You Can't Give What You Don't Have

JANUARY 5 - Teaching in Mozambique has been an interesting challenge. On Tuesday, I met Saul, who is my English-speaking contact person, and number one student. As Linda explained to me, Saul is a very bright young man who is the accountant for the Mozambique Synod’s Relief and Development Program. He is doing his accounting in an Excel spreadsheet, and is interested in switching to QuickBooks. My primary purpose here is to make that happen.

I had done a day of QuickBooks training with the CRWRC staff – and it was, from my perspective, the least successful day I’ve had here. With the exception of Linda, who uses QuickBooks already, the students were new to the program, and weren’t accountants. I gave an overview of the software and then had them try to setup a company using the only handouts I brought from Canada – from the QuickBooks training guide I had. I don’t think they got much out of it.

The thing is, as Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy might have growled to Captain James T. Kirk, “I’m an English teacher, not an accountant, Jim!”

And, to make matters worse, when I took Accounting at St. Clair College, back in the fall of 2007, I failed it! So back in June, when I found out I would be teaching not just Microsoft Office, a program which I have decent mastery of, but also the accounting program, QuickBooks, I wasn’t too happy!

So I registered for Accounting 101, Wednesday evenings, at St. Clair College – again. And as luck would have it, the course lasted from early September until the second week of December, meaning that I would miss the last two weeks – I would have to teach myself the last two chapters, and arrange to write the final exam ahead of the class.

As part of my Mission Malawi preparation, I also signed up for two sessions of QuickBook training at the college. These courses would occur alongside Accounting - QuickBooks Level One, Saturday mornings in October, and Level 2, Saturday mornings in November.

Yes, the teacher would become a student, and in a subject in which I had demonstrated less than average aptitude.

After the second QuickBooks lesson, in mid-October, I realized that I was spreading myself too thin. I hoped that, because of my computer background, if I could understand accounting, I would be able to teach myself QuickBooks. So I opted out of the remainder of the QuickBooks training, and concentrated on understanding accounting.

It wasn’t easy – but I stuck it out – I had no choice – and accounting began to make sense – debits, credits, amortization, closing the books – not only did it start making sense, but it was kind of – dare I say it – interesting? And as I learned it, I got that little buzz you get when your brain is being stretched – as well as the self-satisfaction of overcoming a challenge.

However, when I met Saul on Tuesday, looked at his accounting spreadsheets, and realized, as he was explaining it to me, that he assumed that I was a QuickBooks expert, I felt rising panic. Sure, I had a basic appreciation for some fundamental accounting concepts, but I had barely progressed beyond the introductory lesson in QuickBooks myself! I didn’t understand his spreadsheet – in fact, looking at it made me queasy. I forced myself to hide my fear from Saul, and projected my usual “everything is in order, we will begin tomorrow” confidence.

Then I returned to my temporary lodgings, shut the door, hauled out the laptop, and spent six hours, from 7 pm to 1 am – learning enough about QuickBooks, that I could stand up in front of the class, Saul and two others, without looking like an idiot.

Guess what? It’s been some of my best teaching!

Now, at the end of day two, my class has received the entire content of what I remembered from my Accounting class, supplemented by what the QuickBooks Help could provide. It turned out that although the Mozambique accountants were keeping books, they weren’t necessarily conversant with double-entry accounting and the English versions of accounting terminology, so I have spent a lot of time covering that. Along the way, we’ve been applying the concepts by converting Saul’s spreadsheet into QuickBooks. Fortunately, they have their experience as accountants, which has helped us all immensely.

For the sake of full disclosure, I did explain to them that I’m not an accountant, that I would be relying on their accounting knowledge – but I didn’t confess my lack of QuickBooks experience –I held that back. I do have a modicum of pride, and I didn’t want them to lose confidence in me – well, and I figured I could “fake it” successfully.

Yesterday, during class, I realized that non-profit organizations have different accounting needs than a typical small to medium sized business – and that I didn’t have a clue as to how to make those adaptations in QuickBooks.

And, even worse, there’s no Internet onsite! Without Google, I didn’t know how I could figure out what to do. Fortunately, Saul walked me to a nearby Internet business, where I could connect, paying by the minute in the local currency (Mozambique Metacais).

 In just under an hour, I had downloaded the 284 page QuickBooks User Guide (since it isn’t included in the software DVD!), two brief documents which summarized basic accounting concepts (to supplement/confirm my memories of what I had learned during the fall), and, the mother lode – two small manuals, Introduction to QuickBooks for Non- Profits and Grant Tracking and Fund Accounting. If I can get a wireless signal somewhere, I am also going to purchase a book from Amazon, to download to my iPhone, to help.

Armed with these learning aids, I spent another six or so hours last night, figuring out how to deal with donors, grants and the multiple programs and projects, each with a separate set of income and expenses, which Saul currently tracks in separate Excel spreadsheets, compiling them together manually, in yet another spreadsheet.

We’re getting there – it’s been challenging, but also fun, as I cram at night, figuring new things out, and then work through it with the students the next day. Tomorrow should be easier, as I will only be spending the morning with the accountants, and we're still working through today's material. I will be back in my Microsoft Office comfort zone, with a new group of students, in the afternoon.

Today, I told the class that I think there’s a better way to manage grants, but that I would need to “figure it out.” Pascael, who has taught computers himself (Microsoft Windows and Office) nodded his acknowledgement, saying, “You can’t give what you don’t have.”

You can’t give what you don’t have – that is true in so many ways, not just in teaching.