A major change in my working relationships...

I wanted to provide a post describing the significant changes I have made to my current working situation within the village. Over the past couple of months, I have had a 'falling out' of sorts with my homologue, Lassana, by choice.

Throughout my service thus far, we have held several village-wide meetings where money collection for project funding has been on the agenda. Lassana is a larger-than-life type personality, and so within any sort of gathering, he more than makes his voice heard. He tends to becomes the face of any committee we are working with in the eyes of the village.

In every such meeting that we have held, the villagers have inevitably expressed concern in contributing money to our projects. Their frequent assertion is that 'Lassana will eat the money.' At first, I saw this simply as paranoia, that although I have found faults in Lassana's character in the past, he would never do such a thing. But unfortunately, as time has gone by, I have begun to see that not only does this assertion have merit, it is backed up by prior experiences.

This past month, Engineers without Borders visited my site to gather information for future work on the fish pond. Daily, they gave Lassana money to enable his wife, Nafi, to cook for them. One day, Nafi came by to ask their mentor, Sekou, how much money they are giving Lassana, because she is not getting enough money to cook for them. As it turns out, Lassana was pocketing the majority of the money and giving Nafi only a small portion of it to cook with.

This incident on its own is disturbing to me. But coupled with other previous experiences, it becomes a trend.

A couple of months ago when we had installed the two hand pumps, we had paid S.E.TRA, the hand pump manufacturer, to deliver a large kit of tools to keep in-village such that the pump team can maintain and install the pumps on their own, without any outside assistance. Sorti, the 'dugutigi's (chief-of-village) son, who is for all intents and purposes the acting 'dugutigi' due to his father's age, visited me to specifically tell me not to let Lassana hold onto the tools. He told me he is not to be trusted, that I should give them to Dramani, the president of our Water and Sanitation Committee instead. Coming from the acting chief-of-village, that sentiment spoke volumes.

During my time in village, I have repeatedly found incidents where Lassana has attempted to use his role of homologue to milk Peace Corps, and myself, for money.

For example, when I initially told Lassana last year that my sister, Kim, would be coming to visit me last December, the first thing he said to me was 'can she sell bracelets for my family in America?' At the time, I told him that I would ask her, but she has a full time job in the states, so don't anticipate her to do anything beyond buying several for her friends. I was willing, at the time, to make that offer because my understanding was that Lassana's family was involved in making the bracelets in some way.

So the following Sunday in our nearby market, Lassana asked me to follow him to a vendor where he would show me what type of bracelets my sister would sell for him. He took me to the vendor, and showed me long strands of beads. I asked, 'is your family going to cut these down to make individual bracelets out of them?' He said, 'no, they don't know how.' He explained that he would simply buy a huge amount of bracelets in the market, and my sister can sell them at a higher cost in America. In other words, he would sell bracelets to my sister at an inflated cost, even though she could buy them herself for less when she visits this same market. My sister would be doing all of the work as a seller, while Lassana would reap all of the benefits.

So upon hearing this, I laid into him in the middle of the market, making a bit of a scene. I emphasized to him that I am not here to hand out money. My role here is to teach the villagers skills needed to help improve their quality of life on their own.

There was another time last year when I had a brutal digestive illness, and the Peace Corps Medical Officer recommended to me over the phone that I check the nearest CSCM (doctor's office) for a particular type of medication. I was talking to Lassana about it, and I was appreciative when he offered to take his 'moto' (motorcycle) into our market town, just 4 km away, to check for me. I gave him a large amount of money, not knowing how much the medication would cost. He came back empty handed, as the CSCM did not have the medication in stock, nor had they ever heard of it. He handed me back some of my money, saying that the rest he needed to take for gas. The amount that he took for gas was significantly higher than what should have been required for the short trip to our market town.

So with these experiences in mind, I began asking my friends within the village for their thoughts on Lassana, not leading them one way or the other. Of about 20 people, not one of them had anything good to say. They all said that he is not a good person, and should not be trusted. Many said that in previous community projects, he has bought materials and lied about how much they actually cost, thus pocketing Peace Corps and/or village funds.

I met with Sorti and Dramani to specifically discuss Lassana. I expressed my concern that if he is on any committee, we will face significant hardship in raising money, since no one in the village appears to trust him. They agreed with my sentiments, but as it was their call to make, they decided that they did not want to kick him off of any of the committees, which, with village politics, could get messy. Instead, they agreed that Lassana is never to handle any money, and this point should be made clear to the villagers whenever we are asking for money.

So at this stage, I have basically stopped working directly with Lassana, although he may still officially be 'my homologue' (community partner). The way I see it, a homologue serves two primary roles to any volunteer: 1) Serve as the primary partner and liaison for work within the community, and 2) Provide cultural guidance to the volunteer and inform him/her of any events/customs to be attended/respected within the village.

I feel that my level of integration within the village at this point is strong enough that I no longer have a need for a specific 'homologue.' In terms of work within the community, I now prefer to work primarily with other leading individuals within each committee, such as Dramani, the president of the Water and Sanitation Committee, Mama, the president of the Women's Garden Committee, and Sorti and Youssoufu of the Fish Pond Committee. I find these people to be both motivated, respectable, and easy to work with. Lassana is now simply a standard member of these committees whom I only see during meetings.

As for the second role, I have become close friends with many people in the community. It now often turns out that I know of weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies before many of the other villagers do themselves. And when I attend these ceremonies, I always have people who look out for me and tell me what I should and should not do to ensure that I respect the culture. In this way, I feel that my 'homologue' is now the community at-large.

So far, Lassana, to his credit, has seemingly perceived and accepted this shift away from him. There is always the possibility that tensions could flair up in the future, but at this point I feel that if anything were to happen, my standing within the village is such that I will have significant support within the community.