On my own
By David Krueger
I spent the first six weeks of my trip tagging along with coworkers as they covered meetings, announcements and sporting events, helping them write stories, authoring a few of my own and observing how journalism in Sierra Leone works.
Last Thursday I was sent to a press conference, on my own.
I was a little nervous. I always feel a little anxious whenever I get ready for a work outing. I like to think it keeps me sharp and on my toes. Sometimes it just makes me do stupid things.
Like on the walk to Talking Drum Studios. I was headed there for a press conference about “The Team Salone,” a new television program co-produced by SLBC that shows the value of dealing with diversity through a football team trying to win a tournament.
On the way to the event, I was rereading the letter dropped off at the Awoko office to make sure I knew as much about the television series as I could before the press conference, so I could make sure that any questions I might have for my article would be answered.
I was so busy reading and coming up with questions that I didn’t see the window that had been opened and was sticking out into the walkway directly in front of me. My shoulder bounced off the window and immediately began to hurt.
Fortunately, only about two people saw me run shoulder-first into the window. They couldn’t hide their smiles, but at least they didn’t say anything to make fun of the kid who walked directly into a window.
With the window incident behind me I continued to the Talking Drum Studios office, or at least what I thought was the office. I saw a sign on a three-story building on Bathurst Street, but didn’t know how to get to that third story.
I walked around to the corner of the building, to what I thought might be the studio, but turned out to be a chemicals store. Fortunately, a very friendly woman who saw me rubbing my shoulder, took me around to the other side of the building and pointed me in the right direction.
Once I finally got to the right room of the correct office I sat down and waited. And waited. I know that conferences rarely start on time here in Salone, but I figured I should be here a few minutes early just in case.
I passed the time listening to reporters from other news outlets discussing next year’s Presidential election between Maada Bio and current President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma. I didn’t participate in the discussion because I really don’t feel like I know enough about the political climate here in Sierra Leone to contribute anything to the debate.
Eventually, the press conference began at 12:30 p.m., only about a half hour later than scheduled. I really didn’t mind. It gave me a chance to re-reread the letter and become an expert on this particular television show. Plus, sitting at a table, there were very few ways to hurt my shoulder while reading.
The presentation began and the 15 or so reporters there immediately began feverishly taking notes. We heard all about “The Team,” which, quite frankly, sounds like a good show. It has a good message, one that I think everybody can get on board with.
“It’s all around a simple metaphor: if you don’t cooperate, you don’t score goals,” said Ambrose James, the Country Director for the Search for Common Ground, which oversees Talking Drum Studios.
After an overview of the program, the media was treated to the first ten minutes of the first episode. It’s a good show. The acting is very good and the actual football scenes are pretty well orchestrated.
As the press conference began to wind down, and the other journalists were making sure all of their questions were answered I began to piece together my article in my head. I usually try to mentally outline my stories before I leave, in case I realize there’s some vital information I’m forgetting to get.
One time I covered a high school basketball game for a newspaper back home in America and forgot to ask the coach what his name was. I was able to find it on the internet, but was still a little embarrassed that I forgot to ask my main source his name. I like to get as much information as possible now before it’s too late.
Confident I had everything I needed I began to relax a little bit when another journalist inadvertently reminded me that my work was not complete. I saw him taking a few snapshots of the program and realized that was a really good idea. I had remembered to bring my camera along, and figured I may as well use it.
After the pictures were taken and I was again sure I had all I needed, I waited for the final question to be answered and then headed back to the office to write my story. It went by fairly quickly, and it turned out I did in fact, have everything I needed. Including a picture, that ran with the story in Friday’s paper.
Last Thursday was a fun day. It felt good to be able to go out on my own and prove that I can get stories done. I’m getting more and more confident and excited to work here in Sierra Leone every day, and I hope that feeling continues as I get to go out and cover additional programs by myself.
This isn’t to say I don’t like going out with my coworkers, because I love doing that. I have a lot of questions about life here, and it’s incredibly helpful and informative to have someone along with me to explain what’s going on. However, it’s good to get out on your own once in a while. I like showing people what I can do.
The only thing I might change is from now on while walking to press conferences I’m going to try to keep my head up. I can always reread and re-reread the press releases when I arrive, hopefully without a sore shoulder.
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