From a very early age, Sierra Leonean girls and boys learn to carry things on their head. They carry everything from their schoolbooks to jugs of water, chairs, benches, baskets, and boards that are longer than the children are tall.

Children do whatever they can to earn money. These boys were walking on a path in Makeni, the former rebel administrative stronghold about 100 miles northeast of Freetown. Wood is stacked everywhere in neat piles along the road. The boys who collect wood seem better off than those who break rocks for about $1 a day. It's cheaper to hire manual labor to make gravel for house foundations than it is to use machinery.