Remember the other day, when I wrote about being so scattered in recent weeks as I try to figure out whether my being here is making any difference??
It's been a seriously lingering malaise lately, as I make suggestions in news meetings, and maybe one gets followed up on and the rest fall flat. Or I try to play cheerleader and rally some reporter to pursue a story, but then nothing happens. You begin to feel like a voice in an echo chamber, only in this setting that feeling is aggravated by another impenetrable layer of "outsiderness."
Even though I'm feeling a lot more comfortable after 8 months here, I'm still "The American." (Or the loudmouthed American, or the American strumpet who needs to remember her place, or some variation of said concept, I'm sure.) Oh, I stopped feeling sorry for myself a long time ago, but it doesn't ease the sense of being on the periphery of things.
In fact, I had just about concluded that my sphere of influence is shrinking, and maybe there's not much left to be accomplished in this particular newsroom. So yesterday afternoon, when the new managing editor asked me to edit a story about promising new gene therapy related to AIDS research, I expected it to wind up eviscerated and buried deep inside the paper, or on the back page...just like always.
Well, it was like Christmas came early this morning when I saw it on today's front page, AND saw that even more context and background information had been added! And I didn't even get bummed when I got an email from a colleague complaining that the story hadn't been featured as the lead on the front page, as opposed to the usual corruption saga.
As I told her, it's a step in the right direction. We all just have to keep on pushing, and maybe next time, health news will lead the paper.
Oh, yeah, THIS is why I came over here!!!!!!
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/534184/-/u2hou4/-/index.html
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