The African Story Continues
I knew I was in trouble when Florence Morris, Mother Florence, grabbed me by the collar. And that was only my first day in Liberia, May, 2006, fighting an intestinal insurgency while stifling inside the tiny, tightly packed house, her Global Cares Mission Academy for 150-plus local kids and orphans.
One might ask, what the hell was I doing in Liberia? Good question. Wasn’t that kind of a dangerous place, ruled over by child soldiers and racked by genocide? Another good question.
Well, yes, it was a little unconventional, at least for a 50-something Pasadena lawyer, to venture forth into a West African coastal nation then occupied by some 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers. But no, not that dangerous, if you consider Liberia’s 13 years of civil war had just ended, all the guns reportedly turned in (at least those not buried in backyards, just in case).
Joseph Jay Yarsiah and his war time story-on-steroids got me to Liberia, from our meeting in Ghana a few months previous. The idea was that possibly we could do something together in human rights and education. No real plan, just something.
… and so, on that first day, why not visit an orphanage? They had heard an American was coming and were waiting. … and so, out of the blindingly hot sun and into the gaze of wall-to-wall African youth. As one: “Good morning, sir!!” Me back: “Good morning, how are you??!” Again, as one: “We are fine, sir! And how are you!” Blow away.
Then, invited to a back room and squeezed into a 4th grader desk from which there was no escape, 4’10” Mother Florence came over and, in front of her five or six staff (i.e., witnesses), seized me by the collar. “You are from America and you are going to help us!”
My stunned, lame lawyerly answer was something like “boy, thanks for asking, a definite maybe on that.”
Roll forward two decades. Once again last month, and for the umpteenth time, I have journeyed out to “The Continent” and back, collaborations affirmed with the highest possible leadership levels and delivery down to ground with the grassroots.
From that first notion that perhaps Jay and I, together with his inspired 20-something cohort, could make a difference has grown, training educators and “educatees” across West Africa in the breakthrough learning-for-competency tools of L. Ron Hubbard, his “Study Technology.” Only by fulfilling the right to education are any human rights possible.
The ”impossible” task of raising humanity to a better state seems not so imposing when, in front of people who have survived the bottoms of despair and suffering, one sees the lights come on: that effective education is possible.
Perhaps Mother Florence is to “blame.” Back in the day, she had enough gumption to state the obvious. Help is needed and help is really all anyone can offer.
And so, we work, growing each year, engaging every educational level in Ghana and Liberia, Global Cares included. Huge thanks to the many thousands – volunteers, donors, advisors, supporters – who make this work possible.
Onward. So much more to come!
Tim Bowles
June 14, 2024
See also,
- Now, More Than Ever Inspired by a Great Friend, Helping Global Cares in Liberia, West Africa (January 12, 2024)
- The Road Taken – Fellow Travelers on Humanity’s Highway (July 21, 2023)
- Liberian Rain – A West African Chronicle July 15-30, 2023 (July 18, 2023)