So Long, Salone

Unbelievable as it is, today is my last day of work at Awoko Newspaper. We typically have a weekly meeting on Fridays, so I made my official farewell “speech” yesterday, addressing each Awoko colleague and member who have truly touched my life. IT was a lot more emotional for me than I had initially anticipated, as I had to catch my breath at times when I was speaking in front of everyone (especially when I got around to thanking Mr. Lewis, a man whom I have grown to to admire and respect so much).

At the end of my little spiel, the managing editor, Mr. Samuel John (essentially Mr. Lewis’ righthand man), rose and made a little speech of his own, saying he hoped, on behalf of all at Awoko, that I enjoyed my internship in Sierra Leone and that I will be sorely missed. He then gave me a small gift - a wooden sign with a beautiful drawing on it that said: “Greetings from Sierra Leone”. We then took a bunch of pictures together and I’m sure we’ll be taking many more today.

This has been truly one of the most eye-opening, captivating and inspirational experiences of my life. I initially got this internship basically by chance, as it seemingly fell in my lap - and what an absolutely amazing “chance.” I won’t draw this out too long, because you can read more of my reflections in my farewell column. (Speaking of columns, on the same day that I published my final column of Through the Eyes of ‘U’, my colleague, Ishmael Bayoh, wrote his own column - a tribute to their American Intern. He titled the column, “Missing Yu.” If you’re interested in reading that, click here. (By the way, if you do read the column, I don’t have a fiance - FYI. I think Ish may have gotten me and last year’s intern mixed up. Either way, it’s still an entertaining piece)

To read my farewell column, click here.

And so my internship and, consequently, my blog, A Summer in Sierra Leone comes to a close today. It’s been exciting and a great experience to see the number of views and comments that I’ve received from people - and not just my friends. I’ve still got a long way to go in terms of blogging (I’ve got to incorporate more multimedia and links), but this was a great starting place. Thanks to everyone who read and commented on A Summer in Sierra Leone. I hope you all get a chance to travel abroad (and to blog!) one day as I have!

“This was a victory for the Media” - Mr. Lewis

A lot has gone down in Sierra Leone during my final month here. First, there is the ongoing investigation of the cocaine saga. Just a couple of nights before I returned to the states for a week, police seized a plane which landed at Lungi International Airport and contained 600 kg of substance believed to be cocaine. Kemoh Sesay, the Transport and Aviation Minister of Sierra Leone, was implicated in the incident and eventually fired.

In response to the drugg trafficking that took place at Lungi, Parliament acted immediately and passed into law a new Drug Control Act, which placed new punishments for drug abuse and selling - my colleague Ishmael told me that the old law “punished” drug criminals with a $1,000 fine or a few nights in jail. The new drug law passed by Parliament can sentence them with life in prison. Talk about turning over a new cannabis leaf.

To continue reading this post, click here.

A real “Salone Borbor”

I’ve always wanted to get a buzz cut; and not just your typical short on the top, even shorter on the sides bizz cut. I’m talking about a real, skin-head buzz cut. It’s a popular hairstyle here in Sierra Leone, called “Tolon Peppeh.” Well, yesterday, I went to get exactly that at a barbershop called “T-Unit” barbershop, a parody of the U.S. rap group, G-Unit. I originally wanted to go to a place called, “Pimp My Looks,” but one of my colleagues told me to go to T-Unit instead (you can imagine that restaruant and store names can be very clever here, and especially influenced by America).

Anyway, getting my head shaved was a really (really) memorable experience. Seeing how people have reacted to my new haircut, I could tell that this column would be one of my more popular ones of the summer. Not only did I get a Salone-style haircut, but I also bought a traditional African shirt yesterday to partake in Africana - a tradition in which people wear customary African garments every Friday. I’ve become a real “Salone Borbor” (Salone Boy).

To ready the column, click here.

In some unfortunate news, the big celebration of Awoko’s 10th scheduled for next Friday was sadly cancelled, due to some conflicts in personnel and sponsorship. I was really looking forward to that, too, but I guess life will go on. Mr. Lewis is working on trying to get our money back for booking the British Council as the venue for the now-cancelled celebration, but in the event that we can’t get our money back, I joked around saying that we should have a farewell party on my last weekend in Salone.

