Shadowing Thiemuku Koroma - Cell Phone Repairman

Nothing challenges your perceptions of people with disabilities more than spending the day with them.  What an amazing experience and gift it was to me.  

Thiemuku lives with his wife, Mankaprie,and their 9 year old son in a small, 8x10 foot room that they rent for about $30 a month.  The rent accounts for about 80%-90% of their monthly budget.  Thiemuku is bound to a wheelchair and his wife uses crutches and a three wheeled cart that she propels with a hand crank to get around.  Their home has no electricity or running water.  He baths himself after dark because the community bathing area is not wheel chair accessible; neither is the latrine so he has to drag himself across a small footbridge, and into the latrine in order to use the bathroom.  

They seem to be happy together though and Thiemuku is very proud of his small cell phone repair business where he uses a variety of make-shift tools to scavenge parts from irreparable cells phones to fix others. I sat with him for several hours talking with him about his life (his father died in the civil war and his mother went to the hospital and never returned), his challenges and the thing that gives him great satisfaction and joy - his cell phone business. 

I was amazed how he use a small, flattened piece of metal to open them, then a screwdriver that was left in hot coals to un-solder the wires and a razor blade to do the rest.  I learned a great deal from him.  

How often have we assumed that because someone has a disability that they have very little to contribute to society.  My experience with Thiemuku has shown me how untrue that is.  How many people have we written off because they didn't speak our language or had some form of impairment?  My challenge to you is to spend time with these people and see how they can open your mind to a whole new world of understanding.