A brief introduction

Welcome to my new blog. Unlike my past failed forays into the blogosphere, this one begins with an approximate end-date in mind, as it is really only intended to chronicle my upcoming experience in Sierra Leone. Come May or June 2009, this blog will be defunct.

But in the meantime, I have two modest goals for this space. First and foremost, I am writing this blog for my friends in Canada to be able to follow my experiences in West Africa and, hopefully, gain some small insight into a very different way of life. I will be blogging more professionally for Journalists for Human Rights, but this will be a more personal account of my time in SL. And that is essentially the second, fully self-interested goal - to have a written memoir with which to remember the journey I'm about to embark on.

And now, a quick word on the naming of this blog. I learned that I would be going to Sierra Leone about a month ago and have wanted to begin blogging since shortly thereafter. The main obstacle was coming up with a web address I liked - or rather, didn't hate. I settled on fortytwopointsix in part out of impatience, and in part because I feel it's emblematic of one of my reasons for going to SL.

42.6 years is the life expectancy at birth in Sierra Leone, according to the UN. That means the country is almost doubled by my native Canada (80.7) and falls behind such unstable nations as Afghanistan (43.8), Iraq (59.5), Somalia (48.2) and Sudan (58.6). Zambia (42.4), Mozambique (42.1) and Swaziland (39.6) have the dubious distinction as the only nations below Sierra Leone.

And it's not the only social indicator where Sierra Leone fares poorly. The adult literacy rate was a meagre 34.8% in 2005. The infant mortality rate of 160/1000 births was the highest I found. Sierra Leone ranks 177th or 177 nations on the UN Human Development Index, which seeks to measure a country's development in terms of health, knowledge and standard of living. In short, if you're a young journalist looking to report on issues of human rights, you'd be hard-pressed to find an area with more stories to be told.

And so, in the next month or so, I'll try to post occasionally as I continue to read voraciously about my soon-to-be adopted home and prepare for the exciting months ahead. Stay tuned.