This marks some kind of progress.It's October and any building still standing in Monrovia has become home to the thousands of families who had fled from the country into the capital during the war. Banks, ministries, the national football stadium and even the Masonic Temple, once used for ceremonies by the True Whig party, and feared by locals as a place of evil spirits, overflow with "internally displaced persons", or IDPs, as they are known.Although most of the country is controlled by the rebels, there are still large units of government troops in the north, deserted by Taylor, isolated, and with a limited supply of food and ammunition The rebels clearly smell blood, and are buoyant There are daily reports of fighting. But you have to keep telling yourself that they could shoot you in the chest for fun, and would probably laugh as you bled to death on the road.We drive through a dozen or so such checkpoints until we go to Tubmanberg, the Lurd HQ. When we arrive and get out of our Jeep, we see teachers delivering a huge portrait to the Lurd chairman, Sekouh Conneh, wearing a white suit, a benevolent smile, and with rays of light shining from behind his head.

The teachers tell me that now the fighting is over they are hoping to teach some of the young combatants how to paint. I turn to a young boy next me and ask him if he'd like to learn how to paint like that, pointing to the portrait."I drive the truck with the big gun," he says, and looks at the floor.One thing never discussed about child soldiers is how much fun they have, and this is the root of the problem. One kid takes me to see a huge gun on the back of a pick-up truck "This is the Bogey Man," he says, "BO-GEY-MAN". He makes the noise the gun makes, motions with his hand to show something gliding into the air, towards the horizon.

Then his hand drops and he shouts "BLAAAAM" fanning both his hands open to show an explosion. I haven't seen anyone so happy all week.The idea is that these kids will gradually be disarmed and then sent back to school. Conservative estimates put the number of them in Liberia at 7,000 Charities put the figure at between 15,000 and 20,000. Some teachers have already quit because the kids still at school have become so crazy.Even before the rebels attacked Monrovia last year, it can't have been much to look at.

Despite a personal income said to have exceeded $100m (£60m), President Charles Taylor didn't even bother supplying electricity during his six years in power. Before Taylor, Samuel Doe ruled for a decade and presided over the 1980s worst economic performance in Africa. The few things that still work are leftovers from the days of the True Whig party, which ruled Liberia for 133 years, and whose members were descendants of the freed slaves who founded Liberia in 1847.The land that became Liberia was sold to a group which called itself the American Colonisation Society. Your instinct is to slap them, take away their guns and drive off. Some even carry RPGs that are taller than they are: they have to wrap both arms around the barrel of the launcher and drag it along the floor.It is the first time I have seen child soldiers and it fills me with disgust. I find it hard to accept that these kids have the power of life and death over me and anyone else driving along this road.