Seeking stories.
Thanks to the R. James Travers Fellowship, I spent two months researching and writing about Canadian-funded aid in Tanzania and Haiti. Follow my work here.
Me at One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (Laura Payton)
Tomorrow's the big day - my Travers project starts rolling out on CBCNews.ca. We'll kick off with an interview with the good folks at Ottawa Morning (you can listen online if you aren't in Ottawa) and you will also hear me on your local station later this week after I spend six hours in a radio booth talking to 31 different hosts.
Please let me know what you think. I hope it lives up to expectations.
I've been turned down for interview requests on this project by the following:
UPDATE: That last name is an update to a post from earlier this morning. I am so incredibly disappointed Minister Paradis has turned me down. I sort of assumed the prime minister would turn me down since he rarely takes questions from reporters, nevermind sitting down for interviews. And Bono, well, as much as it would have helped the clicks on my stories, I don't care as much what he has to say about Canada's international assistance as I do about our own political leaders.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development has been incredibly helpful with my project, including setting up a background briefing ahead of my travels, plus interviews with three ambassadors. That openness really got my hopes up that Paradis would sit down with me. I am nearly speechless that the government is putting up nobody to speak to their SIGNATURE FOREIGN POLICY initiative. I thought that the number of years I've spent covering the issue, plus the fact that I actually spent weeks visiting Canadian projects, would speak to my sincerity in wanting to provide a complete picture. Apparently that doesn't matter.
A page waiting to be filled with words - it's every writer's dream to have the time to fill one but every writer's nightmare to be faced with getting started.
I'm back in Ottawa after a tiring, inspiring and fulfilling few weeks away. I spent eight days in Haiti and ended my travels with five days in New York, where I'd been a little afraid nothing would come together and that part of the trip would look like I'd tacked it on just to go shopping or hang out in Manhattan. In the end, I had some great interviews that pulled together what I've been working on.
Now I'm staring at this blank page and avoiding starting. It's not even about waiting for the words to come, because obviously they won't come until I start typing. Every writer knows this but every writer has a highly refined set of procrastination techniques. If I recall my delay tactics dating back to university finals, my apartment will soon be sparkling clean. I will all of a sudden be simply unable to concentrate without washing all the baseboards or bleaching the grout between the tiles in my shower. And when was the last time I scrubbed out the refrigerator, or emptied the entire cat litter box and washed it down?
I'll be sitting at my kitchen table, coffee in hand, placed as far from my TV and HBO on-demand as possible, but those dusty baseboards and yellowed grout will be all I can see. How could anyone focus with such filth around them? Nevermind that I have a cleaning lady who will come on Sunday.
Over the years - in particular when I spent a few months freelancing and worked from home - I also developed some techniques to try to thwart my inner lazy person. I would go to a coffee shop, for example, and not ask for the wifi password. Without internet access, I'd bore myself into working. But for now, I'm only on day one of writing, so I'm not quite ready for such drastic measures. Besides, I should really get on Pinterest to find out the best cleaning solution for bathroom grout.