Liberians refer to the three battles over Monrovia this summer between former President Charles Taylor's forces and LURD rebels in 2003 as World War I (June 4), World War II (June 25), and World War III (July 18). Those battles, a culmination of 14 years of off-and-on war, have created at least 500,000 internally displaced persons in the country, like the children pictured here. One out of every five Liberians is an IDP, living in refugee camps or piled into abandoned buildings like the former Masonic Temple, a stunning, decrepit building from the 1800s that housed these kids.

We spent one morning at Samuel K. Doe Sports Stadium in Paynesville, about nine miles east of Monrovia, with another group of children who guided us through their world. They showed us how their parents lived, lying in groups on the concrete floor, separated by walls of plastic tarps if they were lucky. In exchange we taught them to "high-five." They were quickly giving us "sixes" and "eights"—we had to draw the line at "gimme 25."