“Life is a challenge.” It’s been three days since I first set foot in West Africa, but, as with most trips to the field, it’s taken me a while to fully grasp where I am. Today, I find myself in the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, just outside one of Merlin’s health clinic, staring at the license plate on the back of a motorcycle parked next to the rehabilitated facility. “Life is a challenge” it reads unassumingly. I don’t think there is a single human being with a remote understanding of modern history who will refute this truism, especially as it applies to the continent of Africa. Life has been, is (and I’m afraid) will continue to be) a challenge. But, as is the case with many marginalized, destitute parts of this often times-forgotten continent, one
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