A public relations nightmare

Just to give everyone an idea of what a Client & Marketing Manager is up against in The Gambia, let me relay a brief timeline:

Early November: Approached by Habibu Ceesay of Business Digest to write a feature article about Pristine Consulting for an IT special issue. I agree on the terms that Pristine is given prior review (I know hearing this hurts all those journalism junkie readers out there, but given the state of journalism in Gambia, I didn't dare trust them to print our information without me at least checking it for grammar and spelling first).

Mid November: Habibu shows up at the office unannounced with an old school cassette recorder to do an interview. Not a problem, I was already prepared with a media kit and digital photographs for his article. 

Early December: I read in the papers that Habibu passed away due to "stomache problems". This is really sad news because Habibu seemed to be a really sweet guy and a talented writer, both of which any country could use more of. I assume the obvious that our article has been moved from the production lineup.

Early January: Muhammed from Business Digest shows up at the office unannounced for another interview with another old school cassette recorder. I agree on the terms that Pristine is given prior review, a phrase I repeated about forty times during the course of the interview. I reprint the media kit, tell him one final time that I MUST see the article before it is printed, and give him my business card for any questions. 

Saturday, January 17, 2009: Muhammed calls my cell phone saying that he wants to email me the article, but he doesn't have my card anymore. He says it's urgent. My red flags go up. I scream into the phone: "EMAIL IT TO INFO@PRISTINECONSULTING.COM. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT PRINT THE ARTICLE IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION. COME TO THE OFFICE ON MONDAY". Muhammed promises to come to the office on Monday to review the article. 

Monday, January 19, 2009: Muhammed never comes.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009: Muhammed never comes.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009: Muhammed comes to the office with 10 copies of this week's Business Digest, with a 3/4 page feature on "Pristine Consultancy is Microsoft Certified Partner in The Gambia" .

I look at the article and don't know whether I should laugh, cry, or run to my boss' office and beg to keep my job. 

Obviously, I work for Pristine Consulting, not Pristine Consultancy as the article says. We are an information technology company, not an intermission technology company as the article says. Not to mention the fact that I am quoted as saying: "we have the integrity and we are honest and we want to develop IT in The Gambia, by doing so, offer quality services and products to make sure that our clients are happy because we have the quality personnel".

Please. If I actually speak like that, shoot me. 

Then, I call the editor, explain who I am, and tell him that the CEO and myself would like to meet with him at 2:00 o'clock that very day to discuss the article. We are not happy. 

He shows up at 4:15, asks directly for the CEO although I was the one that called and interfaced with him. I retrieve him for the meeting and introduce myself. The CEO introduces me again. Then, the editor begins to explain what happened from his point of view (basically, the writer sucks even though the writer says the editor made him run the story) and the man refers to me as "this woman", even though he's been introduced to me three times already. 

It ended up that they'll correct the info in their next issue and write us a front page feature article when we bring our next product to market (with the promise of prior review, of course, hahahaha). And I learned a really really tough lesson: In Gambia, the best P.R. is a preprinted, predesigned, only-has-to-be-inserted-in-the-newspaper advertisement.

A different new year's resolution

When I drink my Nescafe instant coffee in the morning, I almost always look out the window of my balcony to a breathtaking view of a green ocean and remind myself that home is only an ocean away. I think that if I squint hard enough, the east coast will come into focus. 

My apartment complex is located where the Gambia River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Just a few steps down the beach of my apartment are several touristy hotels. Thus, the beaches are almost always loaded with  frolickers enjoying some relaxation time. The water is beautiful, but it's also very dangerous because it is where two bodies of water meet. The currents and waves are so powerful that even when you are standing shin-deep in water, your feet are buried deep in the sand in a matter of seconds. 

As you know, last week marked the celebration of another new year. Thanks to the President of the The Gambia, I had public holidays for both Thursday and Friday. You can bet that I was at the beach at least once a day, throwing around my new Life is Good frisbee with Modou courtesy of Miss Katherine Staley and thinking about all the things I want to accomplish in the next year.

I started stressing a bit because I had promised myself that I would only take one year away from school before starting grad work, which means that I should be applying to graduate schools as we speak. But, I still feel totally at a loss as to what I should study in grad school, so much so that I actually googled "what should I study in grad school?", hoping that google would miraculously answer the question of what I should do with my life.

Truth is, I like what I'm doing at work to a certain extent. I like the fast pace. I like interacting with people. I like the challenge of it. But I don't feel like this is the kind of job that I could work at for a long time and then look back and say that I really felt like I found my life's purpose and contentment with what I did. The real question then becomes, is that even achievable? Do many people feel like that when they look back on their life? Or, do many of us settle into the routine of whatever falls into our lap and make the best of it? I would like to think that the perfect job is out there and I just need to figure out what it is, but I also know that it is idealistic to think like that and I feel like I need to start accepting reality a bit more.  

At any rate, I was speaking first about New Year's resolutions and how easily I became wrapped-up in the stress of graduate school and life possibilities. I used to look out at the sea and contemplate those things, feeling like my life was as open as the sea before me. Little did I know that the very same sea that represented the openess of my life had just swallowed the life of two individuals about my age on the very weekend I was asking google to tell me what I should study in grad school. There is nothing like a life lost too soon to remind you just how fleeting all of it is.

I don't think I'll ever look at that ocean the same way again. Modou saw them carrying one of the bodies away from our favorite place to sit and chat and we had a long conversation about how important it is that we just enjoy every day we have together even as we plan and stress about our longterm future. 

How's that for a new year's resolution?

Hello again!

Geez, it's been way too long since my last post. October 15th? I can hardly even recall the events of the past two months because they've passed in such a blur so I won't even try to summarize them all in a boring list. No, I'm going even further to announce a new direction for Gambia Living. A rebranding if you will. I'm ready to chronicle my current life in a more real way and less "traveler's blog" way. The thing is, whenever I've wanted to blog in the last couple of months, I've always felt reticent to put my real thoughts on paper. Too many people know about this blog, people that I wouldn't really want to tell about my less glamorous day-to-day activities or frustrations with work or pathetic bouts of homesickness. I seriously considered shutting the blog down in general, thinking it's better to not do something at all than to do it improperly. 

But, a couple of weeks ago, Modou said something to the effect that I should "keep writing those things on the internet" because they "make me think" and I realized that the blog should continue for the forced introspection that it brings if nothing else. 

So, here goes. Gambia Living: Uncensored. Sorry that it means you have to log in to read my content. I'm in charge of public relations for my company, so I can't ethically keep it completely open and promise to write truthfully. Besides, what I'm sure it will amount to is the story of a young professional trying to make it work with someone she loves. Hopefully the setting of this story will make it worth logging into.

Until later...