BMT afflicts even Sierra Leone's Parliament

I awoke this morning excited.

Never mind the fact that I felt ill shortly after awaking and the feeling intensified on my cab to work. In the back of the taxi, I was gripped by nausea, presumably the side effect of my anti-malarial meds mixed with the intense heat and suffocating air pollution (I'm pretty sure 97% of the cars on the road would fail miserably if given an emissions test).

On any other day, I probably would've bailed out of the cab, thrown up into the open sewers, wandered home and went back to bed. But not today. Today I swallowed the excess saliva and sipped cold water until I made it to work. Because today I had a willing colleague wanting to report on a story.

For the most part, I've been enjoying my time at Radio Kalleone, but it has not been without its frustrations. For example, the market research surveys that I finished over a week ago have yet to be distributed, or even photocopied.

My station manager has been dodging my inquiries into the arrival of recorders, a necessary fixture of any reputable radio newsroom, but one that is beyond the means of all but the country's most affluent reporters.

And I hadn't worked with a reporter on a single story yet, as a result of the station removing their news content until the January re-launch. Instead, I've worked to prepare workshops and resources to aid the reporters.

Today, however, I knew my new friend Sheik Daud (pronounced "Schick-dowd"), the promising 25-year-old journalist pictured below, would be waiting to head to parliament with me, where we would complete a story for the Awareness Times newspaper, as Kalleone journalists have leave to freelance to the newspapers until their news programming resumes with the re-launch.


After a short side venture to pick up Sheik's press credentials at his house in the east end, where I met his mother, aunt and at least three brothers, we were on our way up the hill to parliament (the backdrop in the photo of Sheik is the view of the city from just outside parliament). White skin and a notebook seemed to suffice as my credentials.

We arrived just before 10 a.m., the session's advertised start time. Keyword being 'advertised'. It seemed this would be another example of BMT: Black Man Time. From what I've been told (by locals, not ex-pats), BMT - not to be confused with FTT - refers to the country- and Africa-wide phenomenon of perpetual lateness.

As the clock ticked to 10:20, Sheik expressed his disgust with the country's politicans, wondering aloud how Sierra Leone can expect to develop when those elected to its highest offices show utter contempt for punctuality and the expedient use of time.

But they eventually arrived, or at least half of them did. Fifty-nine of the 124 seats remained vacant, one of them due to the death of a member of the ruling APC party (All People's Congress) last night, which we learned resulted from a "brief illness" and was honoured with a moment of silence.

The remainder of the meeting was fascinating and elicited in me some sympathy to Sheik's complaints. Tardiness aside, a lot of the MPs didn't seem to take the whole thing too seriously.

Whenever there was a break in the formal proceedings, someone saw fit to yell "Obama!", setting off a random chorus of similar exclamations.

During a role call to have MPs submit their 'aye' or 'nay' votes regarding the acceptance of a new Deputy Speaker of the House, there were about 10-15 consecutive Kamaras, as it's the country's most common surname (Koroma and Conteh are big too). Once the block of Kamaras had all been called, a few Opposition MPs muttered "Kamara" after every name, a tired joke more suited to a high school pep rally than a country's major governing body.

Even as the new Deputy Speaker was sworn in, at least 15 people talked and joked throughout. Which even more starkly highlighted the Speaker's decision to adjourn the meeting on account of the "sombre mood".

All in all, it was an interesting morning and after interviewing the newly-minted deputy speaker, we set to work on writing the story. I suggested that we both write it up and compare notes, which was helpful in further nailing down the areas where the most improvement is needed to encourage a stronger journalism tradition in the country - fact checking, balance, and quoting being three particular areas of focus.

But Sheik's story was generally solid and he was quite easy to work with to address weaknesses and add direct quotations. I'm looking forward to working on many more stories with Sheik (who has a special interest in youth unemployment and children's justice issues) and the other young reporters in the coming months.

But for now, I need to find a party to watch Obama beat McCain. If Barack somehow loses, you'll have to excuse the lack of posting in the next couple weeks, as I'll be holed up somewhere battling severe depression.