Welcome to CCA’s international development blog page devoted to the Uganda/Malawi Coaching program. Enjoy the sights and sounds, the people and places as experienced by 3 credit union volunteers on the frontline of development.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Unity, Discipline, Obedience

Brad: Day 3 at Fincoop

Today (Thursday) was a productive day for us at the SACCO we finished our report for the Board, we are meeting with them tomorrow (Friday) and then we will join them for supper. The rest of our group Paul, Bobby, Dennis and Niki should all show up tomorrow and it will be good to swap stories with them. Any way back to Fincoop, we worked for part of the morning and then Blessings Kam'mambala the Finance and Administration Manager came in to where we were working and let us know it was time to go visit their Market Branch. We drove to the Branch and it is almost right in the middle of the market, we met the Branch Manager Mavis who has been with Fincoop since its inception. After visiting the Branch Blessings then took us on a driving tour of Lilongwe which was great to see. We have only really just seen the road from the airport to the hotel because the road coming in from Mzuzu is the same road as the airport road. We toured the Capital City Area, the Government buildings, the place where the first president Banda was buried. Malawi has made a shrine for Banda and it is quite impressive.

The people of Malawi are taught the four principals of being Malawian they are Unity; Discipline; Obedience and Loyalty. The words are written on the four cornerstones around the shrine. Those are good principles to live by and it puts how we have been treated by our Malawian friends, however I don't think the obedience principle would go over to well in Canada. We like to criticize our government way too much. From there Blessings took us to the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre where we saw a Lioness, some crocodiles a leopard and other animals.

After lunch we finished up our report and I got a preview of the new banking system from the vendor. It looks like it will fit their needs and has some good features they can add in the future. I am excited for Fincoop because once it is up and running it will solve a lot of the issues they have.

It started to rain again just before supper and I say again because last night it came down so hard I am glad we are staying on the second floor. The rain reminded me of last year in Karonga, I don't know if the soil is that sandy or they have a great drainage system but there was no water lying around this morning.

Got to go and put the finishing touches on our report for the Board catch you soon.

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