Instrumentos Financieros Derivados y Operaciones de Cobertura

If I had known that I was going to interview the girls for an additional two years, I would not have begun sponsoring them when I did. The primary problem with my association with the scholarships is my inability to determine how it affected my research. Before I began sponsoring the girls, I had wonderful relationships with them and spent hours on my porch and in their homes with them. For a ‘woman of

substance’ as Maxine says, there is an expectation that she will support others. Michael Jackson, (2011) anthropologist whose work focuses on Sierra Leone put it this way,

. . . human beings everywhere acknowledge a minima moralia grounded in a sense of sharing a common humanity. . . but a tension between particularistic and universalistic ethics remains. . . with the assumption that the powerful owe it to the powerless to improve their lot. (p. 35)

Everyone I know who is not poor is sponsoring two, three, or ten children to go to school. Maxine and Mr. Monku do it. The only white NGO worker in Kono not only sponsors about ten children to go to school, he also has bribed the diamond mines human resource officer to get ‘his kids’ jobs, and paid for his staff and their family to receive medical care, sometimes at substantial cost to him. In Sierra Leone, those with means are expected to give directly and openly. I have seen both Maxine and the politician whose home I stay in when in Kono, have a long line of supplicants waiting to tell their tale of woe and then receive the equivalent of ten dollars. I once asked Maxine why she does not just give them the ten dollars when they come to the door instead of spending so much time with each person. She said that sometimes I was “really white” and that for her listening, and for them, being heard was as important as the money. I eventually learned that from the moment I walked into the schools asking to interview girls, I was expected to become their benefactor.

One of the common expectations in the United States is the idea that we are beholden to our benefactors. I have always felt obligated to my grandmother for paying my school fees. I am not convinced that there is the same sense of obligation in Sierra Leone. I do not see the children that Mr. Edward sponsors coming to his house when he is in town. Mr. Monku although the recipient of politicians’ graft does not feel obligated to vote for that politician. Maxine does not expect to know how the

children she sponsors are doing in school and it seems that she does not necessarily support the same children every year but gives to whomever asks until the money runs out. There does not seem to be the same idea of obligation for the benefited to be beholden to the benefactor in Sierra Leone. It is an obligation from the benefactor to the one who needs to benefit.

One of the difficulties USAID, as a benefactor, had with AGSP was the ways in which the local community did not distinguish between the local NGO and USAID. USAID wanted it to be known that the scholarships were ‘from the American people.’ Yet, when we went to the field, the scholarship recipients were said to be “FAWE girls (Federation of African Women Educationalist)” or “Caritas kids” not recipients of the American people’s scholarship. Often it was not even the local NGO that was given credit but the individual director of the organization itself so instead of “XYZ NGO girls”, the scholarship recipients were “Mr. Sam’s girls”. Although it frustrated the USAID officials, it also pointed out how close to the recipients the NGOs had become and how inherent in the tribal system was the idea of one individual giving rather than an international donor network. In my case, I tried to refer constantly to the scholarships as coming from Mt. Top for Sierra Leone Women and as I explained how we raise the money, I showed the girls and their families photos of the women involved in Mt. Top. However, I am not sure it made a difference in the end. I am the face that they know.

In what ways might the financial support have influenced my research? Before the scholarships began, I had already established connections with the girls and their families. Some of the headmasters nagged me to support the schools or the girls themselves and this disappeared when they heard that I was sponsoring the girls. Of

course, they wanted more girls to be sponsored, preferably their own daughters or granddaughters. After Mt. Top began to sponsor the girls, the parents were grateful but it seemed that they had expected it all along. I did not perceive any difference in my relationship with the parents. In other words, the conversations were not longer; access was neither more difficult nor easier; from the moment I had come to their homes expressing interest in their daughters’ education, it must have been assumed that I would, at some point, take responsibility for their fees.

With the girls, I perceived no difference in our relationship. By the time the third round of interviews were finished most of the girls were comfortable in my home, had shared very intimate stories of their lives, and seemed to be happy around me. I am not sure it meant much to them that I was supporting them. They were grateful but I do not think they felt obligated to me. With the scholarships, I now had Elsie and Little Mama sleeping in my room and they added to the general vibe of an afterschool girls’ clubhouse that my porch had become. Elsie, the daughter of a Member of Parliament and Little Mama are both college educated young women. At 23 and 21, they were closer to the girls’ age yet we all had a wonderful time playing cards, cooking, singing, and just watching -- as my grandmother would say, just watching the cars drive by, except there are not any cars in Kono, only motorcycles and trucks.

For some of the scholarship recipients, it changed their obligations within their household. Some of the girls, who had previously had to sell charcoal, garden

vegetables, or groundnuts, walking through town with a platter balanced on their head, after school and on weekends, the scholarships meant that they no longer had to work. However, for others, they continued to work in order to support their younger

brothers or sisters in school. They were used to selling and it was their responsibility to provide for their siblings. It is often said that all children work in Africa and indeed UNICEF (2013) estimates that 27% of urban children and 57% of rural children between the ages of 5-14 work more than eight hours a day. The schoolgirls worked but they did not work in exploitative situations nor did they work an untoward amount of hours per day. Selling groundnuts was their equivalent of an after school activity. Interestingly, now that many of them are in their third year of junior secondary school, an important exam year, they are no longer selling after school but attending test prep classes. It is not that their families no longer need the money but the investment in this year’s tests supersedes the extra income in importance.

Although I can never know the effect that bringing money to pay for their education had upon my relationship with some of the girls in my study, I can say that for those girls that I have not sponsored, I remain a welcome guest in their homes, and a sought out companion, and they continue to visit my porch.