Thursday..Last night

Feel a bit steam rollered today but feel the need to write something to close off the trip.   There are so many aspects to this experience that I'm not quite sure I've yet assimilated everything - perhaps it will be easier to do this when I'm back in the UK.  In reflecting about the assignment itself, I think I had quite a romanticised idea of it all when I first arrived - somewhat more grounded in reality now which I think is a good thing.  One could also accuse my initial views as being somewhat patronising towards the organisation I was to be working with.  As far as my views on the value of sending someone like me in, I think this has been reinforced by my experience with KICWA.  I do think there is real value in building financial capacity of community organisations and it's definitely needed if they are to remain viable and to ensure sustainability.  I also think there is need for transparency, robustness and accountability of organisational funding and these qualities should apply to organisations wherever they are based.  Funders should really be doing more themselves to ensure this applies.

Wednesday...Back to Kampala

Haven't posted for a few days - it has been a bit full on, trying to finish off at the Project and get myself sorted for leaving today - especially the money which has been a bit of a mission to get together since they don't take traveller's cheques anywhere and there are issues with the ATMs.  Am now in Kampala, back at the Hotel Bougainviller until I fly back to the UK on Friday.  Has been a long day - we left Kitgum at 7am to drive to Pader which is around 1 to 1.5 hours away.  The roads are better than from Gulu but still very challenging in parts and there were a couple of occasions when I thought we would get stuck.  We arrived at the airfield - literally in the middle of the bush.  A number of the team had travelled with me because they wanted to see me off.  I contacted the airline just to check on things, only to discover that the flight wouldn't be leaving until around 1 or 2 in the afternoon!!  We arrived at 9am.  Wasn't a good start for anyone.  Another vehicle then arrived with the country director for another NGO and he was severely unimpressed, having also been advised to arrive at 9am for the flight.  He then made several phone calls and in the end they diverted a flight from elsewhere to collect us at around 11am.  Until then, we headed back to Pader town where I treated the team to breakfast.

Was a nice send off at the Project yesterday - we had some barbecued pork (actually quite nice) and salad, a few drinks and everyone made a speech to say what they thought of me (!) - I then gave a speech on how much I had enjoyed the experience and working with them all and how sad I was to be leaving.   I hate good byes especially when I was leaving feeling that the work there had only just begun.  But I think I have made some useful contributions in terms of strengthening their systems, developing new templates for reporting and providing training for Robert on both Quickbooks and also more general areas to enhance his knowledge and skills.   There were one or two issues to deal with towards the end which I wasn't expecting but at least they felt open enough to disclose these for discussion.  In the afternoon, me, Chris and Robert met so that I could give a verbal summary of my key findings, the development work achieved and what further work there was still be done.



Looking out from the Town Meeting Room



 In the morning yesterday, I went on another field trip - to Namokura which was around an hour's drive from Kitgum, heading towards the mountains.  It is a beautiful area as you can see from the pictures.  Namokura is the main town for that particular district.  They were holding a child protection committee meeting there made up of various people from a range of disciplines.  It was good to go on the field trip but it is challenging when the entire meeting is conducted in Luo.  On the way to Namokura, we stopped at the village where Chris's family is from (the Programme Manager).  They are in Kitgum now after the rebels torched the village in 2002.  People are now beginning to return there and rebuild the village and he hopes to move his family back there next year.  I discovered that he is one of 10 children of which one was abducted and killed by the rebels.  He also told me that he was abducted too but luckily managed to escape after one month.

Chris at his Village

On Sunday, I went to the orphanage run by Lois, the New Zealand lady.  I am not sure how I feel about the day - it was very hard to be there confronted by so many children.   My immediate reaction was one of wanting to leave as soon as I'd arrived because it was too overwhelming to be there but I did stay and spent the day with Lois.  When I arrived, most apart from one or two of the children were at church.  Those that remained included Alfred, who was around 5/6 years and was sleeping on Lois's bed - he had malaria and was sound asleep.  There were two severely disabled children there also, a girl with severe learning disabilities and a boy who had only recently come to the orphanage.  They found him lying naked on the road and with a gangrene foot.  They think he had meningitis as a child but are not sure the extent of brain damage.  He has severe learning difficulties and mental health problems and they need to get him to Kampala so that he can be cared for and assessed at a special hospital and also to treat his foot - but the challenges of getting him there and admitted are complex on so many different levels. 