It makes me feel terribly sad and happy at the same time that my colleagues have told me countless times during the past week or so - especially after my dramatic change with my new haircut and Africana gear - that they “will dearly miss” me. Umaru Ofana, the BBC correspondent in Sierra Leone and a regular Awoko contributor with his political column, “Think Tank,” said that they’re going to protest to my department and demand that they extend my stay for three more months. Thanks for the love, Umaru.

Returning to Pujehun: A Fulfilling Experience

I went back to the Pujehun disitrict with my colleague, Solomon Rogers, this weekend. I mentioned in an earlier post that I hoped it would be a fulfilling experience, and it sure was. My days in Salone are numbered now, as I’ll be returning to the states in less than two weeks. But this past experience of returning the Pujehun is definitely one of the highlights of my entire summer, being able to contribute to a struggling institution with a gift - albeit a modest one. Solomon wrote a story, which was published on the frontpage this morning, on our return and my donation. I also wrote a column which will be published tomorrow.

To read Solomon’s story, click here. 

To read my column, click here.

Hey, a Japanese person! … and (gasp) a pickpocketer

So let’s start with the good/fun news: I met a Japanese person in Freetown last weekend. Her name is Nagayo Sawa, a researcher from the University of Tokyo. One of the New York interns I met a while back gave me her contact info and I figured it would be a good opportunity to talk to someone from the motherland.

Our meeting had to be brief, though, because I was called back to the office during our dinner because I needed to transfer some pictures from my camera for the next day’s publication. Too bad, because I was having a nice time brushing up on my ‘keigo’ (polite Japanese, primarily used when you are talking to a person older than you). It strange, I felt more like a foreigner in Freetown than ever before when I was talking my native language. Regardless, it was great getting a chance to reflect on my experiences using yet another mode of communication. As my new friend John (from New York) said to me when he left for the states, “The world gets smaller everyday.”

And now for the bad news: I’ve been pickpocketed. It’s frustrating more than anything else, because I’ve been pretty careful all this time. Luckily, it wasn’t my wallet or my camera or (heaven forbid) my passport. But it’s still something that will cost me some money to replace once I get back to the states: My spare battery and charger for my digital camera. It’s too bad that I’m almost definitely going to run out of power on my camera just before Awoko’s big celebration on the 29th - hopefully I can be efficient in the next few days to squeeze the most I can out of the juice I have left in my camera.

As for the incident of getting pickpocketed… it’s shameful to even think about it, so how about you read my column on it, instead?

To read the column, click here.

I’m off for Pujehun tomorrow, so I’ll be back blogging on it upon my return - hopefully as soon as Monday. My colleagues are half-jokingly saying they’re going to put a frontpage story in the news next week with the headline, “Yu Nakayama: Intern turned Philanthropist” …Yikes!

Don’t Call Me China

If you ask 100 Sierra Leoneans what they think your nationality is, 99 of them will say Chinese.

These were the words of one of my Awoko colleagues, Ophaniel Gooding, during one of my first few weeks in Salone. It seems as if all Sierra Leoneans think all Asian people are Chinese. There’s clearly a strong Chinese influence here - be it involvement in imports or development - so I understand that thought. Heck, even in America it’s somewhat common for people to assume an Asian person as Chinese. In my couple months in Freetown, strangers have not been shy about saying hello to a foreigner who is clearly different from the locals. And, most of the time, when people call out to me, they shout and say, “Hey, China!” I’ve been wanting to write a column about this for a long time now, so I’m glad I was finally able to do it. Hope you enjoy!

To read the column, click here.

In other news, I’ll be going back to the provinces (Pujheun) this weekend with Solomon Rogers. When I went back to the states for a one week hiatus, I met up with the kind folks who helped put my first aid kid together for my summer adventure, Chris and Cheryl Antony. Naturally, I told them about my trip thus far and when I mentioned the deplorable situation in the Pujehun hospital, Chris simply said, “I can get you a bunch of stethoscopes tomorrow, if you want.” (If you recall from my Pujehun travelogues, in certain wards of the hospital, doctors and nurses only have one stethoscope to go around)

So I brought back with me to Salone three stethoscopes as well as an instrument for measuring blood pressure to give to the Pujehun hospital. It’s a small gesture, in the grand scheme of things, but I figured anything that I can do - like giving a gift that I’m able to obtain so easily and quickly - is something that I should do. That should be a pleasant and hopefully fulfilling experience well worth writing about.

