Journal Entry- Makeni Madness
I perch on the end of a wooden bench in the back corner of the clinic waiting room, lightly bouncing my foot against the floor to subdue the vibrating itch that had kept me awake for the past week. The creeping red lines on the bottom of my foot had spread, enveloping my foot and ankle in red lines and swollen veins. I am not in any immediate danger, but my new parasitic resident is not a guest to whom I wish to grant permanent housing. However, this is my fourth visit to the nurse-run clinic in four days. Though the nurses are some of the most efficient in the town of Makeni and the lab technician has the best microscope in Sierra Leone, they have very little experience in treating hookworm cases like mine. Today was no different. After another look at my foot, they tell me it is all in my head. After a few pokes and prods and a blood test for good measure and a small fee, I am patted on the head and escorted out of the clinic.
The clinic is located downtown Makeni, just a minute walk from the clock “tower” that serves as home base for many merchants, food vendors, and motorbike taxi drivers. Makeni is the fourth largest city in the country, but small enough that the bike drivers can recognize me as a regular who will not fall for anything above a 2000 leone ride (approximately fifty cents). I weave around the traffic circle to my favorite vendor, a middle aged man who simultaneously sells spicy goat-meat sandwiches and flirts with the lady selling mayonnaise next to him on the curb. Sandwich in one hand, bag tightly clutched in the other, I catch a bike that will take me to my field site for the day.
Though I have been in town for a while now, this is my first visit to the school for the hearing impaired that I have already heard so much about. The children are outside for lunch, and they rush to greet me as I climb off the bike and stuff the newspaper wrapping of my sandwich into my purse. I finger spell my name as I say it, and they giggle and recite their names back. Their speech is confident, their voices unwavering. One of the older boys leads me to the office of the headmistress. Though I promise not to take too much of her time, we speak for two hours about the school: the progress, the fallbacks, the methods, the children, the teachers. I am astounded by the details of this amazing school. The children have plenty to eat, they have caretakers who love them, and they are learning at a faster pace than in many of the mainstream schools in the area. They have books, puzzles, hearing aides, trained teachers. They have the only audiology department in Sierra Leone. I leave hours later, my heart uplifted and my cheeks tired from laughing at the children’s antics. When I swing by the grocery store in the more peaceful side of town on my way home, the cashier comments on my good mood and throws in a free can of Coke.
When I remember Makeni, I remember days like this, days that would swing through the highs and lows of my expectations at breakneck speeds. I saw such promise in the community, but was continually disappointed when I saw the short-sightedness or corruption behind the scenes of such hopeful prospects. Though sometimes lauded for the post-war recovery, Sierra Leone’s governing systems have not yet been able to control various forms of corruption at nearly all levels of government (“Rich Pickings”, 2011). The prevalence of at least mild corruption in most initiatives is somewhat expected, in the cases I experienced, and is seen as a way to pay dues to those who have the power to make the initiatives happen in the first place. Makeni was no exception. Furthermore, lack of resources was a serious and continuous problem for many aspects of Makeni’s community. A school I frequented for interviews was shut down two weeks early because they ran out of food to feed the boarders. The clinic I was visiting eventually told me that they were hoping to receive a new supply of albendazole before they diagnosed my foot, in part causing the delay.
Though such short supplies would be expected in a country in developing status such as Sierra Leone, Makeni has its own history of being relatively deprived of resources. For various political and social reasons, Makeni does not hold the same government favor as the other large cities. As such, it is often the last to receive government sponsored projects or even basic resources such as petrol (Bolten, 2012). These issues foster a reliance on short-term goals and results that I found extremely frustrating during my time in Makeni. Like Drybread during her experience in Brazil, at times I found my calm demeanor shaken into a state of frustration and hostility (Drybread, 2006). I was tired of bribes, I was tired of being told “that is not how we do things here”, I was tired of theft within the university I worked at. Makeni was becoming exhausting.
Yet I loved Makeni. I felt that it was my home. Though some may say I could never have been a truly global citizen, I felt accepted as a part of Makeni’s community (Zemach-Bersin, 2008). And like the day that I described, there was always something redemptive about the town that spoke of Sierra Leone’s ultimate promise. Makeni may not have been a rich town, but it is rich in potential and full of ambitious people who are attempting to make change for the home that they love. There are amazing green energy projects developing in the area, promising a sustainable future and a potentially rewarding labor opportunity for community members. The university is educating students on development and research in a way that could potentially foster future academic excellence. The construction companies are slowly becoming more dependable and responsible, improving the infrastructure of the town little by little. When I spoke with people about the town itself, they always pointed in the direction of the new road connecting Makeni to the important country junctions, or to the two competing supermarkets that had popped up in the past three years, or to the school for the hearing impaired that has begun to change people’s opinions on disability. The town a work in progress, but that progress is visible.
I was only in Makeni for two months, but I already have the image of this progress in my mind. Though I imagine the elimination of corruption will be quite gradual, I have hope that the town will persevere regardless. Someday, Makeni will be able to live up to the promises it makes today. The disappointments will not be so bitter, and the triumphs will be all the more sweet.
