Three days into work. Feeling incredibly frustrated. Met with Sheilla on Monday and also met with Brooke, the American who is spending three months of her gap year on a mum-and-dad funded trip to Ghana.
Sheilla is a tough one to figure out. She was completely uninterested in the themes, the stories, the anything. The only time she perked up was when we talked about covering mining stories. Other than that, it was hard to hold her attention.
I returned on the Tuesday and we went out into the market to shoot some pictures of girls working in the market instead of going to school. It started out really well. Sheilla was very aggressive and professional and let’s face it, streeters are never fun. The problem was that she paid each of the girls after the interview, which I wasn’t sure was a very good idea. To each his own, I guess. By the fourth interview, Sheilla was tiring. Some people in the crowd were shouting insults at her – apparently – so we took a break, went for lunch and she wrote up some notes. Then she suggested we go back to the office. I told her I wanted to get two more people at another station and then we would be done, so we agreed to go to Kaneshie, one of the most bustling markets in the city. Anyway, after one interview, Sheilla hustled me onto a tro and promised that she would do the final interview on the way to meet a friend for coffee. We were supposed to meet back at the office. She never showed.
Today, I showed up around 11:30 a.m. after an hour doing Internet research and emails regarding our story and a harrowing tro ride. She came three hours later and suggested we write the captions later. I was a bit steamed. Then she completely lost interest because an editor had the audacity to edit a political story she wrote. I nearly lost my temper, but instead just finished the job and headed home to a nap. I realize frustration is part of the job, but I got the sense that Sheilla isn’t really into this, would rather be doing anything but this. I meeting the students tomorrow and I’m hoping they’re at least a little more keen.
Sheilla is a tough one to figure out. She was completely uninterested in the themes, the stories, the anything. The only time she perked up was when we talked about covering mining stories. Other than that, it was hard to hold her attention.
I returned on the Tuesday and we went out into the market to shoot some pictures of girls working in the market instead of going to school. It started out really well. Sheilla was very aggressive and professional and let’s face it, streeters are never fun. The problem was that she paid each of the girls after the interview, which I wasn’t sure was a very good idea. To each his own, I guess. By the fourth interview, Sheilla was tiring. Some people in the crowd were shouting insults at her – apparently – so we took a break, went for lunch and she wrote up some notes. Then she suggested we go back to the office. I told her I wanted to get two more people at another station and then we would be done, so we agreed to go to Kaneshie, one of the most bustling markets in the city. Anyway, after one interview, Sheilla hustled me onto a tro and promised that she would do the final interview on the way to meet a friend for coffee. We were supposed to meet back at the office. She never showed.
Today, I showed up around 11:30 a.m. after an hour doing Internet research and emails regarding our story and a harrowing tro ride. She came three hours later and suggested we write the captions later. I was a bit steamed. Then she completely lost interest because an editor had the audacity to edit a political story she wrote. I nearly lost my temper, but instead just finished the job and headed home to a nap. I realize frustration is part of the job, but I got the sense that Sheilla isn’t really into this, would rather be doing anything but this. I meeting the students tomorrow and I’m hoping they’re at least a little more keen.
posted by Palmer in Africa at 6:13 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home