Afghanistan > Haiti > Somalia > Liberia FIRESTONE SCHOOL CHILDREN Monrovia, Liberia - 2004 They are the children of the employees of the Firestone Rubber plantation and have just been dropped off from a yellow school bus in front of a neat, brick school building near the only playground I have seen in a decade of travel to Haiti, Afghanistan, Somalia and Liberia. And, they are happy and laughing and playing.   ALBINO BOY AND FRIENDS New Krutown, Liberia - 2004 His name is Festino Bestman, and he is a member of the Kru tribe who are known as great sailors. His friends accepted his lack of color long ago and find the photographer much more unusual than Festino. He will need to avoid the direct, tropical sun for the rest of his life, or he will almost certainly develop skin cancer.   MILTON Monrovia, Liberia - 2004 Quiet and polite, Milton accepts the only offering I have, some candy, and thanks me. He became a soldier in 1999 when he was 12 years old. Now, he is 17 and in the eighth grade. He is intelligent and articulate and seems sadder than his friends and former comrades.   UN SOLDIER Monrovia, Liberia - 2004 Charles Taylor was forced from the city by the approaching rebels only two months ago. Now the largest UN military force in the world is moving into Liberia to disarm the rebel armies and support a transitional government. The hot, dirty and dangerous work of these forces is rarely seen or acknowledged.   LIVINGSTON Monrovia, Liberia - 2004 Livingston joined the forces of President Charles Taylor at the age of ten and is fifteen in this photograph. He was decidedly smarter than his fellow soldiers and is referred to as "The Smart One". After Taylor's defeat in late 2003, he turned in his gun to the UN for $250. Now he languishes between childhood and adulthood.   MUTE ORPHAN Gardnersville, Liberia - 2004 Unable to hear or speak this young boy was found wandering the streets of Monrovia after Charles Taylor's regime collapsed in late 2003. Someone brought him to this orphanage where he is the only child without a name. He is terrified of me but calms when I show him the camera and photos of other children.   PERKINS Monrovia, Liberia - 2004 Perkins joined the government forces when he was eleven. He is sixteen, disarmed, avoiding the UN troops and doing his best to act like an American teenager in his baggy jeans, Nike shoes and gym shorts underwear. His bright, orange head cover was his lucky charm during his years as a soldier.   ALPHABET Gardnersville, Liberia - 2004 Like all orphanages, the Mae David Orphanage tries to have a school. Eight year old Peace Hill, abandoned during the civil war, stands in her school next to the alphabet written in chalk on a rusty scrap of sheet metal which forms the back wall of the orphanage.