May 8th

I had a very interesting day. I walked over to Mapuma (~3 miles away) to introduce myself like I’ve done in the other villages. So we sit down at the meeting, and I am expecting everything to go smoothly like in the other communities, and suddenly the elders come out with this. They have decided they don’t want to have Bockary as my field assistant anymore. I was a little flabbergasted and tried to explain that I did not have the month to train a new person, etc. I think I may have sputtered with anger a little. Especially because they all seemed so amused. Finally they said “Well you need to ask us why we don’t want Bockary to work with you anymore.” So apparently Bockary did not give them their “proper dues” last year – i.e. paying them a portion of his salary each month. I convinced Bockary to apologize for this (even though it was basically crap anyways) and he is agreeing to pay them Le20,000 ($7) each month from his salary.




All of this takes on a new shade of meaning when you hear the full story that I just learned today. Last year I only really wanted 1 field assistant, but I was told by several of the people in charge here that I was required to have 2 – one from each chiefdom, to make these chiefdoms happy. So I went to Mapuma (Koya chiefdom) to get a field assistant from there. Well, what I didn’t know was that nobody wanted to work with me. Nobody would volunteer. I am not taking this personally of course, but it is interesting anyways. So finally Bockary stepped up to the plate, even though he had his farmwork to do, etc. He came through for the community when they were in a tight spot more or less. Now I guess people see that Bockary is getting real benefits, and everybody wants a finger in the pie, so to speak. I’m just glad it is more or less resolved and I don’t have to train a new employee!!!