Eric Wowoh grew up in a "non-Christian" home in Liberia, where he lived with his seven siblings and his parents in a hut with no running water or electricity.
They slept on bamboo mats on a dirt floor, and he never knew his birthdate, as a midwife assisted his mother in the birth outside a hospital setting.
"In Africa, birthdates were not important," he tells PBS.
But when the country's civil war broke out in 1989, the rebels took over and there was no one in charge except for the young fighters.
Wowoh's mom sent him off with friends on a two-day fishing trip.
He was young and strong, and she thought he could survive.
On the way home, he was captured and beaten by rebel fighters and told he needed to join the freedom fighters who would save the country.
When he declined, he was declared an enemy and then tortured.
People began to starve as there were no rescue efforts and they couldn't tend their farms as they were told to stay home.
Wowoh's peaceful childhood was caught up in the ravages of Liberia's Civil War, which began in 1989.
He never thought about whether he would be a doctor or a lawyer, as he says that Liberians didn
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