Building relationships

Spend some time in building relationships. How long this takes and how you do it depends of the kind of community and the kind of project:

• Some communities are very suspicious of outsiders, especially foreigners, and can take many months.
• In some cases, especially if your project is like a regular business, you might need only several visits and people expect you to get on with the project.

The core-periphery effect also comes into play. You will get to know some people quite well, some people not so well, and others not at all. You clearly need to know your link people and gatekeepers fairly well.

During this relationship-building time, you can find out how people live and how they tick, what they want, and what motivates them. You might to observe a little about how their families and friendships work. Meanwhile, you might make some adjustments to your own lifestyle.