Written on April 6, 2008 from Kakamega, Kenya
By Anne Olson
Yesterday I attended a wedding where Linnet was a bride’s maid. Her friend, Elizabeth, came to pick me (that’s Kenyan talk) and then went to the wedding with me. That is so Kenyan – to give up an entire weekend day to help a friend and accompany a guest. It was a very nice wedding – quite western with an African flare. Great music, many attendants (6 women and 9 men), 4 flower girls, 2 page boys. The attendant’s dresses were very beautiful – a deep wine/maroon color. Linnet looked so beautiful. I got a couple of great pictures of her. The ceremony lasted about 3 hours! It included the presentation of gifts where everyone personally handed their gift to the couple. Afterwards there was much food and then Elizabeth and I left. Neither of us had been invited to the wedding and neither of us knew the bride or the groom.
I asked Elizabeth about financing the wedding. The groom’s parents pay a dowry to the bride’s parents, amount agreed upon ahead of time. The wedding itself is paid for by the couple and their friends; they ask friends to contribute to the expenses, knowing that they will be asked in return when others marry. Isn’t that interesting?? As usual, there were many speeches (most in Swahili or local language) – groom’s family, bride’s family, friends, church, etc. Elizabeth told me the gist of the one’s that made people laugh.
Friday was a very busy day at work; no time for internet and we didn’t even leave for lunch. Luckily Max went to the market and brought little bananas back for us to eat. Linnet and I left about 5:45. Things were very busy because the wire transfer from the US had arrived with everyone’s salary. Of course, everyone wanted to get paid and we were trying to use the new process and paperwork to do it. Also, everyone had gotten an advance or two during the last quarter (they only get paid quarterly). We got it all figured out, including how it needs to be documented so we have a paper trail (and signatures) of the cash flow. Wilson and Roland also agreed about when and how signatures are required and acquired. They are very much into the tracking of expenses – at least right now. It will require extra work and more planning (e.g. when they need air time for their phones, they have to plan ahead enough to get authorization before cash is released for the purchase). (Note: cell phones do not have call time plans here like they do in the US; rather you purchase airtime when you need it and load it on your phone. You can receive calls even when you have no airtime but you cannot make calls.)
We also received the wire transfer from the US for the next round of business grants. So again we are using the new policy and forms and figuring it out as we go. Some VBMs (Village Business Mentors) have checks mailed to them, some receive cash when they come to the office, some have the money “direct deposited” in their bank accounts (that means we write a check and go to the bank and deposit it). Monday we will be taking care of some/all of this money disbursement to the VBMs and implementing the VBM receipt process which acknowledges their receipt of the money. When they distribute it to the businesses (in cash), they will have receipts signed by the business owners. Everything comes back to the office and another paper trail is finished! Whew! Some of this is new, some is old, all is necessary for an audit trail. Having so much money transfer done in cash makes things more complicated and the receipts/signatures more important. I am pretty sure that the bank account and QuickBooks will not tie at the end of the first quarter as money from petty cash was not always tracked. I know Kenya is in better shape than either Tanzania or Uganda; that’s why I started here.
Linnet is great to work with and she is catching on fast. I am doing some of the work because we are making it up as we go along. She will then have samples about how to do it next time. I have to get all of this documented so that it can be used in Tanzania and Uganda. I have a start on it with lots of details to fill in.
Two internet connections are to be installed in the office tomorrow – with LONG cables so we can work from different places in the office. The cable in the office that we have been using is so short that you can barely connect to the laptop on the table. Not sure what they were thinking when they installed it; maybe just about a desktop where the CPU would be sitting on the floor right by the cable. Whatever! That wouldn’t work for us. Can’t wait to have internet in the new spacious office.
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