Lois is a remarkable woman - she has been in Uganda for 12 years and was in southern Sudan before that.  She is there because of her religious beliefs and has never married.  The stories she told are too numerous to mention and some too disturbing but she lived there throughout the war and has been exposed to bombings, been held up by rebels and seen many, many people die.   She started the orphanage 7 years ago - it was built by funds from American donors, specifically as one large dormitory which could be secured and the children kept relatively safe - rather than the traditional thatched huts which people live in there which would have left the children dispersed and much more vulnerable to rebel attacks.  There are around 12 local women who work there to help with the care for the children.  Lois has just two rooms - her bedroom and a kitchen and these are very modest indeed.  It was hard to take in all that she told me but I felt like she had a need to talk about her experiences, in detail.  I asked her how she keeps going and she said it was her faith in God.   She also told me that she was going to care for one of her friends who had been paralysed from the neck down in the Kampala bombings which took place in July.  Amazing and I felt so humble. 

Lois prepared lunch (lovely corn fritters and salad) whilst I went and spent some time with the children who had returned from Church.  They all came back and were amazed to find a visitor and they greeted me with big beaming smiles, each one shaking my hand and introducing themselves.  They seemed genuinely happy and went about their business, made lots of noise, played games etc.  There are 90 children there and Lois knows them all by name!  They stay until they are 18 years.  One boy was sick though, Isaac, around 5/6 yrs - I'm not sure what was wrong with him but he was very poorly and on medication.  He just wanted to hold my hand so he came with me as I walked around and took some photos - but he didn't stop crying.  It was heartbreaking.  The other children loved having their photos taken and they all crowded round to see the pictures!





Friday..

A massive storm happening outside as I write this evening.   These storms are really something here - wind, lightning, thunder and lashings of rain & they are a virtually a daily occurrence although the one tonight is of particular note.  And cool tonight too though I'm not complaining about that as the power is still down so no fan again.  We had power yesterday for a few hours in the evening but since I arrived we've probably only had power for around 40% of the time.   The generator is on most of the time at the Project but only a few hours a day at the guesthouse - it's quite a challenge and really impacts how people function, not to mention huge fuel costs in running the generator which are difficult for the Project to budget sufficiently for and fund.
Arrived back to my room today to find a gecko (lizard type thing) staring up at me from the toilet!!  Wasn't sure if it was alive or dead and didn't intend to poke it.  Went and fetched a member of the staff who came with two sticks and hitched it out - it was still alive.  It had probably crept in to the bathroom and slipped in.  It did rather stop me in my tracks.

Work at the Project has been intense over the last few days.   Unfortunately, what appeared on the face of it to be a very organised and well kept set of records (and of  the expenditure records that are kept, these are well organised and have reasonably good controls in place), there is a lack of completeness and accuracy within the financial records in entirety.  And, the controls over cash and bank balances are more or less absent.  This has made verification of balances virtually impossible, made all the more impossible by my lack of confidence in the accuracy of the last audited statements.  What is frustrating is that I now feel like I've started an audit that I shall not be able to complete, at least to a satisfactory standard.  There have been no bank statements received since 1 January so we've had to request these - a 3 day process here.  So I 've been working frantically to do as much as I possibly can to help them tidy things up as well provide structure and guidance for Robert on how to implement certain key procedural controls going forward.    But it doesn't feel satisfactory - really following this stage, there should be a period of supervision so that Robert can be trained and supervised in implementing the new procedures.  I just hope he can take it forward - he is bright, but doesn't always understand (or hasn't been trained to) the importance of key controls. 

Only one formal day of training left on Monday with Tuesday reserved for loose ends and also a field trip in the morning.  Hard to believe that this time next week I shall be back in the UK.  Over this weekend, I shall be meeting Winnie & Boscoe from the Project on Saturday afternoon and taking a walk with them to a few places around town.  On Sunday morning, I plan to go to the orphanage run by Lois from New Zealand.  Was meant to go last weekend but she was in Kampala.

