University standards for attaining tenure-track positions, tenure, advancement of rank, and successful periodic evaluation in universities in the Global North primarily center on attainment of research grants and publications. This article considers the ethical implications of these values when action research projects are carried out with impoverished communities in the Global South. Simultaneously, when impoverished communities in the Global South work with Global North universities, they often do so with the experiences of universities and other foreign organizations (religious charities, non-government-organizations, not-for-profits, etc.) having timeframes and funding allocations set to standards of the usual two to five years, along with the knowledge that the "foreign-researcher" will, more than likely, be transient in their lives. Understandably, this relationship of competing needs and dedication will shift moralities of the impoverished community and "local-researcher" given the growing understanding that the foreign-researcher's commitment is often tied to institutionally required outputs that give them little benefit. This article uses reflexivity to expose the often-challenging experiences of three Action Researchers in different situations as they work on a liberation, emancipation and social-justice based project focusing on Education, Health and Development in a rural region of central Malawi.