10 years is worth a book

I spent 11 years working on finance for projects and linking a lot with NGOs on how best to acount for funds they received. Some NGOs are so keen on acounting for every cent and others are keen on 'eating' as much as possible. Others have leaders who have no idea what finance is all  about and leave it all to the Accountant to figure it out - others have all the details in their fingertips and even direct finance on where savings can come from, negotiate for budget modifications etc. I loved the mix of people. But all in all, the best were those community groups that received modest grants and now the training is about them selecting one among them who is literate and we go through how to record and expenses....the very very basics!!

I was motivated to write about it but got caught up and shelved the idea

Now that am back to writing, i should also revive this!

Searching for that CPA!

So today I sort of went for a career fair for secondary school girls as a mentor, but as luck would have it, I completely missed out on the news about the diabetes walk, so was stuck on the road and arrived a cool 2 hrs late…the guest of honor was quite inspiring, and I was looking forward to the afternoon one on one sessions. I had to leave earlier than planned for another event, but I digress…..

Anyways, during Q&A, one girl asked what happens when you are not sure what you want to do. What do you choose then?? And this was deja vue to me…you see, truth be told, I never was very very clear about what I wanted to pursue, but since my twin was clear she wanted to work in a bank (translate, doing finance), she was signed on to a CPA class and I tagged along. So that’s how I found myself in  (the then brand new) Strathmore college at Nairobi West in early 1995. I did CPA section I and II pretty fast…so I had 4 more sections to go.....but then joined university in Eldoret!

After joining campus doing something totally unrelated, I took my time to clear section III and IV. Basically it was self-study and it took a lot of will power to read for these sections!! I remember one of the papers I sat for the exams in Kenya Polytechnic – I was on campus break - and after that paper, I went to the bus stage to get matatu to Langata. Wacha its starts raining hizo za fujo. I don’t know what convinced the driver to short cut through the pot holed ridden South C! Needless to say, the matatu coughed and coughed and finally stopped! We all had to alight in the pouring rain to push the matt….all this at around 8pm and the next day I had two more papers….never felt so sorry for myself like that day….and to think I passed that set of papers despite the transport hitch!

I also once sat for one of the exams in Eldoret town and that morning we were several of us standing at the campus gate waiting for an early  matt and this guy came in a pick up and asked if we wanted to ride to town. Of course we did as it would mean we also save on bus fare…Eldoret air is normally crisp….Eldoret air as you seat at the back of a pickup is more than crisp….waaaa…..si we froze!! Haha…and at least I made new friends from that experience. So after section III and IV… I took a longggggg break

After several years I told myself I simply had to finish these papers (2 remaining sections). At that time my MBA was also at the ‘ongoing’ status and so this was not a good picture. Since I had been out of reading for a while, I joined one of the packed colleges in town that offer CPAs so as to be able to increase my chances to passing the papers. I was expectant with my second born and these stuffy rooms were not so conducive for my light tummy…several times I had to ran out of the room because of the sheer ‘smell’  in the room given my heightened sensitivities….arrggghhhh…I don’t even want to remember! I sat one of the final sets of papers in KPPCU - that place near Muthurwa...the dust!! and since the students are seated as per admission numbers, after all these years, I was certain I would be placed as first one in the corner, can you imagine there were 4 people with older numbers than mine!! hii CPA lazima imalizike!

So in 2007 when I finally cleared CPAs and got my results, I was so excited I immediately signed up as a member of ICPAK and AWAK, just so that finally I can say for sure I am a Finance professional!!