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