An "off" Monday

For the first time while I was out here, I couldn't make a story happen. I started with one idea early in the day and depending on who was able to talk with me or what new information came up throughout the day, the story changed.

But it really got me to thinking. When trying to make a story happen that has a 6pm deadline, a journalist really has to decide whether to change the story or completely drop it.

Clearly, I should have dropped it.

Folks on the business desk tell me the reality is that unless you've enterprised story ideas early enough, Mondays are tough in Kenya for business journalists. Apparently, the majority of business stops on the weekends, making it hard to produce on Mondays.

Also, it doesn't seem like information is as accessible here as it is back home. Economic indicators, for example, always come out on specified days. We know that US unemployment claims come out every week and that retail sales come out every month, AND, the numbers are on a government website, readily available for the free world to see. But out here, unless you are on a listserv for economic, policy or research institutions, you may not be able to get similar information easily.

And remember how I told you about the necessity to create contacts? Well, that's coming along beautifully! Surprisingly, members of parliament are quite accessible. Because of the country's dependence upon cellular phones, most people just give you their cell phone number rather than their office number.

So, yeah, one bad day out of four weeks...not bad...not bad at all!

Stay tuned...