We've (almost) arrived to Liberia!

May 7, 2018, 8:35pm

Over the Atlantic Ocean

4021 miles to Accra, 7 hours, 28 minutes from now

Rendezvous #2

Even though I am writing this on May 7, it will be the beginning of the May 8 entry. First I’ll set the scene. The seats on our plane have a 2-3-2 configuration. 

LouElla and I are on the right side of the plane, seats 21F and 21G, an emergency exit row. Extra leg room! I have the window seat. Tim is eight rows ahead of us, sitting in the middle section.

A week or so prior to our trip, LouElla found and read books on the Delphian reading program to help contextualize and prepare her for the adventurous project we are embarking on. First, she read Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington — one of my all-time favorites. She followed that with Roots by Alex Haley. Also, at her teacher Todd’s suggestion, she completed a research on the history of Liberia.

I assume most readers know who Tim and Jay are. In case not, here is a brief background to complete the picture. Two years ago my then sixteen-year-old son Xane and I joined Tim and Jay on a project in Liberia much like this one. Tim is a lawyer from Pasadena. Jay is a Liberian human rights activist. Both are humanitarian freedom fighters of the highest order. They met and became fast friends in the mid-2000s.

Their paths first crossed when Tim, at the request of an American friend, found himself in West Africa looking to help with a human rights conference sponsored by the Youth for Human Rights International organization. Jay, at the same time, made his way to this conference looking for help with human rights. His home country of Liberia was emerging from two bloody civil wars and he was going to help put the country back on its feet in any way he could. Their meeting was the beginning of a human rights campaign that ended up spreading through Liberia and its neighboring countries like wildfire.

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(Holy cow! We interrupt this blog entry with a newsflash! 9:15pm: Someone just collapsed in the aisle next to Lou and me. He was standing against the bathroom door. His head drooped forward and he crumpled to the floor, right next to Lou’s seat. [Freak out time! We’re flying smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic! The nearest hospital thousands of miles distant and many hours away!] Passengers standing near him rushed to his aid. Lou and I watched in shock. The cabin lights were off so Lou lent her phone flashlight to the helping passengers then she rushed down the aisle to alert the attendants who were nowhere to be found. Those aiding him straightened out his supine body and got up close to his face and engaged him in conversation. Right away we could see he was alert. Whew!

Actually, Lou could see he was alert. I couldn’t see his face from my seat, only his torso and legs. Lou, eyes agog, reported back to me what she was seeing, moment by moment. He was a young man, probably in his late twenties.

After a few minutes the attendants descended upon the scene, shooed the gawking passengers who had assembled back to their seats, and took control of the situation. The main passenger hero was a much bigger man. He helped the lying man to his feet. After the attendants were satisfied the fallen passenger was okay [Fainted? Too much to drink? Stood up too fast?] they guided him back to his seat. With order restored, we return to our blog entry.)

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Youth for Human Rights clubs popped up all over the region and a much-needed shot of humanity and decency flowed from community to community, county to county, and country to country. With this groundwork laid, it was clear that helping to improve the region’s literacy level was the right thing to do. And so the focus shifted from human rights to literacy and education. Around this time I spoke to an executive of the Association for Better Living and Education and told her I wanted to be part of an off-the-grid, far-flung, humanitarian project. Fast forward to the spring of 2016 and my son and I found ourselves with Tim and Jay in a steamy hot community center in rural Liberia giving a presentation on literacy and Study Technology to eighty eager students and teachers.    

Between now and then I invited Tim to be the commencement speaker at Delphi Academy of Florida’s 2016 graduation ceremony. The following year Jay topped that by being the commencement speaker for both the Delphian School’s and Delphi Academy of Florida’s commencement ceremonies for their respective classes of 2017.

Back to the present where we are the outset of another life-changing, two-week long adventure. Tomorrow our days of flying will end and we will hit the ground.  

Signing off at 10:28 pm, 3069 miles from Accra, five hours and 43 minutes till we land.

Until then, good night.