I'm not a field hand

My jatigi came to my house at 7:30 am telling me to get up and get out of the house I was coming to the fields with him (and 10-12 other men of the village) to aerate and weed the fields of corn, cotton and peanuts. He told me that he told the PC regional coordinator in my area that I am lazy. All I do is sleep and I don’t work. My jatigi said that the coordinator said that I was to work in the fields. First of all I know he would not say that. I was bought to Mali as a health worker not a free field hand. I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to tell my jatigi that he should wake me up in the morning so I could work in the field...and that my 24 year old jatigi should be the one to give me these instruction. Secondly, I was bought to Mali as an health extension agent, not a field hand to do hard physical labor. I told him this. I also told him I don’t sleep all day. Just because I’m not out in the fields doesn’t mean I’m sleeping. It doesn’t mean I am lazy and it doesn’t mean that I don’t like to work. I came here to work with the Matrone at the maternity clinic, who, by the way is the one that made the request to PC for a volunteer to come to this village. She has not had me into work with her except for once (the infamous testicle story from earlier in my blog) in the 4 months I’ve been living in Bougoula. That is not my fault. I sit out at her house or the butiki (both of which are next to the maternity clinic) every day for hours just in case she needs or wants me to work with her. I don’t know why she requested a volunteer or what she thinks I am there to do but if she chooses not to have me work with her no matter how many times I tell her that’s what I’m there for I don’t know what to say. But I sure the shit am not going to work in the fields. End of story. He was shocked, by the way, to learn that working in the fields is not what I did in America.