Chillin In Kombo

Village life; it can be filled with "sunshine" and then it can be filled with "rainclouds." I really do like my village but sometimes people can just irritate me. I have a few projects that I'm working on with my village. They always look to me when they have questions, which is fine, but I'd love it if they could take initiative and do things on their own. That's what I'm dealing with right now, it is wearing on me more I think because we'll start planting soon and that's when I'll really find out if the projects are going to be successful or not. Right now the community tells me they will be able to help plant, weed, put up fences, etc. but until the time comes I really don't know what to expect. As of now, this is the first project I've ever done with my village.

So as the title says, I'm relaxing in Kombo right now. I had to get away for two reasons, one was what I mentioned above and the second was taxes. Yes you heard me right, taxes. My host father decided not to pay the Alkali (village head) the compound tax in January and now after many attempts to get the money the Alkali is going to the police. That very day I was leaving to come into town my host brother came up to me and explained the situation and asked me if I could pay my rent early so they could pay their taxes.

I politely declined to pay early for a few reasons. The biggest one was that I pay rent to food and food alone. So if this money ended up going to taxes, who is paying for my food? Secondly, I think that after 5 months my family would of been able to save up the small amount owed to pay the Alkali. It is simple money management that they refused to do which is why I don't feel I should bail them out. I hope I'm not coming off as to cold hearted. It's just that when I see my family spending money on unnecessary things I feel no pity when they can't afford to pay off old debts.

So in the mean time I sit and relax. Cheers.