Tried to change my traveller's cheques today but no bank in town would take them!  So, resorting to ATM and have to make sure I leave sufficient time to collect enough cash - first instalment today and the rest over the weekend and on Monday.  No-one takes anything other than cash here and the sums can be big - £500 is in excess of 1.5 million UGX.

Hope I sleep better tonight - last night, there were dogs barking interspersed with cockerels and whatever else fancied chirping in, all from about 3am til 7am on and off.

Wednesday..

Just a quick post tonight.  It's been a frustrating day today.    Robert was absent until about 3pm today - long story but it involved the death of a friend (some time back), a truck, a driver, Sudan, the police and a court case to which he went today as a witness.  He returned very stressed and said that his brain was finished today.   I had managed to get along with a few things - writing up some Qbooks instructions,  developing a new template for recording cash/bank balances and reviewing some of the paper trails.  I had a list of questions though and with him being back thought that it would be useful just to run through these.  Not so - he had disappeared again!  What is difficult is that he didn't say he was going!  He went off with Denis so I think he needed someone to talk to.  I think I could write a soap based on just Robert.

Have now learnt a few words of Luo which I've been practising on the staff today - my pronunciation is terrible but I'm beginning to get more confident.

They had opened up the premises today to the local NGO forum who were holding their strategic planning session.  It was run by a guy who I'd had lunch with a couple of days ago - he invited me to join them for lunch today.  There was outside catering - I stuck to rice, beans and greens which was nice.   I was eating with my hands for the first time today which was not easy and I made rather a mess of it.  They all managed to do so with such refinement and I just ended up looking like a 2 year old after they had tried feeding themselves!  I was trying to hold an intelligent conversation at the same time so all a bit of a challenge.

The guy that runs the NGO forum is a really interesting person to talk to about the political situation in Uganda.  He was giving me a long account of the history and his thoughts for the future.   Quite an inspirational person to listen to and very proud of the Alcholi people to which he belongs and who are the main ethnic group in northern Uganda.   The political situation remains very fragile especially in the run up to the referendum in Sudan, which is being held in January to decide on whether Sudan should be split into a southern and northern territory.  If Sudan destabilises, there is real concern that this will cause problems in Uganda and invite trouble from other neighbouring countries (and a route back in for the LRA).  So much trauma though - he was telling me that as a child he would literally come across corpses throughout Kitgum - not just 1 or 5 or 10 but at least 100 every single day.  There is nothing you can say to that.

2nd Week - Mon/Tues..

Tuesday
Terrible nights sleep so was feeling a bit jaded this morning.  Field trip planned today so was looking forward to this.  Was informed we'd be leaving around 11 - African time of course so it was after 12 before we set off. Spent the morning with Robert doing some more stuff on the bank & cash reconciliations.  I don think Robert has fully understood what we're trying to achieve and so we can do some full circles a few times before things click but we're working together well and he is very responsive even if distracted by many other issues, both in and out of work.

The field trip was in Lamule which was a village around 12km away and it was to conduct a group closure for a group of 8 child mothers.  We collected 3 of the group members on our way to Lamule.  The women had been brought together around a year ago and provided with a microloan scheme. Basically, the groups gets given a sum of money which is then distributed equally to each member on loan. They then use this money on income generating activities (usually selling produce in local markets) in order to raise enough money to repay the loan plus a minimum of 10% interest which is paid back into the group fund at the end of the month.  They can keep any excess over 10% or pay this back into the bank as further savings.The more money they pay in at the of end of each month, the greater the next month's advance can be.  The group operates on a formal basis with a constitution, chairperson, secretary etc. and agreed signatories to the main account.  The group receives support from KICWA during a 12 month period at the end of which the group is 'closed' and the money each person has made in total distributed.  The aim is for the group to then continue to run as a co-operative. 

