Memories of an African trip

In Mali, playing with happy kids, seven years ago

Yellow fever shots. Malaria pills.
Africa.

How can you not love kids

Seven years ago this month, I was preparing for a trip of a lifetime.
Thanks to a former student at OSU, now Dr. Shelly Pepper Sitton of the OSU Ag Com Department, I joined a group of journalists on a week-long trip to Mali. It was a State Department-funded trip to help bolster the media in that poor, West African country, a rare democracy and friend of America in the Muslim world. I went along as the newspaper journalist.
Perhaps it didn't work, because since then there has been a military coup, and an uprising in the Saharan north that split the country. If the French hadn't intervened, Al-Qaeda might have the entire country now. Of course, what prompted much of the turmoil was the overthrow of Libya's Gaddafi to the north, destabilizing the entire region. But we were not concerned with politics when there, and welcomed by people where ever we went.

Poor but proud

Lots of miles and wrinkles since then, I still am thankful for what I experienced and learned. I would go back, if I could, so powerful was the trip.
I wrote  and photographed  extensively about it, if you want to see more photos.

• From a rooftop in Mali 
• Terry Clark reporting
• Sorrow in Mali
• Memories of Mali