off to bed at 7pm, local time. It was a bit of a challenge to put up my cool mosquito net but managed it!

Had a good sleep and got woken up by … wait for this, sounds really stupid… the click noise made by the fan in the dorm as it got automatically switched off at 4 am (local time). Tossed and turned for a few minutes, then got up and started working, by torch light, to plan my day.

And call this a holiday? Alright, I rather have it this way!

My silver linings...

nothing is ever all good or all bad...

So, here are my silver linings:

1. Unreliable internet connectivity: while this has ruled out any online / cloud based accounting, it has actually forced me to think about simpler solutions. I even came to believe that, from not having any accounting system at all (not even a proper cashbook) to an online computerised package in a very short timescale has a strong potential to backfire. It is too steep a learning curve and too soon.

I really had to think hard about is most important here and come to the realisation that a simple but well designed (but of course!) spreadsheet would allow the finance team to see the building blocks of the management reporting system from the ground up (as opposed to jiggery pokery going on inside a computer!).

It will be much easier to explain what you put in this column appears in this report at that page etc... Total traceability and complete audit trail are probably a very good thing  anyway, and even more so in this particular circumstance.

And most importantly, it may be easier for the team to understand that they own the system and that it doesn't belong to the volunteers or "outsiders".
 
2. Unreliable electricity supply? No problem! With an engineer younger daughter, specialising in renewable energy, I am not unfamiliar with photovoltaic concept. If I did not know much about Haiti, one thing I know for sure is that it is a SUNNY place! A little bit of googling and I have come up two little neat pieces of kit that may make electricity supply a little more reliable.

A local charity whom I helped with an accounting matter gave me an honorarium. Together with a donation from a friend, I bought a solar powered charger and a battery... to charge up devices such as laptops etc...

I had been able to have the foresight to acquire these items from funds donated by generous friends as well as being provided with salient information by Bryan, in good time.

While these 2 gadgets can not supply a lot of electricity, they should at least ensure a continuous supply, sufficient for a laptop to work 24/7(?!) on the finances!

3. No clearly defined finance team? I understand that I am going to have to teach 3 music teachers to learn book-keeping. This thought terrifies me as much as if I was one of three  bean-counters who are going to be taught, say, to play a saxophone in 3 weeks and be expected to give a concert at the end of that period!

However, teambuilding and knowledge sharing are something that I profoundly believe in. I am thankful that there is a chance for me to become part of their team first during my first week,  there as I have volunteered to be a gofer and do as I am told (traffic cop, practice buddy, sheet music copier / taper...a general dogsbody...) Bonding may happen and if it does, it is more likely that we could work as an effective finance team to make the financial management system happen in the short timescale available.

OK, E, you are right, nothing is outright good or bad!

Prepping my assignment

Mundane chores...

... such as flights, visas, vaccinations are easy to deal with.  I was on auto-pilot doing these bits.

What was not so easy was the professional prepping. As a highly organised individual, a well trained auditor and project manager, prepping for an assignment is second nature to me. But how on earth do you prep for something like this: people whom you have not met before, a fairly tight timetable, a time difference of 6 hours (behind GMT), a different culture, an NGO who has grown very rapidly and without the luxury of infrastructure... and not to mention my fairly rusty French!

However, against these potential challenges, I have a fair amount of experience, I am motivated, culturally aware, conscientious and a lateral thinker...so, I guess, I am in as good a position as I can be to deal with whatever this assignment may bring.

I bought Larousse dictionary for my iPad, a dictionary of accounting terms, did some research of available accounting packages both conventional on-premise as well as cloud based packages... but all this is nothing more than tinkering round the edges. The most critical success factor is actually knowing in advance who does what, when and the external reporting requirements so that an adequate plan can be drawn up to enable me to hit the ground running.

Once again, I am lucky. There is an ex AfID volunteer who is now working full time in Haiti. Neil put me in touch with Bryan. And bless him, Bryan agreed to spend a weekend at the school and gather some data for me. With Bryan's input I was able to formulate a plan, but even so, a reality check will be applied to this plan once I get there and had a quick appraisal of the situation.

Here are the gems that have been ingathered:

• Cloud based accounting package, despite its obvious advantages is not a viable option as internet connectivity is not sufficiently reliable;
• Electricity supply is patchy, therefore it is advisable to keep devices charged up when there is electricity available;
• there is no joined up financial information and there seems to be no clear allocation of financial responsibilities.

There is a silver lining in all of these black clouds...

AfID

AfID workshop and how I got hooked


It was a full as well as a full on day, informative and illustrative. At the end of the formal workshop, a past volunteer came in and shared with us her experience as an AfID volunteer.

As we were leaving the premises, Neil (AfID's founder) said: "Guys, I will be in touch with you all next week. Thought that I would mention that there is a shortage of volunteers with languages, especially French and Spanish. So if you have languages, don't hold back and I look forward to hearing from you."

Suffice to say that by mid May, I was fully committed to a 4 week assignment in Haiti.

The first time I spoke with Janet on Skype, she asked me very simply what was my motivation and why EMDB.

I replied that I wanted to make a difference, make a small contribution to those who are less privileged that I am. I love music and believe in its uplifting and healing powers. My kids enjoyed music camp and I would like to help other kids to have the same pleasure...

Janet then asked why Haiti. I said that my holiday plan for the rest of 2013 was 10 days on the Small Isles in Scotland (Eigg, Rum, Muck and Canna) in the summer and a week in France in September. I had wanted to go to islands and also practice my French. Haiti fits all of my requirements: to do something worthwhile and make a difference, visit islands and speak French. Throw music in to the equation and what more could I have wished for even although a Caribbean country did not feature on my bucket list at all?

Jume, have you heard of AfID? What? Aphid, as in green flies? Says I!

Imagine this... sitting round a campfire, somewhere in Waddi Rum, Jordan...

(and yes, it was the evening that I seriously sprained my ankle, but that is a different story)

... were 2 chartered accountants (Lauren and me) and one HR professional (CPD accredited, Maxine), replete, after a lovely Jordanian meal cooked the traditional way, eaten round the fire, under the stars AND the full moon...

The conversation went something like this:
BC 1 (BC = Bean Counter): I really want to do something different, something worthwhile but that's fun at the same time.
HH (HH = Head Hunter):What type of things are you interested in?
BC 1 = Dunno, just something more than just work to live!
HH: There are plenty organisations who would welcome your skills; just have a look around. When you see what you want to be involved with, just write to them.
BC 2: Have you heard of aphid (that is what I thought was said).
BC 1: green flies - what do you mean?  (I thought she might have mistaken mosquitoes for aphids!)
BC 2: No, you idiot! A-f-I-D.
BC 1: What the heck is that?
BC 2: Accounting for International Development.

(You have to understand that by this time, after a jeep ride / race across the desert, yelling, giggling, yodelling at the top of our voices; watching the sun set and the moon rise, it is very surprising how one very small beer can be oh so... intoxicating! (And if you believe that it was just one small beer, you are unbelievably gullible!)
 
BC 1: oh, I see. What do they do?

.... I leave it to your imagination as to how the rest of the conversation went...

The next morning, while waiting for the camels to come and fetch us for a ride, one of us got out the device (I will not say who was sad enough to do this) and googled "AfID" in the middle of a Jordanian desert!...

We got back to the UK on Sunday 31 March. By midnight that day, I had subscribed to AfID e newsletter. By 2nd April, I was committed to attend an AfID workshop in London on 3 May! The workshop was called: "Development Workshop: Building Capacity through Financial Management"

Check out

 www.AfID.org.uk