The process of calculating and distributing the money was a long one!  There was much debate, calculation and re-calculation before final amounts were agreed and distributed.  It was actually a complicated process to manage which, for women that had received virtually no education, was quite impressive.  They had all done really well - from an initial investment of around $25, one woman had made $100.   Other groups have been known to make even more so it seem to work really well overall - only occasionally do some members fail to make money and this is largely due to illness or other family issues.  It's really important that child mothers are able to earn a living - it can be very difficult for them to be accepted back into their communities for a number of reasons and with extra mouths to feed and no means of supporting themselves they can be deemed a burden.  By earning a living, they are seen to be contributing and this makes their acceptance easier.

We arrived at Lamule around 1230 and left at 430 by which time I had virtually melted!  The proceedings were all done under cover so that other people in the village weren't aware that money was being discussed.  But it was so hot in the building which had a corrugated tin roof and just radiated from above.  I had to step out several times to get some relief from the heat - much to the amusement and delight of the children who were outside. Thankfully, a storm cooled things off later in the afternoon.  By the end of it though, I was definitely suffering a bit and had a headache - I was glad to get back to the guesthouse where I slept for a bit.   We drove back to Lamule and gave a lift back to two of the women who jumped in the back together with a live duck they collected in the village!!

Most of the women don't speak English and so proceedings are all conducted in Luo which makes it a bit difficult for me to keep up and also to communicate - the project staff help with translation from time to time but it's not possible to do this continuously.  The women are very reserved compared with people generally that I've met and only occasional eye contact is made.  Despite the photos I've posted where they look quite cheerful, there is also an extreme sadness in their eyes which is palpable.  The children in the photos are children born since returning from captivity - a good sign since it means that they have new husbands or co-habitees and have been accepted within their communities.  Many of the children they had in captivity are now of school age.


Whilst I was taking some air outside, had further conversations with Godfrey about the political situation in Uganda.  It really is very complicated and what is very apparent is the massive divide between the south and the north of Uganda and a hugely messed up situation involving the LRA, the government of Uganda and Sudan which clearly remains an unstable situation.  There are elections in Uganda during February next year but there is a lot cynicism regards the likely outcome.  During our conversatio, we were interrupted by a man from the village.  Godfrey introduced us and he said that he had a son who was called Steve.  After many shaking of hands, he said asked me what tribe I was from in the UK - I was stumped!  He said that as of now, I could claim his village as my tribe and that he would seek a wife for me if I wished!


Monday
Lovely morning walking into the office.  Still no power - since Saturday afternoon.  All the staff were sitting outside the office when I arrived because there was also a problem with the generator - so we all sat together for about half an hour or so whilst they fixed it.  Good chance to just chat about the weekend and what people got up to.  Generally, time was spent with families and of course,  church on Sunday - all are Christians, mostly Catholic.  Winnie went back to her village to spend time with her parents so had a long journey.  I was asked if I went to church and when I said that I didn't either believe or disbelieve in God, they laughed in an amazed, shocked kind of way!  They said that I need to visit one of their churches and perhaps I will change my mind.  They also said that there were people who still had traditional beliefs - rituals and witchcraft etc. and I should really go to a local ceremony.   Though most felt somewhat scared of these ceremonies, they still felt it was important to preserve as it was an important part of their heritage.  I think I may pass on the ritual...

Been speaking more and more with Godfrey, one of the Programme Assistants.  Really intelligent and knowledgeable guy that is happy to speak about most subjects.  He keeps asking me questions in Luo, the language spoken and looks very disapprovingly when I don't understand him.  I have asked whether he'll sit down with me and teach me some words but it hasn't happened yet.  I've found some basic phrases on google so I may surprise him soon with a few words.  We were speaking about marriage, co-habitation (not unusual for people to do this before getting married, and have children),contraception and HIV.  HIV is a serious problem as in most African countries but his view was that prevention methods are now beginning to be taken seriously and there is more openness about being tested, with less stigmatisation generally.  I asked whether there was a higher incidence of HIV amongst formerly abducted child soldiers and child mothers, for obvious reasons of sexual exploitation being used as a weapon during the war.  I was surprised when he said no but that HIV was a big issue because of the situation in the IDP camps where he said that "immorality" and sexual abuse was rife.  Apparently, parents could not leave their daughters alone during the day because abuse was so common.

