A reconciliation too far!

Well here I am starting the last four days of my assignment and suddenly I feel a bit stressed about what is left to do. Therefore, as much out of necessity as anything else, I have at last given in and admitted defeat in trying to reconcile cash withdrawals to payments/expenditure. It is just not going to happen. I have therefore opted to highlight the differences identified and to do a report on the current situation and issues and propose revised procedures. On the positive side they have actually spent more money than they have withdrawn from the bank, no doubt reflecting the amount of money the members of the foundation themselves donate unofficially to the charity. However, even it is of the best intention it doesn’t make for good accounting practices. I will need to sit down with Jedone (if he is well enough), Gideon and Vivian to reach agreement. I just hope they take my advice on board! I did some work on the report over the weekend and will hopefully have it finished today. I have no idea how it will be received and not 100% convinced they will implement the changes.

I think this week I will need to make sure I get Vivian working with the new spreadsheets I have set up to make sure she understands how they work and the benefits she can get from them. There needs to be a lot more coaching and a lot less doing from me this week!! That is my mission!! Having said that it is now 8.15 am and only Hester from the reception and myself are in!! Something not quite right about that given I am the volunteer. Hey ho, such is life!!

The weekend was quite dull for me. I did go out for a walk on Sunday morning but was somewhat hampered by the lack of maps over here and the fact that most of the streets don’t have their street names on them. So when I found myself staring over at the ZNBC offices where I had been early in my stay and thinking I am sure it took us ages to drive here last time, I realised I was most definitely not where I wanted to be and decided to give up and retrace my steps. So after just after over an hours walking and sweating buckets in the heat at just 10 am I was back at the hotel. Incidentally I think that is the most exercise I have done since I left the UK. Boy am I going to struggle when I hit the gym back home!!

I still have no idea when I will get back, hopefully I will hear today if my flight is going or not. I e-mailed BA to see if I could change my flight and they were most unhelpful. They told me I had to phone the UK booking office. Maybe they missed the bit about me being 5,000 miles away in Zambia!!!  Can you imagine the bill after at least 10 minutes of button pressing and being on hold listening to bland music!!
Anyway no time for chat, lots of work to do!!