Travel day to Uganda

Written on Sunday, April 13, 2008 from Uganda
By Anne Olson

Travel day – public transportation from Kenya to Uganda by myself. It was relatively easy as I had done it with Charles before so knew some of the ropes. A Ugandan friend picked me up at the border and took me to a place to catch a bus to Jinja for the start of my vacation. He took the big box of "stuff" that I had brought for my Ugandan friends. I was happy to have it off my hands. I left my computer in Kenya so I didn't have to deal with it either. So I was traveling light (remember "light" is a relative term! J). My friend from home, Sharae Gunn, met me in Jinja Sunday night.

Traveling to Tanzania

Written on April 11, 2008 from Dodoma, Tanzania

By Max Anders

Leaving Kenya after only a week felt like startling from a dream; an abrupt feeling of something unfinished. Despite the excitement of exploring more of East Africa, I felt a reluctance (albeit undeserved after only a week) to press on. It is strange how quickly a place can grow on you.
But as soon as I got over the air sickness of the turbulent little jet and fixed my gaze on the scenery below, I began to feel better. Face glued to the small hard plastic window, I watched Nairobi disappear and waited for Tanzania. It is a strikingly beautiful journey; the space and textures, perhaps, made more dramatic looking down from a buzzing jet. I watched the round shadows of clouds darken the vibrant green and red landscape below. Making shapes out of them, I felt a bit backwards…or upside down. The plane stopped in Kilimanjaro just long enough for a seemingly overworked and somewhat rude customs official to admit us to Tanzania with a sigh and a wave of her hand. Reboarding the same small plane and taking off over the mountain made invisible by the thick clouds, our next stop was Haydom. Landing on the “makeshift runway” (an expansive dirt field in the middle of nowhere) our plane was received by the unofficial “air traffic controllers” (a large crowd of locals gawking, smiling, and waving).
We arrived in Dodoma, the capitol of Tanzania, in the late afternoon. It’s my understanding that Dodoma, despite its official title of capitol city, suffers from a slight inferiority complex towards its larger and coastal sibling Dar es Salaam. All family feuds aside, the Dodoma I have seen is a wonderful and beautiful city. Our arrival at the very end of the rainy season has allowed us to see a rare, green and flower-filled Dodoma. Even Rowland, VEF’s training director and a proud Kenyan, has repeatedly remarked how he has never seen Dodoma so alive and colorful. I love the electric orange sun dropping behind small mountains made of large boulders that rise up from fields of white and purple flowers.

And while I don’t feel qualified to speak on anything other than first impressions, I feel like Tanzania is set to a slower, more mellow pace than Kenya. As a Mazungu (white person), I feel like I draw less attention. The slippery, combined-word sounds of Swahili unite people from different linguistic groups in conversations but are exchanged for English in order to greet and make me feel welcome. And I do feel welcome. Whether it is the steamy cups of spiced milky tea, the smiling, waving walkers along the roads, or the improvised riddles people tell (always preceded by the call and response Kitenda wili? Tega), I cannot help but feel at home here.

Electricity Problems, Rain and Vacation Time

Written on April 10, 2008 in Kakamega, Kenya

By Anne Olson

We were without internet on Tuesday and without electricity and internet yesterday. Electricity came back on about 5:30pm. All of Kakamega was affected. Also, there is a shortage of water in all of Kakamega. The good news is that the land line phone and 2 internet connections were installed in the office yesterday (not Monday as expected). We are so happy to have internet connection here in the office. It was okay to walk over to another office on the site but much better to be able to work here. It was interesting to watch the internet installation – trenches were dug from the main building to our building, coax cable was pulled through a plastic pipe, all was laid in the trench and covered. Then the cable was brought into the office through the various cracks and holes that are found in the construction. Things here do not always “match up” leaving lots of small openings for cables.

Two days without internet left a lot of time on my hands. I helped Linnet by writing all of the checks to the VBMs with their grant money. Now they can do the training and disburse the grants in the next couple of weeks. I also helped sort paperwork so that it would be ready for the part-time help (casual worker as they say in Kenya) to enter into the grant database. So many pieces of paper to keep track of and store.

