thank you usa

First Contingent of Liberian Refugees from Ivory Coast Heads for New Home
: 2003-10-27


Three hundred Liberians who fled Liberia during the onerous rule of deposed
president Charles Taylor are preparing to move-to the United States. They
are the first cohort of a 7,000-strong group of America-bound Liberians who
are now unwelcome in the Ivory Coast, where they had been staying, but who
fear returning to Liberia. The future Americans are being schooled in
"cultural orientation" by coaches from the U.S. and the UN. Most of the
refugees are believers in what the culturally sensitive call "traditional
religions" (these Liberians call their faith "juju"), and some of them fear
a lack of access to witch doctors who can protect them against evil spells
and spirits in their new homes in Washington D.C., Maryland, Kansas,
Nebraska, and South Dakota.