Building a wheelchair and working relationships

In the last two days, I have been learning how to assemble a Motivation Worldmade Wheelchair. These are wheelchairs designed specifically for developing contexts, and are shipped in a flat pack box to be assembled on-site. One of the prosthetics technicians had been taught how to assemble it, and was passing the knowledge on to me. It was a bit like a huge jigsaw puzzle: here's the finished chair, and here's one in parts, now go!





Photos of the assembly process and ending with fitting the patient.

I am very impressed with these wheelchairs. They can be assembled with only very basic tools, are sturdy, and able to handle rugged conditions. They have been well designed, and have thought of creative solutions to deal with the challenges of use in developing contexts.

They also have some limitations - they are moderately expensive, and despite being pre-made, still take a reasonable amount of time to assemble. In addition, they are heavier than a normal wheelchair, so can be harder to propel by smaller users. We discovered today when fitting the patient, that there are some limitations to the ways you can align them that require some compromises to make them work. One of my jobs will be to work around some of those limitations, if possible.

The building process was interesting. In Nepal, it seems that you are expected to learn by watching first, not doing. So other than putting the wheel together (which was just like changing a bicycle tire), I didn't do too much the first day. I did get to hammer some things into the wooden seat base, which seemed to generate much interest from the rest of the technicians. They all watched me do it, and offered lots of advice. It was all a bit amusing - I guess they all want to see if I actually have any practical skills, and watching the female ex-pat hammer was one way to evaluate it.

I had a bit of an interesting dilemma at the end of yesterday. As the technician was putting the brackets on to attach the seat to the wheels, I noticed that they were switched (left to right) compared to the chair that was already made. It wasn't really obvious, and he had already moved on to attaching other things to them by the time I saw it (there are some advantages to just watching, I suppose). My question was: Do I, as the person being taught, correct the teacher? Everything I've been taught about respecting authority, and not questioning in Nepali culture came to mind, and I was feeling some weird vibes from the guys. So I waited, and hoped that perhaps the brackets were interchangeable, and it wouldn't matter.

Naturally, a couple steps later, it became apparent that something was wrong. Again, I faced the dilemma. Do I point out the problem, or let them spend a lot of time trying find where the problem was? I decided at this point it was silly to waste everyone's time, and after looking as puzzled as everyone else for a few minutes, I appeared to suddenly see something, and pointed at the two brackets that were reversed. "Ah," said everyone, and we went back a few steps, corrected the problem, and this morning, completed the chair. It all seemed a bit silly, but I hope that it was an appropriate response. I felt like the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed today, and I'm hoping that's a sign that it was.

I'm off on Friday for a 3 day hike. 1 day up to Tatopani (literally 'hot water') where there are hotsprings. We will stay there 2 nights, and spend the middle day hiking around. It should be great.