The generator got fixed and we all went to our workstations.  Robert didn't come in during the morning and this was because some of his cattle had been stolen and so he was busy with the police trying to sort things out.  He came in a lunchtime and was quite stressed.   Every Monday, the staff get together to talk about the coming week and to discuss issues.  Prayers are said before and at the end of the meeting and then we kick off with each person evaluating how they are.  So, for example one person said "I have had a few family issues and because of this I am only 60% today" etc.  I'd had a terrible night's sleep because of the heat and mosquitoes and was feeling 40% but thought that was a bit overly negative (surprise, surprise!) and so publicised that I was 60%!  The meeting was conducted in a very formal but ever so polite and gentle fashion.  Quite a lot was covered actually and it's a good way to start the week.

Had an hour with Christopher, the Programme Manager, just to go through my assessment so far go through some further questions and my plans for the week, by which time is was lunch so walked into town to have rice and beans at Acholi Pride (am getting a bit sick of it now I have to admit but there is little else at lunch).  Photo is the walk from the office into town - on my way back two huge Iguanas jumped out of the grass ran across in front of me and into the grass the other side!  I was a bit surprised!

Finally, Robert got to sit at his desk at around 230pm.  We then had IT problems again with the software!  Thankfully, I remembered what to do from before and got it going again.  I raised the issue of the bank and cash reconciliations again and explained that these were key controls that were very important to implement so we needed to spend time addressing these.  I had thought about his manual system and had an idea of how to restructure this so cash and bank elements were separated.  However, in order to reconcile both we needed to revert to the audited balances as of 31 Dec 09 and then start from there - no mean task and my head was beginning to spin.  So, left this so that I could give it more thought and then went back to Qbooks training, focusing on supplier invoices and payments.  Robert picked this up well and so I left him to enter remaining invoices.

A quiet evening at the guesthouse - sat with the Danish woman, Ulla, who was there the previous week.  She'd come back to do some filming for a Ugandan TV programme.  Very interesting listening to her recount experiences in virtually every country that's had a humanitarian disaster during the last 25 years - she has seen just about everything.  She's not at all sentimental though.

Was very tired and went to bed around 1030 - the power was back that evening so a more bearable night with the fan going.  Mosquitoes not quite so bad either.

The Weekend..

It has been good to have a couple of days to reflect on the week - it has been pretty full on since leaving the UK, practically, emotionally and culturally.  I've started both days with a walk into town before the heat builds - it's about 15 minutes from the guesthouse.  It's a nice walk - through the back and up a slight hill so you get a perspective across the lush, green countryside and into the mountains in the distance.  There's always plenty of people doing the same - all keen to say hello, especially the children who think it's hilarious when you speak!  You pass plenty of homes with people sitting outside, cooking, washing, cleaning...plenty of goats, chickens, and cows just grazing around the place.   And, so many butterflies and birds of prey, including a vulcher which was hanging around the meat market in town.

There's not huge amounts to say about Kitgum town - it's small and so easy to find your way around.  You can find most things here - and it's what you'd expect from a rural Ugandan town.  There are eating and drinking establishments but I've tended to stay clear of these apart from the one I've eaten lunch in during the week.  No-one hassles you here - they just want to talk and ask you questions which is nice.  I had a panic on Saturday - I used the local internet place to log in to my work e-mail because the orange modem won't allow me through their server.  I stupidly used my memory stick and left it in the computer - only realised when I got back to the guesthouse.  All my work for the assignment was on there and my only back up was in the UK.  I managed to get a lift back into town from a Norfolk man who has been here for years!!  Thankfully the guy who ran the internet place had kept it aside for me.  That was a huge relief.  I was so hot by that point I decided to get a boda boda back to the guesthouse - a motorbike one.  That was good!

On Sunday, I had a wander around the food market - lots of dried fish and vegetables.  Very buzzy and colourful - took a couple of photos.  One of the market women was very keen to have her photo taken and hugely amused when she saw her picture!

