Monkey’s Revenge

As I was walking through the streets of Monrovia, Anora David pointed to two monkeys. How can you pass by two monkeys when you are an American in Africa? We crossed the unpaved road, and glared at the two monkeys. They were just like you thought a monkey would look like only bigger. One of the monkeys made a noise. It was some kind of grunt or groan exactly like you have heard over and over again in any good Tarzan movie. So Anora returned a like verbal response to the gregarious primate. Once again the monkey made a similar verbal gesture. Then Anora once again responded with a duplicate sound. This caused the monkey to loudly answer with a series of monkey talk. And one more time Anora answered back with precision accuracy. Then the monkey dumped a load of trash on my head.

I’m not sure what the monkey was talking about. I’m certain that I didn’t like the end of the story. But it isn’t the only story I heard today. I know exactly what was said in the other. And I am quite sure I like the ending.

Early in the morning I met with hundreds of students at the Ford-Madden Christian Academy. They thanked me for the role Christiain Relief Fund played in starting this school fourteen years ago. It was during the big war in Liberia. Not only was the country being devastated with the traditional horrors of war, but it also caused the closing of public schools. During this tragic time, the Ford-Madden Christian Academy was opened. Hundreds of children have been educated there. Many have even graduated and gone to college. The new Liberian government has sought the graduates of this school to mentor them to be future government leaders in a land of peace and opportunity.

Arthur David, the school’s director, and Victor Debah, a graduate of the school and college, thanked Christian Relief Fund for its important work. They explained that we will probably never understand the importance of the aid they recieved. In their eyes it was much more than helping some destitute children survive. At a time when schools had collapsed, CRF stepped up and helped train the youth who would shape the future of a country. They said in the future if Ford-Madden disappears or even CRF, God would have used this time to forge the leaders necessary for the survival and benefit of a free country.

I understood that. I like that. You can dump stuff like this on me all day long. I wore orange today. When the kids asked me why, I told them that I had a lot of hope around this place.