Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Journey to Africa for Vancouver woman

“The joy is in the journey” is the message on Christina Baldisseri’s T-shirt.

This week she journeyed more than 9,276 miles — to Tanzania in East Africa — where she’ll spend four months volunteering as the community health officer at a new secondary school in Mungere Village.

Baldisseri, 26, who holds a master’s degree in public health from Oregon Health and Science University, was working as an administrative assistant at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center when her life changed course in June.

At a Women in Networking event she heard Ashley Holmer, founder and executive director of the Red Sweater Project, speak about a new secondary school in Tanzania that is transforming the lives of destitute children. The school provides each student a red sweater uniform, feeds the students and teaches them skills to better themselves, their families and their village. The message resonated with Baldisseri, who introduced herself to Holmer and said, “I want to help.”

In Tanzania, Baldisseri will do health assessments for the 40 students, provide research related to health initiatives and develop health curriculum.

Roberts supports himself by running an online toy store at D & S Toys. He signed up to be an extra through Extras Only, a Pacific Northwest agency that casts actors for shows.

“We get called in for a lot of episodes,” Roberts said. “Usually it’s a lot of sitting around at desks or walking around in the background. Extras generally don’t have any lines.”

He was in five episodes of “Leverage” last year and six this year, and he’s a regular cop in the background scenes of “Grimm” this season, Roberts said.

“It’s kind of funny,” Roberts said. “What ends up getting on camera usually isn’t a whole lot. But sometimes I see myself on there. I laugh with my friends that it’s like Where’s Waldo — or Where’s Dave?”