Alrighty here is an example of the things that sorta drive me nuts. I decided I didn’t want to switch cooks off every week – it was starting to drive me completely batty. I would never know if the cook coming would be a good one or if I would have to suffer a week of horrible food. Minah backed me up by suggesting that we switch off monthly, and I pick the people I know who can cook. I thought this was a fantastic darn idea. So we had the requisite village meeting, with both Barri and Koya chiefdom chiefs attending. We also discussed the miscommunication from last week – I had asked for 2 people to come from both Koya and Barri to dig new trash pits for a total of 4 people. Well, somehow the message was garbled so that another guy showed up from Koya. I realized the guy had walked almost 2 hours to get there, so I just thought well I’ll let him work this time. Big mistake! So suddenly there was talk about how I give more to Koya than Barri, and how it was unfair, etc etc etc. So I said OK you can work 2 days, but tomorrow three people come from Koya and only 2 from Barri so this makes up for it right?? Yeah somehow the guys just didn’t understand this or I don’t even know (I had Minah translate) and they sent the same exact people. 3 Koya 2 Barri. So now it’s like I really love Koya. Haha. I mostly held the meeting to say “Dangit if you don’t understand my instructions, then tell me.” I only paid Koya for 2 people since I had specifically told one of the dudes “you weren’t even supposed to come this first day, so do not come back tomorrow.”
So this time I thought I would be all smart and I would send a letter saying exactly how many people I wanted. We gave it to the chief yesterday, who was the only Koya representative at the meeting, to take to his people. Today 2 men show up at research, irate. Apparently the chief hadn’t given my letter directly to the youth leaders, but had himself chosen the workers. It is the youth leader’s job to choose workers for Tiwai, and the chief overstepped his own duties. So the 2 men were trying to see if we had been the ones to tell him he was supposed to choose. Of course this turned into a 2 hour meeting, mostly with me interjecting “Why are you here??? Why aren’t you taking this up with your own chief??? All we did was give him a letter, we didn’t tell him what to do with it!!”
They also didn’t understand why I was the one suddenly choosing my cooks. I reminded them about the cook who stole from me, and the cook who was so bad I didn’t eat for 2 days, and the cook whose child pooped everywhere. I told them it was a matter of health and happiness to me to get a decent cook and that they’d just have to deal with me choosing my own employees for once.
Later…
Well one of my friends/informants went to Mapuma (the Koya village that is quite the troublesome place) to do some visiting and came back to tell me about how people are reacting to my “letter.” They were threatening not to send any more cooks (which doesn’t phase me in the slightest!) and saying the 4 women I had written down for them to choose from were going around the village all proud that they were the best cooks and making others feel bad. Lame. So I guess we will see what happens in the next few days. Maybe I’m being culturally insensitive but it really feels like they are making a big deal out of nothing! It’s like…they don’t understand the concept where the most capable and knowledgeable person should be the one who gets the job. Instead they work on a system of fairness, where they give turns to people even if the people aren’t qualified for the job at all. They want every body to get their small share of the benefit, which is admirable but does not work at all in practice. Plus it drives me completely bonkers. I’m on the verge of saying from now on I’m picking all my workers and I don’t care what you think or not!
Bleh I just made homemade cream of mushroom soup and I guess it was just too rich or I ate too much cuz now I feel BLEEEEEH!
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