First Day

Hi Everyone,

I safely made it to Sierra Leone last night. I have some downtime at the office today because the office director, Ambrose, is out of the country until Friday. I thought I would take this time to fill in everyone on my first 24 hours here and what I will tentatively be doing the rest of my time here.

My long day of travel went really well. The flight to from New York to Brussels was really luxurious; I had a whole row of seats to lay down on, glasses of wine, and my own TV on which I watched awful cheesy chick flicks. The flight to Sierra Leone landed in Senegal first and then took off again for Freetown. An expediter helped me through customs at the tiny airport (which, for those people from home, was literally the size of Lizzy's newest house in Franklin Lakes) and after a 2 hour wait, I rode a hovercraft from the airport to Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. There, one of Search for Common Ground's drivers met me and took me to the house where I will be staying while in Freetown.

The house belongs to France Fortune, the Director of all of Search's regional offices in West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. She is a wonderful and vivacious woman who reminds me of Pon. Her house is huge for West Africa standards and there are soooo many people living there. Last night, after having dinner and chatting with Frances and Lara, the other American intern who has been working for Search in Sierra Leone for over 8 months, I was introduced to the many members of the household. They are either her kids, someone's cousins, people she employs, friends, or other travelers. The house is very busy. Only the common areas of the house have electricity and power outages are frequent. However, the new government will sporadically turn on power throughout Freetown, during which more rooms in the house are lit (though never my room). To my surprise, there is running water, but the bathtubs do not have shower heads and the toilets do not flush. To bathe, I fill a bucket with water from the bathtub's facet and then take this giant bowl and pour it over my head. No more 25 minute showers, that's for sure. To "flush" the toilet, I fill a bucket with water and pour it into the toilet and everything is supposed to go down the drain. I haven't exactly mastered that yet, lol. There is no airconditioner in the house because the generator is broken at the moment, so last night I just slept on top of the bed with mosquito netting over it. But despite the heat, malaria pill dreams, and jet lag, I slept well last night.

So, what exactly am I doing here? Though some of you might have a vague idea, here is a clearer description of the project I am working on during my stay. Search for Common Ground is an international non-governmental conflict resolution organization committed to changing the way the world deals with conflict. Here is the website in case you want to check it out: http://www.sfcg.org/. One of the main ways Search accomplishes its mission is through the media. In Sierra Leone, there are at least 5 radio programs that broadcast nationally. For example, one program deals with political issues, another addresses women's rights, another is a popular soap opera which discusses various social problems throughout the country, etc. My project here is to do an evaluation of the radio program dealing with children and youth issues, called Golden Kids News (here is a description of Golden Kids News on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_lFFJaMc4w). In order to evaluate the impact of this radio program on listeners, I will be spending the next few weeks traveling around the country. I will be spending a week in Kabala, a small town in Northern Sierra Leone where Search has a second office, and then another week in Bo, another rural area where we have our third office in the country. My short time in the offices will be spent talking to the producers of Golden Kids News. I will then spend about a month traveling around to villages where I will be interviewing, holding focus groups (which are pretty much group interviews), and giving out surveys. The rural areas are supposed to be much safer than Freetown. These tools, which I will be designing this week, will help to collect data about how the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of listeners may have changed as a result of listening to Golden Kids News. I will then spend my last few weeks back in Freetown, where I will write up my report and present my findings to the Directors and staff. If there is time left over, hopefully I will get to travel around to other countries in West Africa.

So, that's about it! My first and most important task is to learn Kriol. Even though its broken English, it is surprisingly difficult to understand. The people around the office are eager to teach me the slang, so i will hopefully pick it up by the end of the month.

I miss everyone already, I hope all is well. Let me know how you are doing!