Revelation

Zainab Sesay’s cousin then revealed that Tom Perriello was “the guy who you said brought Maya back. Remember? I told you he’s a colleague of a colleague.” After 15 long years, Zainab had finally known the name of the kind man who had taken care of her daughter. 

Contact

The cousin gave Zainab Perriello’s contact information and Zainab immediately sent in a long mail to him, explaining him and giving every little detail of the meeting with him at the airport. And before pressing ‘send’, she wrote an apology in case Tom Perriello was not the person to have taken care of Maya. 

A Reply

Sesay received a reply a few days after she had sent the mail to Perriello. He had confirmed in the mail that he had been the same guy who had accompanied Maya from Africa to the United States back in 2003. And as Zainab read the mail, she said, “I jumped out of my seat.”

The Man

Since 15 years of his kind favor to Zainab and Maya, Perriello had followed a great and successful career. He had been a part of politics as well as public services. He had led the advocacy efforts of the Center for American Progress, had served as a Congressman for Virginia and had worked under the Obama Administration as a special envoy in the State Department. 

2003

When Zainab and Maya had met Perriello back in 2003, he had been working for the United Nations as a spokesperson and advisor. And he was in Sierra Leone because he had to take part in a U.N. war crimes tribunal. 

Double Trouble

So when Zainab and Maya had met Perrielli, he was not only traumatized because of his grandmother’s death but was also occupied by the tensions of the work. But he had still agreed upon taking the young girl along with him.