I've been back at the guesthouse in the afternoons - just relaxing, chatting with the guys who run it, having a siesta and then working for a bit.  I've been the only guest this weekend so it's very quiet.  They have some pretty intense discussions about life, politics, religion and NGOs so it's never dull!

I've obviously been reflecting quite a bit on my first week at KICWA.  I think the layers were slowly being removed towards the end of last week, revealing some weaknesses in the systems there which weren't immediately apparent during my first few days.  The challenge for me is where to prioritise and focus my attention during the coming week.  I think one of the main areas of weakness likes in the structure of the bank and cash books and lack of reconciliation with bank and cash at hand.  This needs to be reviewed, restructured and completed and I don't know yet the extent of work which this will require.  I also want to check through the supporting records in more depth before I then continue with the Quickbooks training. 

The power has continued to be a major issue - it went at around 4pm yesterday afternoon and has been off ever since.  The generator only goes on for an hour in the morning and then is off until around 7pm before going off again around 9ish.  So it's a wind up torch if I want to stay up beyond 9 and a fiercely hot night in my room without a fan.  Tonight (Sunday), I've had an infestation of mosquitoes in the room - from where I don't know but it seems to be dependent on the weather and humidity.  I still don't know how they've got in but I was madly spraying the room before I went for dinner.  They are tough though and seem to take ages to drop!  And what has really freaked me this evening is that I've found two inside my net despite this having been down all day - they must have crept in when I lifted it to get in to bed.  I hope I've just killed the last one..

Friday..

Mosquitoes today - the office was full of them so we had to do a major spray before starting work. 

Today was a day of two halfs.  The intention this morning was to continue with the training on Quickbooks with Robert.  However, there was a problem with the software which took virtually the whole morning to try and resolve.   There I was on skype in the middle of rural Uganda trying to get through to the Intuit helpline in the UK - three times & a lot of frustration.  Fingers crossed, we may now have a workable solution which means we can continue in earnest next week without losing too much more time on mindless IT.   Before this happened, I also managed to drill down on some detail regards the current manual system of accounts.  I've been confused by it all week and I realised today that so is Robert, to an extent.  It is a combined cash and bank ledger which makes reconciling either very difficult!    So, some further work to be done there next week.  What is positive is that as the week has progressed, Robert seems more comfortable in sharing some of his uncertainties and difficulties in managing the finances.  This makes it much easier to know where to assist.  Robert also mentioned that he has been diagnosed with malaria and had been prescribed medication which he had been taking for the last couple of days.  He had been feeling very poorly yesterday but didn't want to say for fear that this would affect the training session I had arranged with him.  He is feeling better today.

At 3pm, there was a ceremony at the centre (it was due to be at noon!).  This was a ceremony for 9 child mothers who had successfully completed a 2 year training course in tailoring.  They were to be presented with certificates and also start up tools, these being a Singer sewing machine - there were men putting these together all morning!  It was a very formal ceremony chaired by a dignitary from the District Council.  Lots of speeches were made all in the local language - thankfully, Fred, one of the Programme Officers was sitting beside me and translated from time to time.  After individual presentations of certificates, the girls were led outside to be presented with their sewing machines.  Lots of photos were taken and the local press were also there.  This was followed by food and drink before people left for home.  The sewing machines were taken back to the girl's home on a boda boda (a bicylce taxi service) and they were very heavy!    By providing the start up tools, the intention is to enable the girls to set up a tailoring business as a group so that they can start earning and providing for their families. 

I met the founders of KICWA at the ceremony - a group of quite amazing women who came together in response to children who began to escape from captivity back in 1998.   There were no buildings to house the children at that stage and the women brought food from their homes.  The International Rescue Committee then became involved and built the building and shelters that are KICWA's premises today.  The women continued to care for many, many children for several years providing care, counselling and support whilst at the same time trying to trace their families.  Sometimes they were lucky and the children's families were still alive.  One of the women told me she did it because her younger brother had been abducted on his way to school one morning - he had been travelling on a bus with other children.  She still has no idea whether he is alive.  She would want someone somewhere to do the same for her brother as she had done for the children she cared for.