It is planting season here so everyone is waiting for rain. It hasn’t rained since the first Sunday I was here (March 30). Yesterday it clouded up and this morning it rained very hard from 8:30 to 9:00 am, the time I am usually walking to the office. I just waited it out at the hotel and when it stopped I threw on my coat and backpack and took off. Luckily I arrived with no more rain. There’s been a few sprinkles since then but not much. This rain will make the local farmers very happy.

It’s evening now and it is raining very hard again. I like the sound of the rain and am VERY happy not to be out in it. The rain this morning was good to settle the dust. This rain will make mud again.

Tomorrow I will leave my computer at the office as I am going on vacation in Uganda next week and don’t want to carry it. I will leave Sunday morning to go to the border using local transport called matatu (it’s a small van and travels when full, stopping whenever someone wants on or off). Michael, the VEF Country Director in Uganda, will meet me at the border as I have a box of things for Uganda that I don’t want to take with me on vacation. I will then take another matatu or a bus to Jinja which is where I will start my vacation. My friend Sharae will meet me there Sunday night. On Monday we leave for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see the mountain gorillas there. I am very excited about that. When we return to Jinja, we will go river rafting on the Nile, visit the Source of the Nile, and visit a local village. It will be a fun time. Hopefully it won’t rain the whole time but if it does, we’ll deal with it.

A New Office

Written on April 10, 2008 from Kakamega, Kenya

By Anne Olson

We were without internet on Tuesday and without electricity and internet yesterday. Electricity came back on about 5:30pm. All of Kakamega was affected. Also, there is a shortage of water in all of Kakamega. The good news is that the landline phone and 2 internet connections were installed in the office yesterday (not Monday as expected). We are so happy to have internet connection here in the office. It was okay to walk over to another office on the site but much better to be able to work here. It was interesting to watch the internet installation – trenches were dug from the main building to our building, coax cable was pulled through a plastic pipe, all was laid in the trench and covered. Then the cable was brought into the office through the various cracks and holes that are found in the construction. Things here do not always “match up” leaving lots of small openings for cables.

Two days without internet left a lot of time on my hands. I helped Linnet by writing all of the checks to the VFCs with their grant money. Now they can do the training and disburse the grants in the next couple of weeks. I also helped sort paperwork so that it would be ready for the part-time help (casual worker as they say in Kenya) to enter into the grant database. So many pieces of paper to keep track of and store.

It is planting season here so everyone is waiting for rain. It hasn’t rained since the first Sunday I was here (March 30). Yesterday it clouded up and this morning it rained very hard from 8:30 to 9:00 am, the time I am usually walking to the office. I just waited it out at the hotel and when it stopped I threw on my coat and backpack and took off. Luckily I arrived with no more rain. There’s been a few sprinkles since then but not much. This rain will make the local farmers very happy.

It’s evening now and it is raining very hard again. I like the sound of the rain and am VERY happy not to be out in it. The rain this morning was good to settle the dust. This rain will make mud again.

Tomorrow I will leave my computer at the office as I am going on vacation in Uganda next week and don’t want to carry it. I will leave Sunday morning to go to the border using local transport called matatu (it’s a small van and travels when full stopping whenever someone wants on or off). Michael, the VEF Country Director in Uganda, will meet me at the border as I have a box of things for Uganda that I don’t want to take with me on vacation. I will then take another matatu or a bus to Jinja which is where I will start my vacation. My friend Sharae will meet me there Sunday night. On Monday we leave for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see the mountain gorillas there. I am very excited about that. When we return to Jinja, we will go river rafting on the Nile, visit the Source of the Nile, and visit a local village. It will be a fun time. Hopefully it won’t rain the whole time but if it does, we’ll deal with it.

A Kenyan Wedding...and Payday

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.

