Out of Africa

On the 14th of August, I headed off for a two-week trip with Leslie and our friends from Rotterdam, Harman and Nelly, and two of their children, Harman Jr. and Kirsten. Unfortunately their third child, Mira, had a better offer helping run the annual rush camp for her sorority, so we missed her.

The first week, we stayed in a rented house in the countryside outside of Venice, Italy – venturing out to see various ruins and old city walls and architecture, and into Venice to see the “official” tourist sites. The second week we chartered a 44’ sailboat in Pula, Croatia and sailed from island to island just off the coast.

Here is a smattering of photos from that trip. There are many interesting, poignant, and funny stories from that trip, but for now, here are the highlights and the photos…

Italy

• Saw the opera, Aida, at a first century Roman arena in Verona (seats were cold hard stone and even the sound system could not project to such a large open space), but the experience was unique.


• Old architecture and city walls


• Breakfast outside every morning


• Trying to see all of Venice in a day


• Ping pong tournament by the pool with s'mores


• Gelati every day!

Sailing, Croatia

• A different island every night


• Navigation! (I've found a new passion!)


• Excellent seafood


• Swimming, swimming, swimming


• First century Roman coliseum in Pula, with access to the underground area from whence the gladiators would emerge


• Gelati every day!

XO

Accounting 101

I’ve been heavy into Accounting 101 since I arrived in June. At that time, Debi Nordstrom and her son, David, were in their last week here as volunteer consultants to help us sort out our books and begin doing accounting transactions in a grown-up way. She was here for a month and the last few days included the better part of some nights as well. She was looking exhausted and bleary-eyed, but pulled out all the stops to get us to close May before she left. Then it was up to me to hire someone and figure out how to do it for June and all the months to follow.

Our business is not entirely straightforward because it has both rental and retail components, so some of the COGS (cost of goods sold) take the form of asset depreciation and some are normal retail inventory cost. In addition, the charging and delivery costs are part of the rental COGS. We also have the added element of the battery deposit (like the old deposit we used to have to pay for a glass Coke bottle) that doesn’t count as revenue but has to be tucked away in the event the customer wants to turn in his or her batteries and get the deposit back.

Along with sorting out the checklist for everything that needs to be buttoned down before we can close each fiscal month, I was writing detailed procedures for all the accounting related transactions and processes we do. Since I’m not an accountant and have never taken an accounting class, my baseline was a 3-day seminar I took on Financial Management when I was in consulting. Frankly, I’ve decided that’s where all accounting classes should start. Understanding how to read Profit and Loss statements and Balance Sheets really helped me understand the accounting transactions I was learning (from Debi and QuickBooks). I still can’t talk in debits and credits very well, but I can get the numbers to increase or decrease when they are supposed to. In fact, I figure I could set up QuickBooks for a small company. I’m pretty tickled with that.
XO

Fufu phooey!

We have two new employees, an accountant and a management trainee. Modupe, our new accountant is Nigerian, but is married to a Ghanaian minister and lives in Accra. Since she took the job here, she has rented a room where she stays during the week, then heads off to Accra on the weekends. Nii, our new management trainee, is another graduate of Ashesi University, which I think I described when Rose joined us last year. He is a city boy all the way, but is eager to learn, has lots of energy and is discovering the bush one pothole at a time.

Shortly after they joined us, we decided to go out for a group lunch. Rose was jonesing for a bit of fufu and they swore there was only one good fufu joint in town. In my opinion, the term “in town” was a bit of a stretch. We drove about 5 kilometers for a GHC 1.00 – 2.00 lunch (between 70 cents and $1.40). They were right about one thing, though, the place was all about fufu and the various soups with which it is served. In a pretty efficient assembly line, we placed our orders, the fufu came out in bowls, we selected our soup, and made our way to a table where a separate vendor (specialty retailer?) provided our soft drinks.

My fufu experience is limited, but this was not the best I’ve ever had. However, the group seemed to rave over it, so maybe my taster is not properly Ghananianized.
XO