Sliding Liberia

I just watched the movie, "Sliding Liberia." It played at the Boulder Adventure Film Fest. It's hard to imagine how the producers/directors could juxtapose surfing with a war-torn country in which 90% of people were brutalized in some way during the recent 14-year war. But they did, and they did it beautifully. The movie was meaningful. I really enjoyed watching it because I could finally put faces, actions, and emotions to the people that I've worked with at Common Ground Society, the organization that administers our scholarship program in Margibi and Bong counties.

From the movie, I learned how many Liberians talk; it's a crazy sort of Caribbean sounding English, but not quite Caribbean. And I finally saw clear images of what some Liberians look like. The only thing I felt was missing from the movie was the perspective of how girls were particularly and awfully brutalized during the war. But maybe that's an article I need to write. My goal is to get to Liberia later this year and to write a story for a publication--Oprah, Women's Adventure, one of those mags--about the fortuity of Liberian women.

Please someone call and tell me how I can spend my life raising awareness for disadvantaged girls? I want to write, climb, and enjoy my life as well, but if I could dedicate 90% of my work life to helping other people, that would be a dream come true.

I wish that someone out there would shine some light on Girls Education International--we need an angel donor. We are doing some amazing things, including educating 47 girls in Liberia and two girls in Nepal. We could do so much more if someone would pay a part-time salary for me to run the organization and for Heidi to run the fund-raising side of things. We work anyway, and we won't stop because we are driven by a mutual desire to make a difference for some women in the world. But, dang, it sure would be nice if we could pay the mortgage at the same time.

Where is our angel donor? Hello, are you out there?