Almost there!

Hi

Well the title tells it all as far as I am concerned this month – I am almost there in terms of the project and Scotland were almost there in terms of Euro 08!

As far as the project goes, we implemented Loans and Current Accounts over the course of a very busy 10 days in the middle of last month. It actually went a lot better than I had hoped, no major bugs surfaced and so we now have all the business of Head Office running in the system.

All that remains to be proved before we start the rollout to the other branches is some aspects of General Ledger reporting and the small matter of proper savings interest accrual – this is very different here in Cameroon (quite like what Common System had to do in France for those of you who can remember that far back) and the software supplier is due to deliver that in the next few weeks. So I remain firmly on track to start travelling around to all the other branches early in the New Year, probably spend between a week and two weeks in each, installing the system and training the staff. I hope by about end March I can start to take a back seat and just be available for emergencies – this is all part of the sustainability bit – it would be no good if the whole thing collapsed the moment I left!

Matters cultural carry on much as before – yet again I have been to several celebrations – one for a new child – this is called a “Born House” – bit like a baby shower in the US - and was the usual mega eating and drinking plus handing over of gifts for the baby. The other was yet another “Cry Die” – but again after some sombre speeches, the remainder of the evening was all rather jolly – if just a bit too relentlessly Christian for my liking – although I am becoming very fond of the gospel type singing, with much audience participation demanded both singing and dancing! And then just yesterday, another Cry Die, but this was a much more elaborate affair, as you can see from the photoes – several brass bands in attendance, traditional music and dancing and a gang of guys with ancient old blunderbusses which they fired off all day, much smoke and noise. Of course I had to try this, almost broke my arm with the recoil, plus had a nice bunch of powder debris embed itself in my arm – not really a nice experience.

Another improvement in project management this year – the calendar! It is almost ready, as opposed to last year when it was not even thought about until mid December. This is a big deal here, every business that is anything at all puts out its own calendar. This year I only feature in one picture thank goodness (Susan and Bob – you are in there!).

As mentioned at the top, I had great hopes that I could have gone as part of the Tartan Army to Switzerland next year – alas not to be – but I have now agreed my exit plan – which is that I will be leaving a few weeks before the end of the two years – at the end of July 08 – and will be spending August in a gite in France getting to know my family again – so a really nice end to things I hope.