For the next few minutes, I watched Tsehay listen to Sam drone on with the mixture of weariness and boredom I’d seen on the faces of staff dealing with expats the world over. I could only feel for her, because as far as I knew, Tsehay was in the process of getting her doctoral degree in statistics. She’d also been working in the program we were surveying since the initial stages and was from this region, to boot. Why Sam thought he had to tell her how to ask questions to people she certainly knew how to speak to a hell of a lot better than he did, was a complete mystery to me.

When I couldn’t stand it anymore I interrupted him, my voice as polite as I could make it in my uncaffeinated state. “Why don’t we order some food before we start going over our plans, Sam?”

Without waiting for him to respond, I turned to Tsehay. “I would also like to get some input from you,” I said, pulling out from my messenger bag the tablet we’d been using to do the surveys. “What would you like me to cover while I’m out with my team? I’m not new to this kind of work, but you’re the expert here.”

She gave me a look which was a mix between an eye roll and a hint of “at least one of these assholes has an ounce of sense.”

We quickly ordered some food with Tsehay’s assistance and started working out details. Turned out she was indeed an expert, and had not only helped run similar surveys, but was going to be my go-to in cleaning the data from the field before we passed it on to Sam. While we talked, he sat in a disgusted silence since he was no longer controlling the conversation.

After we finished, we rushed off for a final run to our rooms before heading to our vehicles. But as I was walking out, Sam stopped me and ground out, “I don’t appreciate you undermining me in front of the local staff. I’m the monitoring and evaluation officer for this survey and I need to make sure I get the right information.”

I just kept walking and didn’t even bother looking at him when I responded. “How did I undermine you? I was letting Tsehay know I wanted to get her expert opinion on how to run a survey in this region. Of the three of us, she’s the only person who’s actually from here, not to mention a statistician. It makes sense to make sure she’s on board with the plans for the day. Also, local staff is just staff, the same as you and me.”

He just glared at me and scoffed. “Whatever. If this is your way of getting into her pants, there are ways to do it without fucking with my survey.”