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Editorial — Chatham Courier reporter turned intrepid traveler
If you pay close attention to today’s front page, you’ll notice there are no stories from Chatham Courier reporter Sesame Campbell. Not because she’s no longer reporting, but because she is currently in Africa. Yes, Courier readers, she hasn’t taken a trip to the “Heart of Darkness” — well, close enough, Tanzania.
She was offered a great opportunity to travel to Africa — one she just couldn’t pass up. So after coordinating with her connections there and with me, her editor, here, she hopped on a plane Aug. 18 and arrived in Dar Es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, on Aug. 19.
According to her itinerary, she would be working with Team Rafiki of the African Reflections Foundation.
Sesame finally connected with me via e-mail on Aug. 20 from a hotel in the Kesele Village in the Mkurange District of Tanzania. She had already experienced so much in the few days she had been there. According to her first e-mail, as soon as she landed she hit the ground running, visiting several villages and meeting with some dignitaries.
Her second e-mail, sent Aug. 21, reported a slightly different outlook on Africa. She had visited Team Rafiki’s Malaria Clinic, where many of the children there were suffering or dying from malaria. She noted that one in five children under the age of 5 in the area she was in die of malaria alone, most of them orphans who have lost their parents to HIV or babies with HIV.
“I saw children covered with flies and a little blind boy that Maria (the woman she is working with) goes to see on a regular basis. He goes to a school for the blind children and he is so smart,” wrote Sesame. “[Maria] asked him a year ago what he wanted and he said a guitar. Today members of Team Rafiki brought him a guitar. You have never seen a bigger smile on a child’s face … it broke my heart.”
She goes on to say she had no idea how affected she would be by these people. “They have opened up my heart in a way that I didn’t know was possible. They are special people.”
You often hear that traveling to countries such as Africa is a life changing experience and I guess Sesame is feeling it. As of today, she’ll be a little over a week into her trip.
Her itinerary also includes visiting schools, learning about several community projects and programs in several villages and talking with more dignitaries, such as the minister for Women and Children’s Affairs.
I have even received a few calls from my roving reporter — late night calls, since she’s seven hours ahead.
She’s due back in the states Sept. 3, but in the meantime, she’s going to try her best to provide our readers with a series of stories of her travels and experiences in Africa.
And in addition to her series, I will try to update my blog with additional stories from Sesame that come through via the phone or e-mail; visit www.chathamcourier.net.
Most of us may never get to Africa, but our very own reporter Sesame Campbell will be bringing Africa to us.
She was offered a great opportunity to travel to Africa — one she just couldn’t pass up. So after coordinating with her connections there and with me, her editor, here, she hopped on a plane Aug. 18 and arrived in Dar Es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, on Aug. 19.
According to her itinerary, she would be working with Team Rafiki of the African Reflections Foundation.
Sesame finally connected with me via e-mail on Aug. 20 from a hotel in the Kesele Village in the Mkurange District of Tanzania. She had already experienced so much in the few days she had been there. According to her first e-mail, as soon as she landed she hit the ground running, visiting several villages and meeting with some dignitaries.
Her second e-mail, sent Aug. 21, reported a slightly different outlook on Africa. She had visited Team Rafiki’s Malaria Clinic, where many of the children there were suffering or dying from malaria. She noted that one in five children under the age of 5 in the area she was in die of malaria alone, most of them orphans who have lost their parents to HIV or babies with HIV.
“I saw children covered with flies and a little blind boy that Maria (the woman she is working with) goes to see on a regular basis. He goes to a school for the blind children and he is so smart,” wrote Sesame. “[Maria] asked him a year ago what he wanted and he said a guitar. Today members of Team Rafiki brought him a guitar. You have never seen a bigger smile on a child’s face … it broke my heart.”
She goes on to say she had no idea how affected she would be by these people. “They have opened up my heart in a way that I didn’t know was possible. They are special people.”
You often hear that traveling to countries such as Africa is a life changing experience and I guess Sesame is feeling it. As of today, she’ll be a little over a week into her trip.
Her itinerary also includes visiting schools, learning about several community projects and programs in several villages and talking with more dignitaries, such as the minister for Women and Children’s Affairs.
I have even received a few calls from my roving reporter — late night calls, since she’s seven hours ahead.
She’s due back in the states Sept. 3, but in the meantime, she’s going to try her best to provide our readers with a series of stories of her travels and experiences in Africa.
And in addition to her series, I will try to update my blog with additional stories from Sesame that come through via the phone or e-mail; visit www.chathamcourier.net.
Most of us may never get to Africa, but our very own reporter Sesame Campbell will be bringing Africa to us.
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