Author and wildlife photographer Patsy Smith Roberts recently stopped by
Ortega
Elementary to share her stories and photos from Africa.
Smith Roberts has visited Africa more than 20 times since 1991. She has traveled to Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and her favorite, Botswana. While in Africa, she photographs real animals that she uses as characters in her books. Her favorite animal to photograph are the lions, and she has seen more than 1,000.
During her presentation, Smith Roberts shared her stories of being chased by an elephant, finding herself inches away from three lions fighting, and taking pictures of African students who had never had the opportunity to see what they looked like until she showed them their photos.
Smith Roberts also had mementos from Africa on display, including a lion's claw and African headpiece, as well as examples of the many photographs she has taken of all different kinds of wildlife.
Students asked Smith Roberts many questions, including what it felt like to be in Africa.
"When I was your age, I never thought I would visit Africa and write stories. I grew up on a tobacco farm in south Georgia," said Smith Roberts. "I still don't understand exactly how I got off the farm and to Africa, but it shows you that anything is possible."
Smith Roberts had always wanted to be a children's book author, but it wasn't until she experienced changes in her personal life that made her dream a reality. She found herself in a position of needing a job and not knowing what to do. Her friends encouraged her to sell photographs she had taken during her trips to Africa, and she began selling them at an art festival in her hometown.
It was then that she realized how interested children were in her pictures of the animals.
"Children would come into my booth and roar like a lion before they could actually talk," she said. "I thought, wouldn’t it be great to write a little story with a moral lesson that could help children along the way?"
Since 2001, Smith Roberts has published four books: Rory, The Adventures of a Lion Cub; Kabelo, The Adventures of a Giraffe; Willis the Warthog; and Nigel. She loves visiting schools to encourage children to read and write their own stories.
"It is important for children to read because stories will take them anywhere in the world. When they read and enjoy it, they are learning and may not even realize it," she said. "I visit schools because children need the opportunity to meet real authors and know that they can write stories, too."
Patsy Smith Roberts has also turned her trips to Africa into opportunities to give back to the children in the communities she visits. She has brought them writing supplies, clothes and shoes. She has also photographed them, often being the first and only person to capture them on film.
For more information about Patsy Smith Roberts and her safari adventures, visit
www.patsysmithroberts.com.
For more pictures from Patsy Smith Roberts trip to Ortega Elementary, visit the
DCPS' flickr Photostream.
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