Ruthie Ackerman and Andre Lambertson have an excellent video on YouTube about a Liberian soccer team in Staten Island, New York.

The refugees quoted in the clip make some powerful comments, including:

• “I tell people, how do you explain a war? It’s a tough thing to explain. What the people going through…it’s tough. It’s hard, you gotta be in the situation to actually know what it is. When they say war is hard, it’s something else.”
• “Being in New York it’s like war already…you can’t wear certain things in certain communities. That’s the same thing in my country too when you actually fight a war. Like certain parts of Brooklyn you don’t wear red. In certain parts of Brooklyn, again, you don’t wear white. So it’s war. But at least here it’s better, it’s way better than where I’m from. Because I got opportunity. I’m able to say something and actually make it come to reality.”

Ruthie and Andre also maintained this blog while in Liberia a few months ago.