Journalism

I just walked into the internet cafe [I am here too often, so they know me well], to hear everyone working say, "Hey!!! We saw you in the newspaper!" with giant South African smiles. Well, here is an explanation to explain what they just said:
Matthew came to Thandanani one day to interview me for a book he was writing on the foundations behalf. He said he had come to know me through my blog posts on the Thandanani. A writer for the local newspaper, he invited me to write a feature article for the Witness. Wo0o0oo! Thinking that journalism could be one of my secret callings, I was incredibly excited to have the opportunity to write for a real newspaper! But then I realized that writing feature articles is much harder than writing news [as I had done on the CNN website]—when you write the news, you already have a subject to write about and it is gathering the facts and strategically presenting them. Feature articles, on the other hand, have no focus—you write on whatever you want and hope that other people will find it interesting.

While in Namibia, the first week of my Awesome African Camping Adventure, I got a text message from a friend from church saying that she had seen my face on the front page of the newspaper. She read my article and “I am so happy to call you my friend.” I was thrilled that they actually decided to publish my article!
Take this link to a PDF version of my article or look below. Unfortunately I didn’t return to Pietermaritzburg until more than a month after it was published, so I do not have a hard copy of it. But I am so happy that I am getting so many unique opportunities here!
Smith Article