I’m running short on time at the internet cafe I’m at right now, so I’ll have to wind down now; but I have some other posts coming up, including some fun news (meeting a Japanese person in Salone) and, unfortunately, some not-so-fun news (getting pick-pocketed… don’t worry it’s not as bad as you think, but still…) Stay tuned!

Happy 10th, Awoko!

August 10th is Awoko Newspaper’s 10th Anniversary. As I mentioned in the previous post, we’re going to have a grand celebration on August 29th, where Nigerian Leke Alder will be the keynote speaker and discuss the first step in “branding Sierra Leone.” This is going to be a fantastic event, with important Sierra Leoneans scheduled to be in attendance (except one?).

For today, Friday August 8th, we had a small gathering of no more than 15 guests at the Awoko Printing Press to celebrate the only four-color printing machine in the country. Awoko workers donned our bright yellow Awoko t-shirts and enjoyed a close-knit celebration.

To continue reading, click here.

Zain Concert and more

Celtel, one of Africa’s leading mobile phone companies, changed its name to Zain last week, and to commemorate the change, they sponsored a huge concert in which Nigerian R&B duo, P-Sqaure, headlined and many other Sierra Leonean artists opened for them. It was an impressive showing, although there’s a lot that organizers could have done differently to improve the show - mainly timing (the headlining P-Square began their set at 2 am! The concert was ’supposed’ to start at 6 pm, but I think I’ve been in Salone long enough to know that nothing ever starts on time).

Anyway, to read my column on my experience at the concert, click here.

It’s Awoko’s 10th anniversary on August 10th. We will be having a low-scale celebration this weekend, mostly with staff members and close friends of the paper, but we’re supposed to have a big celebration at the end of the month. A famous Nigerian speaker is supposed come and give a talk - I forget his name, I’ll have to figure it out and put a link with his biography up on the blog next - and we hope many more prominent figures will attend. Mr. Lewis was adverse to having the President of Salone attend, only because he didn’t want to make it a political event, but the theme of the celebration is not only about Awoko’s 10th anniversary, but the whole concept of trying to turn the image of the coutry around and “brand” Sierra Leone. We’ll see what happens in the coming weeks leading to the big night… which will also be my last weekend in Salone (it’s fast approaching, and I’m not sure I really want it to).

A serious case of ’swell foot’

I’ve all of a sudden been appointed by my editor and coworkers as the secondary editor at my paper - meaning I copy edit all of the day’s stories before passing it onto Mr. Lewis. It’s great to be busy with more work to do, and I appreciate that Mr. Lewis has enough confidence in me to take on this heft assignment… but wow. Obviously journalism (and writing, in general) is nothing to write home about here in Salone, so it’s been frustrating at times trying to manuver my way through what Mr. Lewis calls “a minefield.” In my first couple of days editing stories, I had an interesting exchange with Mr. Lewis:

“Yu, do you know what ‘swell foot’ is?” he asked me.

“Swell food?” I asked as I continued to edit stories while sitting in his office.

“No, swell foot,” he said.

“Umm, I don’t think so.”

“When you try to take someone else’s job, you get ‘swell foot’ and you get stuck in that person’s chair for the rest of the day,” he said, smiling.

To contiue reading (and for links to two new columns), click here.

A Wild Night at Paddy’s and the cocaine saga

So last Friday night was a wild and exciting night at “the hot spot” of Sierra Leone, Paddy’s International. My most recent column was on the events of that night. I was a bit worried about it, though, because it had the potential to be the most controversial column yet. I’m sure readers will see what I am talking about.

Anyway, some interesting news is going on in Freetown with the government failing to act on important Anti-Corruption and Anti-Drug bills (especially considering the recent cocaine saga). Fellow reporters and I have been working mainly on stories about those bills this week, so blog updates may not as come as frequently as they have been in recent weeks.

In the meantime, enjoy my fun column about Paddy’s, as it’s also the longest column I’ve written thus far in my internship.

To read the column, click here.