Works Cited
Bolten, Catherine. 2012. I Did It To Save My Life: Love and Survival in Sierra Leone. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Drybread, Kristen. 2006. Sleeping with One Eye Open: The Perils of Fieldwork in a Brazilian Juvenile Prison. In Dispatches from the Field: neophyte ethnographers in a changing world. Ed. Andrew Gardner and David M. Hoffman. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. Pp. 137-152
Rich Pickings: Corruption in Sierra Leone. 2011. The Economist, 398.8725, pg. 58.
Zemach-Bersin, Talya. 2008. American Students Abroad Can’t be ‘Global Citizens.’ The Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i26/26a03401.htm.
The clinic is located downtown Makeni, just a minute walk from the clock “tower” that serves as home base for many merchants, food vendors, and motorbike taxi drivers. Makeni is the fourth largest city in the country, but small enough that the bike drivers can recognize me as a regular who will not fall for anything above a 2000 leone ride (approximately fifty cents). I weave around the traffic circle to my favorite vendor, a middle aged man who simultaneously sells spicy goat-meat sandwiches and flirts with the lady selling mayonnaise next to him on the curb. Sandwich in one hand, bag tightly clutched in the other, I catch a bike that will take me to my field site for the day.
Though I have been in town for a while now, this is my first visit to the school for the hearing impaired that I have already heard so much about. The children are outside for lunch, and they rush to greet me as I climb off the bike and stuff the newspaper wrapping of my sandwich into my purse. I finger spell my name as I say it, and they giggle and recite their names back. Their speech is confident, their voices unwavering. One of the older boys leads me to the office of the headmistress. Though I promise not to take too much of her time, we speak for two hours about the school: the progress, the fallbacks, the methods, the children, the teachers. I am astounded by the details of this amazing school. The children have plenty to eat, they have caretakers who love them, and they are learning at a faster pace than in many of the mainstream schools in the area. They have books, puzzles, hearing aides, trained teachers. They have the only audiology department in Sierra Leone. I leave hours later, my heart uplifted and my cheeks tired from laughing at the children’s antics. When I swing by the grocery store in the more peaceful side of town on my way home, the cashier comments on my good mood and throws in a free can of Coke.
When I remember Makeni, I remember days like this, days that would swing through the highs and lows of my expectations at breakneck speeds. I saw such promise in the community, but was continually disappointed when I saw the short-sightedness or corruption behind the scenes of such hopeful prospects. Though sometimes lauded for the post-war recovery, Sierra Leone’s governing systems have not yet been able to control various forms of corruption at nearly all levels of government (“Rich Pickings”, 2011). The prevalence of at least mild corruption in most initiatives is somewhat expected, in the cases I experienced, and is seen as a way to pay dues to those who have the power to make the initiatives happen in the first place. Makeni was no exception. Furthermore, lack of resources was a serious and continuous problem for many aspects of Makeni’s community. A school I frequented for interviews was shut down two weeks early because they ran out of food to feed the boarders. The clinic I was visiting eventually told me that they were hoping to receive a new supply of albendazole before they diagnosed my foot, in part causing the delay.
Though such short supplies would be expected in a country in developing status such as Sierra Leone, Makeni has its own history of being relatively deprived of resources. For various political and social reasons, Makeni does not hold the same government favor as the other large cities. As such, it is often the last to receive government sponsored projects or even basic resources such as petrol (Bolten, 2012). These issues foster a reliance on short-term goals and results that I found extremely frustrating during my time in Makeni. Like Drybread during her experience in Brazil, at times I found my calm demeanor shaken into a state of frustration and hostility (Drybread, 2006). I was tired of bribes, I was tired of being told “that is not how we do things here”, I was tired of theft within the university I worked at. Makeni was becoming exhausting.
Yet I loved Makeni. I felt that it was my home. Though some may say I could never have been a truly global citizen, I felt accepted as a part of Makeni’s community (Zemach-Bersin, 2008). And like the day that I described, there was always something redemptive about the town that spoke of Sierra Leone’s ultimate promise. Makeni may not have been a rich town, but it is rich in potential and full of ambitious people who are attempting to make change for the home that they love. There are amazing green energy projects developing in the area, promising a sustainable future and a potentially rewarding labor opportunity for community members. The university is educating students on development and research in a way that could potentially foster future academic excellence. The construction companies are slowly becoming more dependable and responsible, improving the infrastructure of the town little by little. When I spoke with people about the town itself, they always pointed in the direction of the new road connecting Makeni to the important country junctions, or to the two competing supermarkets that had popped up in the past three years, or to the school for the hearing impaired that has begun to change people’s opinions on disability. The town a work in progress, but that progress is visible.
I was only in Makeni for two months, but I already have the image of this progress in my mind. Though I imagine the elimination of corruption will be quite gradual, I have hope that the town will persevere regardless. Someday, Makeni will be able to live up to the promises it makes today. The disappointments will not be so bitter, and the triumphs will be all the more sweet.
Works Cited
Bolten, Catherine. 2012. I Did It To Save My Life: Love and Survival in Sierra Leone. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Drybread, Kristen. 2006. Sleeping with One Eye Open: The Perils of Fieldwork in a Brazilian Juvenile Prison. In Dispatches from the Field: neophyte ethnographers in a changing world. Ed. Andrew Gardner and David M. Hoffman. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. Pp. 137-152
Rich Pickings: Corruption in Sierra Leone. 2011. The Economist, 398.8725, pg. 58.
Zemach-Bersin, Talya. 2008. American Students Abroad Can’t be ‘Global Citizens.’ The Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i26/26a03401.htm.