Summer 2007

I haven’t written much about the challenges of the project itself, but things haven’t been smooth sailing the whole way through.  The interviewers aren’t used to working 8 hour days (some aren’t used to working much at all), so it has been a challenge to motivate them to do what we told them they would expected to do.  Sony hasn’t been happy with the way his salary is being handled, and I’ve had to deal with the complaints even though his salary wasn’t my decision.  And every morning we have “discussions” about how much money the interviewers need for transportation for the day.  I made the mistake of counting on Sony to give me honest answers about how much they need.  However, my major means of communication with the interviewers has chosen instead to egg them on to ask for far more than they need.

You can pray that all of those things improve, but as I write this looking back on Wednesday, I realize that all of those things have improved significantly since then.  However, the path to get there was somewhat painful.

I thought that one way to solve several of the problems at once was to embark on a journey with a team of interviewers for a day.  Rather than spending a few hours with them at the close locations, I would go with them to a really remote community.  This would give me a realistic picture of the difficulties of the job as well as the amount of money necessary to make a trip such as this.  Hopefully it would also prove to be a bonding experience and break down some of the barriers between me and them.  And I have to say I was a little pumped about the opportunity to make a trek to somewhere that’s even more out in the middle of nowhere than what I have been calling home. 

So we decided on Mont Bayard, one of the furthest places on the list.  Madame Evelyn recruited two moto drivers especially for the trip and made sure everyone was there an hour early.  In the morning everyone was talking about the rain from the night before and the fact that we might not be able to cross the river, but all of the moto drivers said that we could go ahead and try.  Sony, on the other hand, claimed that he wouldn’t be able to cross the river and that we would have to cancel the trip. 

I haven’t mentioned that he has a lame leg, but he later admitted that my suspicion was correct that he was just using this as an excuse to air some of his complaints.  Essentially he went on strike at the most inopportune time possible.  This forced me to send the moto drivers home unhappily and change where we were sending two of the interviewers for the day, all in front of a crowd at the clinic.  In the middle of this, I didn’t have time for the usual “discussions” about money for transportation and just gave out what Sony said, which I later learned was even more inflated than usual.

After that Sony and I talked one-on-one for awhile.  I’ll leave the details out, but it was a pretty trying experience.  The one bright spot occurred when I returned to the guest house and the two ladies that take care of me asked why I was back and not going to Mont Bayard.  I responded “Don’t ask” in Creole which they thought was pretty funny.  I spent the next hour or so praying and contemplating if and how to fire someone twice my age.  Carline and Christiana spent the next hour repeating “Don’t ask” in Creole to each other and rolling in laughter.

I’ll conclude by saying that things with Sony are much better now.  We settled the issues, put a lot of things out on the table which needed to be discussed, put what we discussed into a written contract, and have moved on.  I have actually noticed a marked change in Sony’s attitude already.  You can ask me about what I learned from it all later, but for now I’ll say it was a difficult but great learning experience.