Hospitals

Some relevant quotes from my interviews with hospital nurses and personnel. These quotes are representative of key themes that recurred throughout my research.

Journal

“They come, and I have these prosthetic hands for them. It is easy for them to just take it off and not use it. Then they complain that I gave them nothing. When it is free, you don’t value it. That is the thing with most of their money.” - Physical therapist

This quote is indicative of a common theme in Sierra Leonean morality: the big man. Big men are people with a heavy amount of power and social influence. They are expected to provide for others, while those others are expected to reciprocate as a display of appreciation. Problems occur when one side of the relationship either believes the other side has not reciprocated equally or disagreement occurs as to who should give first. This quote shows a specialist who feels he is the only one giving in the relationship, making it easy for him to cast his patients as beggars who cannot utilize their resources.

“I think the government gives them those things [money for the polio camp]. They do little, they just beg. They are not useful." - Nurse

This quote serves as another example of the perception of persons with disabilities as useless. Usefulness is a key to Sierra Leonean personhood: if you do not have the capability to be useful as deemed by society, you are for all intents and purposes inhuman. This stigma has become very cyclic as a result: persons with disabilities are seen as useless, so it is difficult for them to take part in social activities or participate in the local economy. This reinforces their false appearance (or in Erving Goffman's terms, virtual social identity) as useless, and the cycle continues.

"Some people think that when a person is disabled, he is useless to live in the world. Some people might think that it is a taboo like when someone is doing something traditionally that makes the woman to deliver a disabled somebody.But some know that they also have the right to live."- Nurse

This conversation was a lively one, as the nurse was quite excited about his experiences with persons with disabilities in Makeni. He rattled off the many professions he had seen them practice, and he was delighted at the progress he saw in the town's perceptions of persons with disabilities as a result. In this quote, he admits the same theme of "useless" that was brought up in so many conversations. But he wanted me to know that Makeni could change and is changing, and that he believes persons with disabilities will eventually find a voice in the community.