Getting our Clocks Cleaned

Rango, the Chameleon we found while waiting for Oren in karate class.  He now lives in the lemon tree outside our house.


Well in the past three weeks I feel like our program has had a physical complete with prostate exam and have been given a clean bill of health with some promises to eat better, exercise, and brush and  floss regularly.  Actually, we are still waiting the results of some blood work, but all in all we do feel good about the 5 year program evaluation followed by a one week internal audit.

In truth, we were not anticpatiyng any of these activities with dread.  We had been feeling that our program was needing some external feed-back about our strategic planning, particularly since the context in Burundi has changed considerably since we arrived in 2008.  This is evidenced in many ways but particularly, for me, in the way that Bujumbura has been growing, developing and improving infrastructure, particularly roads.  The large influx of expat. families also suggests that there is a perception of more security in the country.

Despite this, deep, profoundly entrenched poverty abounds as well as conflict inherent in scarcity of resources, particularly land.  Burundi is an extremely overpopulated country with a population that has been displaced frequently and this remains an area of opportunity for conflict resolution action according to our evaluators.

They did also encourage us to continue to move away from relief into sustainable development activities, like setting up village savings groups, and other income generation activities.  They expressed some concern that some of our projects, while laudable, did not seem to be sustainable in the long term.

Overall, though they were very encouraging and we are waiting the final report of recommendations which will guide our program for the next 5 years.

I have never really been part of an audit until last week and I have to admit that my idea of one involved a spectacled accountant with an adding machine and visor pouring over 5 years of receipts and pulling a handle to subtotal each one.  In fact, our auditor Rebecca, though spectacled, did not have a hat or adding machine for that matter, and only sampled a few of our monthly reports over 5 years to verify receipts.

Much of the audit was about risk assessment (whether vehicles were legally registered) and what control mechanism (ex. 2 signatures) we had on bank accounts and financial transaction procedures.  She also gave us some recommendations on good accounting procedures in the office and left us feeling like we had been doing a good job up until now.  That was a relief since we really did not know what to expect and by and large non-profit organizations are being held to ever higher standards of rigor with regard to accounting.

But, like any complete exam, there is a really good feeling of having it all done and when we put Rebecca (the auditor) on the plane this morning to audit the Tanzania program, there was a certain sense of relief.

This coming week would be one of those extremely rare and mis-named 'normal' weeks in which we will be in the office every day with no trips and no special visitors.  That will be short-lived however as our area director Mark Sprunger will be paying us a visit next week and we will take him on a tour of some of our partners in Burundi and Rwanda.

December is a time programatically that we start to wrap up.  Our fiscal year actually ends in February, but it is this month that we ask partners to begin submitting plans for the new year and turning in final reports for the year we are completing.  Making the rounds once more with partners again is important this month (although they may be getting sick of seeing us by now after several visits by evaluators).


To review this week, I will say that having an audit is a fairly quiet process and we did spend most of this past week at the office answering questions and making certain documents and contracts available.  We did miss several days of swimming however because Burundi was hosting a large East African Community conference and they were meeting in a hotel right next door to our swim club.  The police, had set up roadblocks all over and when we tried to get down the road to the club they insisted that the club was closed for the duration of the conference.  (When we were able to get back in Wednesday I asked the club if they had been closed and they said no.)  Apparently others knew a way to talk themselves by the police roadblock.

It was good to finally get to go swimmimg again on Thursday, but we made the most of the time in the office on the mornings we arrived early.

The kids were generally good this week and Oren did his first 'dictee' in school.  That was a test, which he will now have every Friday where the teacher says a series of words or phrases and the kids have to write them.  He is given the words in advance and we drilled him all week.  Actually his spelling is quite good and he seems to like to read, eventhough he often does not know what the words mean that he is spelling.  This week he did: la fée, le vélo, le fil, il lave, elle rêve.

Oren continues to go to karate on Tuesday's and Thursday's.  Usually I take him and bring David along. While Oren does karate David plays in the playground at the Ecole Francais or explores the grounds.  This Thursday, to my amazement he found a chameleon!  I knew there were chameleons in this part of Africa but have not been able to find one in Burundi.  I am amazed we spotted it because it was virtually invisible in the grass where it was hiding.  It turned black and hissed and tried to bite when we caught it but later calmed down when we brought it home and returned to its brilliant green hue and was quite happy to walk on me, even sit on my head.  The next morning we put it in our lemon tree where it is now living, however, I have not been able to see for the past 2 days.  (It really turns invisible when it is among leaves.) (hey Barbara B., hope you get a chance to read this blog, I think you would be impressed by this guy.)

We had a fairly social weekend after the audit, especially because it really felt like the end of quite a long series of evaluations.  Also, Rebecca (the auditor) had never been to Africa and was keen on doing some sightseeing.

It began Friday evening when we had Janelle (our SALTer) over for dinner.  She seemed to be doing well and always has some amusing stories to tell us about life in her host family, odd people she has encoutered, or marriage proposals that she has had to turn down.  Generally it seems she is doing well and has a very good attitude.

We took Rebecca out to Club du Lac Tanganyika on Saturday after my ballet class.  It was a perfect day for body surfing as a storm had just past through and the waves were really high.  David especially enjoyed frolicing in the surf (with his lifejacket), and Rebecca, Rebecca and I were right in there with the kids.  It was nice to visit Club du Lac T. after a fairly long absence from there in the past month.

Saturday evening we were invited for dinner by our friends the Mackenzie's (Scott, Danika, John, Jonas).  They are going back to Canada for Christmas any day now so we will not see them for the next month.  We will miss them as they have become a valued part of our community.  (Also Scott, you all are going to miss our Christmas contradance on the 23rd--since I know you read this blog.)  We had a great dinner together and the kids played fairly well given that their oldest is David's age, which makes Oren a bit the odd man out.

Sunday we went to church and Rebecca taught Sunday school again.  She has been some strategizing with her teaching team to divide the English speaking class for kids from 3-12.  At this point there are more than 40.  Fortunately they were able to get a second room and now have an older and younger group and several teachers and helpers that are able to share the job of teaching.

After church we decided to take Rebecca (the auditor) for a little visit up country since she had spent the whole week in our office in Bujumbura and had not seen what it is like in the cooler high regions of the country.  We headed up to Ijenda which is to the Southeast about an hour.  The weather did not disappoint as it was quite cool and rainy until we got up there when it cleared up enough for us to do a little hike around the top of the mountain we were on.  (I have written before that this is about the only venue in Burundi where a mzungu can walk around without picking up a trail of children to follow him everywhere.)

Our family actually went with our Danish missionary friends (or at least part of the family) Naja and her daughter Aviaja.  Another guest was J.J. who is a visitor that will be joining the World Relief team.  He is coming with his family in May and was getting a lay of the land.  We talked to him a bit about bringing a family to Burundi.  It was a nice day for a hike for all of us and the kids really enjoyed it as well.  After the hike we returned to a guest house/ restaurant where we sat and ate a late lunch by a roaring fire and talked.  It was a very relaxing Sunday, all in all.


We came home in the early evening and lit our second advent candle and watched some Christmas shows on the computer before putting the kids to bed.  With our tree up and our house decorated we are really feeling the Christmas spirit despite the warm weather and lack of snow or pine trees.  (Actually there were some cedar trees where we were hiking and Rebecca brought back a few branches to add to our advent candle centerpiece.)

Monday morning we put Rebecca on a plane and went back to work.  This week we are going to try to do some Christmas shopping and possibly buy a new vehicle for our program to replace the 1994 Prado. It has been a great car but the motor is 'fatigué' according to our mechanic.  Will let you all know how that goes.