Oct 11

Today has been a training day. This project seems to have “education” written on it from every angle: not only is EDEM all about access to education, but today I have been teaching. Now that we have progressed with the reviews, the time has come to actually implement the new financial procedures and so I spent the day with Herve and Mineve going through cashbook expense accounting (basic bookkeeping), quarterly reporting and cash flow/funding request processes.

Today has really taken me back to the absolute essentials of accounting. We are making financial records – it is as simple as that. There are no computers: we are using paper and pen. There is no prior experience of accounting here so going through the process meant that I was challenged to explain everything from “point zero”. The exercise gave me great insight into how many implicit professional references we ordinarily make; when those become worthless, I had to be explicit.

Herve’s motorbike is broken so today we did a lot of walking and I got to see Porto-Novo close-up. Today’s rains seem to have turned the “contrast” up even higher: the red earth roads seem to luminesce against the dark grey skies. In amongst the beauty there were lots of not-so-beautiful things: mounds of rubbish, stagnant ponds, derelict buildings, pot holes you could lose a child in… But the locals don’t seem to notice: around town today I saw cheerful people with lots of friendly smiles!

Photo: Herve and Mineve at the office…