Scratching the surface 

If you happened to be walking past my house right now you’d be forgiven for thinking that unsavoury things were afoot. You’d hear the sound of frenzied movement and flesh on flesh slapping, followed by a breathy ‘oh, yeah, baby.’ Yeah, you’d be forgiven for thinking someone was gettin’ jiggy wit it in my domicile.*

But, alas, no.

If you peeped through my window you’d see me, alone, scratching at my sand fly bites with the vigour of my mother with a chux when I forget to use a coaster on the good coffee table.

Do you know what happens if you leave sand fly bites and let them heal on their own? Neither do I because I’ve scratched mine to the point where I look like a pygmy Freddie Krueger has gone to town on my legs.

But I’m happy about the sand fly bites.

Because these itchy babies symbolise success after eighteen months of struggle and hard work. I got the bites at our island airstrip seeing off Rita Narayan, a superb trainer from the Regional Media Centre in the Secretariat of Pacific Communities in Fiji. Rita facilitated a week of training for the Isabel Learning Network covering participatory radio content design and production.**

I’m pretty sure Rita is some kind of magician or warlock or voodoo practitioner, because this week she wove a radio-wave spell that left my FM operators and our stakeholders clamouring to write stories, gather news, conduct interviews and design programmes. After eighteen months slowly assembling the puzzle pieces, she was the crucial middle piece that makes you sit back and go ‘oh, it’s meant to be a bowl of fruit’. What’s the opposite of the term ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back?’ The artificial disc that screwed it back together? That’s Rita – our wonderful orthopaedic FM trainer.

My operators are running around creating content, the community is commenting on how good the stations are sounding, our stakeholders are knocking on the door with ideas – as I sit here scratching my sand fly bites with a serrated knife, my stomach itchy from a rash I got from our cloudy washing water and trying to ignore the mosquito bite on the sole of my food, I’m as happy as a camel who’s just had successful spinal surgery.

This is what it’s all about. This is the reason I get out of bed each morning...Also, because I need more ointment for my ailments and I keep it in the bathroom...Until next time!

* That’s the one that means house, right, and not camel...?
**Jargon filter: Radio shows that are made by the community for the community.