The flight from Newark to Detroit was short and uneventful.
We had a slight layover in the Detroit airport and settled down to wait to board the flight to LA. We, Jon and I, sat down next to Monda. What an amazing woman.
Monda was headed to LA to showcase a film that she created called Little Known Stories. This film centers around the fact that there was "zoos" in Germany, I believe, where the attractions were people of different ethnic backgrounds but mainly black people. I was fascinated that these "zoos" existed but completely weirded out that I had never heard of this before. Monda assured us that it is a part of history that most people don't know about but will after her film comes out.
When Jon and I get together we can be very silly; playing off of each other making the absurd and the ridiculous seem normal. Most people will look at us and think what a couple of silly idiots. That ridiculousness belies smart and intelligent men and we found a kindred spirit of silliness, fun and intellect in Monda that meshed with our own. I was going on about how my phone was dying and all the plugs to charge my phone were taken up by others. This turned into a comedy bit between me and Jon, as most things do, when from out of her bag Monda pulls out a mini portable charger with attachment that she then gives me to charge my phone.
Her kindness and magical bag proved helpful yet again when while on the plane I rolled up the sleeves of my hoodie only to noticed that my elbows were completely ashy. I searched out Monda on the plane and asked if she had any lotion. From her magical bags pulls out lotion and bye bye ashy elbows. Normally I wouldn't have searched out a person that I just met to ask for lotion but I knew that I could with Monda. She has a generosity of spirit that is so apparent as soon as you met her.
As I type this I'm looking at her business card I just noticed the hash tag on it which makes sense after meeting her. The hash tag is #letsallbehuman Yes, let's all be human Monda.
Also on her business card is a small picture from one of these "zoos". The picture shows a waist high enclosed areas with people many lined on the outside of it. Inside this enclosure is a small black girl looking at something that a woman is handing to her. Monda told us she would love to find the woman that was this child. I hope that she does as well.
Pleasure meeting you Monda. I hope you trip to LA was productive. Maybe one day we all will see your film and Sundance or some other film festival.
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