Naceu o Jornal Escolar de Alto Molocue

Starting my day with coffee and JEAM

One of the many books I read during my first few months at site was the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. In it, I learned the 13 virtues which he aimed to perfect within himself (Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility). I learned that even without going to college, he received a bachelor’s degree from Yale (honorary). I learned that he was one of the greatest inventors of his day (bifocals, wood burning stoves, oil lamps, public libraries, and of course electricity). And I also learned that a well edited, published, and distributed newspaper can become a valuable megaphone to a man who seeks to solve problems in his community.

Luckily, the volunteers over the 3 previous years in Alto Molocue, namely Kate Biling and Chris Boyer, had formed and maintained a school newspaper named “Chaves Para o Futuro”. This meant that much of the work to start a Peace Corps secondary project (finding a local counter-part, receiving authorization from the school, procuring students) had already been done. But due to an irregular publishing schedule, conflicts with school administrators, and the normal turn-over of most of the students, continuing with the same newspaper just didn’t make sense. I remembered that when I was a kid, the most exciting time to play with LEGOS was when you had just taken them out of the box and the possibilities of what they could become were endless. Even from a purely selfish perspective, let alone for the students, it is much more engaging to create something from scratch.

JEAM on the day it was formed

Now I have no formal education in journalism. But I did grow up in a home where a day could not begin until I’d read the most respected newspaper from the greatest city in the most powerful country in the world, namely the New York Times. Though at first I had to wear sunglasses to read its blindingly brilliant grey pages, reading it every day was how I prayed at the altar of journalistic excellence. Then, while my mom worked for the Glory of Reporting itself, I was able to visit the great temple in NYC and bear witness to the organized madness that is professional journalism. So with the pinnacle in mind, I spent many a night noting down how to organize, write, distribute, and pay for a school newspaper.

JEAM's Logo, isn't she beautiful?

With a head and notepad full of ideas, I began to figure out how things work at ESGAM (Escola Segundaria Geral de Alto Molocue) and put the word out that a newspaper was being started. After enlisting Freitas, a professor of geography and part time journalist for Radio Alto Molocue, we began posting fliers advertising a journalism club at the school and held our first set of meetings. Most of these encounters were centered around a key newspaper forming activity, like choosing a name for the paper, electing an editor in chief, designing the paper’s logo, printing journalist ID’s, giving a basic Journalism 101, and learning how to use my digital camera. Afterwards, we would spend the remaining time brainstorming ideas for articles and reviewing professional newspapers, either Mozambqiuean ones that I would bring back from my travels or the exemplary New York Times in the print.

At that point we set April 30^th as our publication date and started collecting articles. It was slow at first, with maybe 1 article being completed a week. But once the journalists had their super fancy publisher edited color printed laminated ID cards, the articles started to pour in. Soon enough, our publication date had arrived, but due to gross managerial oversight, I had neglected to leave enough time for editing. So instead, we went to print 8 days late (still a victory in my book) and put out 7 copies of our first edition, at a cost of 150 mets (roughly 5 dollars). Lacking other sources for funding, I paid for the publication of this edition myself. Though not all that expensive, it set a poor precedent. How sustainable is a newspaper that has to depend on the largess of poorly stipended volunteers for printing costs?

Professors looking over the teacher copy

During the printing process, which was a comedy of double sided printing errors, I found out that there were two papelarias in town, the one we were at and its competitor. Grabbing at this information as a route to solving the problem of funding, I went down the street with my chefe de jornal Jonas to the check out the other papelaria. After a quick conversation, this second papelaria quoted us 112 mets for the same job. I then informed them that just like me, many people in town did not know that they were cheaper than the other papelaria, and if they bought add space in our next edition, they would be able to get the word out. Leaving the dona da papelaria to think over this little proposal, we went back to the first papelaria to inform them that their competion was willing to do the same printing job for less, and our next edition would be printed there. Accomplishing the rare hat trick of three birds with one stone, Jonas and I had printed our first edition, potentially made our first sale, and planted the seeds for our first price war. Mua ha ha ha.

Students and Teachers reading the first edition

After getting the two 1 sided copies signed by the pedagogical director of the school, we got some glue and posted them on the moveable bulletin boards, ready for the next morning. We then placed a two-sided copy in the sala das professors, the secretaria da escolar, the administration, and the municipio. The next day, the boards were moved outside, and we could officially consider ourselves as the successful creators, writers, editors, publishers, and distributers of a school newspaper. Sure there were many spelng and grammarifictastically errors, which no lack of people enthusiastically pointed out, and perhaps the pictures could have used captions, but otherwise it turned out better than I could have ever dreamed. Megaphone in place, now what do I want to say?

He’s a what, he’s a what

He’s a newspaper man

And he gets his ideas from a newspaper stand

From his boots to his pens

To his comments and his reps

He knows that any little article will do

“Dancing Choose” - TV On the Radio