It cannot be easy coming from a refugee situation and to make a new life in Canada.
That’s what I think about every time I meet up with the two Liberian households of women and children who arrived in Williams Lake in September.
One household is sponsored by the Williams Lake Refugee Support Group and the other one by Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
The women say they are grateful for the help they are receiving from the sponsor groups, but they are anxious about some things.
Front and centre is the debt they will have to repay to the Canadian government for being sponsored to come here. “We need help with the money,” all of the women have told me every time we meet.
As sponsored residents, they are expected to repay the cost of airfare and any medical examinations they had back in Africa.
It works out to about $5,000 for each woman and her children, for a total of about $20,000 entirely.
The women — Assata Cisse, Assata Koneh, Helena Dickson and Maway Barnar — were among thousands of people who fled civil war in Liberia in the early 1990s.
Assata Cisse and Helena Dickson were young mothers at the time. They ran through the bush, dodging bullets and carrying children on their backs, and fled to Ivory Coast.
In Ivory Coast they lived in large refugee communities up until they were sponsored to come to Williams Lake.
Last week I was invited to a luncheon at Assate Cisse’s apartment where the other Liberian women, two preschoolers, and Lynn Paterson and Margaret Anne Enders from the sponsor groups had invited me to interview them.
All four women speak English and are learning how to read and write by attending classes at the Immigrant and Settlement Branch.
Their accents are strong and sometimes it is hard to understand them, but I keep telling myself, it would be more frustrating for them than for me.
Soon into the conversation Dickson said her feelings were hurt. More than once someone had commented in her hearing that “they don’t know anything,” she said as she spit at the ground to emphasize that someone had actually done that in front of her.
It came as a surprise to me that someone would have said that, but Paterson and Anders told her that she should not take the comments to heart.
“You are so smart and people who say that are depriving themselves by not realizing that,” Paterson said.
Loneliness was something else they talked about.
In Africa there were always lots of neighbours to visit with or step outside the door and have a conversation.
Here they are missing that because it’s winter, they live in apartments, and do not know many of the people living around them.
Dickson built her own home in Ivory Coast. It had three rooms, an indoor coal stove for cooking, no running water or indoor plumbing.
“I would tell the children to fetch water from the pump,” Dickson said smiling.
Assata Cisse said she paid someone to build her a home.
In Ivory Coast they earned money in ways they don’t think will transfer into job experience in Williams Lake or Canada and that is also a concern.
Assata Cisse washed clothes and sold coal and Assata Koneh did hair braiding in the market.
“What if I get a job and someone only pays me 10 cents?” Dickson asked.
Responding, Anders told her that would not happen because there are laws around what people get paid in Canada.
For the first year, they are sponsored by the government so they can have time to learn English and ready themselves for trying to find jobs.
Assata Koneh asked if she cannot get a job in Williams Lake will she be allowed to go to other cities to look for work when the time comes.
“You can go anywhere, but we hope you will be able to stay here,” Paterson told her.
Just before Christmas the sponsorship groups organized a potluck dinner for them at Sacred Heart Church.
The evening closed off with dancing to African music. It took a little coaxing to get the Liberians up on the floor, but once they were dancing, you could see it made them happy.
I hope there will be more dancing and we will all step up to make them feel welcome and valued for the brave and strong women they are.
Anyone wanting to make a donation toward the transportation debt for both families can make a cheque out to St. Peter’s Anglican Church, with a note specifying refugee travel fund and mailed to the treasurer, Sherry Yonkman, (Williams Lake Refugee Sponsorship Group), Box 547, 150 Mile House, BC V0K 2G0. Funds received will be divided between the families.