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.

Well, it’s safe to say that I’ve had a serious case of ’swell foot’ these days and it’s not going to get any better in the coming days: Mr. Lewis has come down with a mild case of malaria and is home sick (by the way, malria in Salone is very much like the flu in the states: There are varying degrees of it, and if you treat it quickly it will pass. But if you don’t treat it soon, it could be dangerous). Additionally, the managing editor, Mr. Samuel John (essentially No.2 behind Mr. Lewis in Awoko’s chain of command) will be taking off for China tomorrow for two weeks. AND (to top it all off), it is now the month of August; Awoko rotates News Editors every month, and this month it’s Mohamed Saidu Bah’s turn. He’s a solid reporter, but the problem is he’s never been a News Editor yet in his time at Awoko and he doesn’t seem entirely confident in taking on the mantle. In appointing Saidu Bah as the new News Editor for the month, the previous News Editor, Abibatu Kamara, asked if I had any words for him. I just said, “I guess Saidu Bah’s first month as News Editor is also, sadly, my last month in Salone; so lets make it a good one.”

Anyway, onto to recent news: Friday’s column was on a very subtle subject: The various different sounds people make in Salone. It might sound like an uninteresting subject at first, but I like to think of myself as the kind of person who likes to observe people and take notice in little things like this. For example, people here will hiss at people (Ssss!) when trying to gain their attention. There are more fun details included in the column.

To read that column, click here.

After my wild night at Paddy’s, I went to Old Skool Nightclub last night. Unlike Paddy’s, an outdoor bar, Old Skool was more of a traditional nightclub – one that you might see commonly in the states, even. It was a packed house and some celebreties were apparently in the house, including Nigerian R&B duo, P-Square. A column on my night at Old Skool will be coming later this week, but something much more interesting happened after we left the night club – an encounter with a ‘Sierra Leonean Mule.’ This is one of the most entertaining stories that I will share with friends and family and, of course, blog readers.

To read the column, click here.

Speaking of P-Square, this ultra-popular music sensation will be in Freetown, performing at the National Stadium (right outside my hostel!) for a big concert tonight. Celtel, one of the leading mobile phone companies in Africa, is changing its name to Zain, and the concert is a launching of the new label as various different artists will join the headlining P-Square for a monumental event. I’m very much excited to go tonight and it will definitely be on the blog and a column in the paper.