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Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.zaattempting to become a full participant in the observation process and anordinary member of the group or organisation. The researcher was thus able tomove about freely, observe participants directly, and engage in casualinterviewing of participants. Numerous patients were also observed withouttheir being aware of this.Participant observation was undertaken over three periods of two weeks each.During these periods the researcher spent several hours daily between 08h00and 14h00 in the setting. Various observational positions were taken up duringthese periods: at both entrances to the centre (1, 8) (see Figure 1); in bothwaiting-halls (4, 11); at the bookings’ counter (6); at the cashiers’ counter (5);in the corridor between doctors’ consulting rooms (9); in front of the X-ray unit(2), and on benches outside the exit from the dispensary waiting-hall fromwhere most patients leave (8). Patients whom the researcher sat alongside invarious subsettings were encouraged to talk about their experiences at thecentre. Here the impressions that the patients reported of events or actionswhich might suggest elements of depersonalisation in the encounter processwere of primary concern for the researcher.During the observations made in the main waiting-hall (4) where patients awaitconsultations with a doctor, patients appeared subdued and anxious — as mightbe expected. A number of patients expressed exasperation at the long wait. Theopposite was found in observations made in the waiting-hall attached to thedispensary (11) where patients proceed to after the consultation to collect theirmedication. Here a good deal of light-hearted banter was observed. Patientscould frequently be seen reporting on, discussing and comparing “Wat diedokter gesê het”. Other patients showed amusement at certain rituals, such asthat of falling in with the crocodile-line shifting along the benches until havingreached the head of the line, a patient may approach one of the four windows atthe dispensary counter (12). Patients in wheelchairs were observed lined upagainst a wall at the beginning of the corridor to await their consultation with adoctor (10). On certain occasions very tired and frail patients were observed tofall asleep in their wheelchairs with their heads in their laps.Observations made during participant observation were recorded by jottingdown notes during observation; keeping mental notes of conversations withpatients and jotting these down immediately afterwards, and writing upcomprehensive field notes later in the day. For the most part these notesconsisted of running descriptions of the people and events that were observedor reported on, and of things heard and overheard in conversations.4.3 The in-depth interviewingThe aim in qualitative interviewing is to provide a framework for a subject tospeak freely and in his or her own terms about a set of concerns which212