Anne Medley - intrepid freelancer

Intrepid - adj. - characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance. From the Latin trepidus, which should remind one of the word trepidation, as in fear and uncertainty. Adding the prefix in- gives us something like "immune to fear and uncertainty."

Anne Medley is not quite immune to fear and uncertainty, but she is definitely intrepid. How else could she be planning a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo - a country where an estimated 45,ooo people die from disease and famine every month?

The fragility of the government headed by Joseph Kabila and the ongoing violence in the Kivu region along the DRC's eastern border mean that, in all likelihood, nothing will change for the better between now and when Medley plans to travel there in November.

There are enough African nations involved in the conflict and so many different militia and rebel groups that it must be impossible to know how many sides there are, not to mention who is on whose team.

And this is a war where sexual violence against women is a weapon used to gain and keep control over communities. In 2007 the Washington Post quoted U.N. official John Holmes saying "The intensity and frequency [of rape] is worse than anywhere else in the world."

When I talk to Medley about these reasons not to go, she admits that she'd rather know less than know more about the risks. "I don't want to go in ignorant," she says, "but I don't want to read too much either, because then I'll get freaked out and not go."

If she goes, she would be working at a university in the DRC's Kivu province, the site of the ongoing conflict. She'd be charged with teaching journalism to Congolese students. For her, to pass on this opportunity out of fear would be a shame. She'd miss the experience of the place and the people, as well as the chance to show students how to tell their own stories of life in a country torn apart by civil war.

"I'm just really interested in life," Medley says. "I'm interested in those stories."

To be fair, she understands the risks better than most, having previously lived in Africa. And she's realistic about the extent to which she could travel inside of the country. "I don't expect to do anything huge," she says. "I might only meet 20 people."

Still, this would be living. She'd be pursuing stories no one else could get and sharing her knowledge with a group of future leaders.

"I might as well live a little." she says. And after a slight pause she adds, "or maybe die a little."

Medley cut her teeth working on multimedia projects at the University of Montana and New West, a Missoula-based new media outlet, and also produced a multimedia piece for her master's project about HIV/AIDS in Montana.

Her experience has led her to teaching positions at the American Indian Journalism Institute and the Diversity Institute in Nashville, a group affiliated with the Freedom Forum. She's also working with the National Coalition Building Institute, a Missoula-based organization, to teach kids to use multimedia to combat school bullying and other social ills touching their lives.

These short-term teaching gigs have become her schtick, and she finds them rewarding because her students pick up the technology quickly.

She's also working on her own projects, specifically a documentary/public service piece on sexual health for Salish-Kootenai College.

"I feel enormously fortunate for all the opportunities that I've been given," says Medley. She sees those opportunities as the result of hard work on her part, coupled with the productivity of her social network. She notes that each of her journalism gigs have been the product of knowing someone who connected her.

"Everybody is hurting," she says, "and like them, I'm just trying to piece it together."


Here's the video that launched Medley's career. It's about urban chickens.

This is the organization that is sponsoring her trip to the DRC, despite the fact that she's not a practicing Christian.