Minister of QuickBooks

Written on April 4, 2008 from Kakamega, Kenya
By Anne Olson

The other day at lunch, we were talking about the cabinet members for the Kenyan government that is being discussed at this time. Then someone suggested a new cabinet position – Ministry of QuickBooks – and that I should be appointed. Now they call me the Minister of QuickBooks! The people here have such a good sense of humor; no wonder I love working with them.

Yesterday, we ventured out to the countryside to meet in Rowland’s bar (Rowland is the Training Director for all 3 countries and owns a bar). Julia was reviewing some documents to get some feedback and input from the Kenyans. After we accomplished that task (reviewing documents is always such hard work but so necessary), we went to Wilson’s house (Wilson is the Kenyan Country Director) for a feast. The first time I came to Kenya with VEF, I stayed with Wilson and his wife Nancy for one night before going on to Uganda so it was nice to visit their home again. There were many people there – all Kenya VEF staff and family, the Americans (Julia, Max, me), and various other people. It was very fun. In the typical Kenyan way, everyone had to “say something” before we could conclude. Then Wilson took the folks from Kakamega to the main road to catch a matatu back to Kakamega.

While I was waiting with Linnet to catch the matatu yesterday morning, I got to meet her Father. He teaches science and Kiswahili in a primary school. Then I got to meet Linnet’s fiancé, Absolom (not sure of the spelling) – yes Linnet is engaged! – and he joined us for the day. He’s a very nice young man and I enjoyed meeting him. Hopefully I will see him again while I am here.

Some Rain and a New Office

Written on April 2, 2008 from Kakamega, Kenya
By Anne Olson

Sunday was beautiful most of the day and then rain in the afternoon. I walked to town (about 15 minutes) to meet Julia and Max, go to the internet café, and have lunch. Was ready to walk home again when the clouds started looking very dark and menacing. So I took a bodaboda (bicycle taxi – he pedals and I sit on the back!) and was very glad that I did because about 5 minutes after I got to the hotel it started raining very hard. I had my raincoat but it would have been kinda miserable.

I have been walking to and from the office. It is about 10 minutes and it feels good to get out and move. The last two days have been beautiful – blue skies and white puffy clouds and a nice breeze. Linnet (the VEF office manager in Kenya) said it was just perfect – no dust and no mud! If it doesn’t rain again soon, we’ll have dust and if it does we’ll have mud. So we’ll take the “perfect” for right now.

Linnet and I started working on QuickBooks on Monday. I did an overview for her and now she has her fingers on the keyboard. We decided to start with January and enter income and expenses so that we could run a quarterly report from QuickBooks. Linnet catches on very fast and we are figuring some things out as we go. I am working on the accounting process and forms to support the process. Linnet is great to work with and I am having fun (hope she is too!).

The office moved today to a bigger space just a few steps away. The boxes got moved and stacked yesterday and the furniture was moved today. Our internet access (2 lines) won’t be available until the end of the week so we are using one connection in another room on the site. So I am learning to share J It is amazing how much I take for granted that I will have access; I even have wireless access at home. Americans are so spoiled (and we love it). There was no internet connection at the site this morning but we didn’t have time to work on QuickBooks anyway with the move. I did get connected this afternoon – just long enough to download my email. Then – gone again!

My room at Sheywe Guest House is a “suite” with a living room-kitchen (with a refrigerator), a bedroom with 2 beds (mosquito nets included) and a bathroom. I even have a TV! I watch CNN to get the news and that’s about all. I just realized yesterday why they were not cleaning my room – I need to leave my key in reception! So today I did that and asked them to spray for mosquitoes while I was gone. They serve breakfast and dinner downstairs so that is very handy – don’t even have to go out when it is raining. I’m pretty happy with my home-away-from-home (at least my first one!). I have been eating a big breakfast and big lunch so am not very hungry in the evening. Today I went to the market to buy mangos and little bananas and to the store to buy some yogurt; that will make the perfect light evening meal for me. Sure is nice to have a refrigerator so I can buy a few days supply of yogurt.