War's deep scars.

• Author: Farrow, Seamus
• Position: Voices

Litchfield County, Connecticut -- For several years my mother, actress Mia Farrow, has been a special representative for UNICEF. In August, when she went on a humanitarian mission to Angola, I asked to accompany her. I've always been intrigued by Africa, and this was an opportunity to visit places concealed from the world by three decades of war. So, as we left behind the manicured lawns of Litchfield County, Connecticut, I began reading all the literature available on Angola. Nothing prepared me for what lay ahead.

We flew to Luanda, Angola's capital, and then to the remote provinces hardest hit by the war. We traveled on UN World Food Program planes, descending in tight, stomach-wrenching spirals to elude any stray gunfire. We first visited Kuito, among the most devastated towns on Earth, where not a single building stands unscathed and even the rubble is pockmarked by mortar fire. Many families have carved out shelters beneath the fragments of collapsed walls. I met women and children with limbs blown off by land mines, and saw orphaned kids caked in dust with swollen bellies and stick limbs. In Melanje, I visited a feeding center, and held a dying baby in my arms. I looked into the eyes of teenagers so stunted they seemed half their age, and I knew full well that I would soon return to a world of privilege and promise, while they faced only hardship and uncertainty.

How can one make sense of...