Night in Istanbul

I arrived in Turkey five days ago.

Before I start, I will acknowledge the fact that the first half of this long journey I’ve been on during the past few months went wholly undocumented on this blog. South Africa was a whirlwind that I’m still processing, and our intense work hours left me little time to stop and think about what I saw and learned. Hopefully as I settle into a routine I’ll be able to take some time to put to words some thoughts and feelings I have about that sweeping, beautiful country.

For just a taste of what I saw, I'll cheat a little and add this slideshow made by Jon and posted on his own blog:


South Africa - Images by Jon Vidar

But for now, I will write from the beginning of this new trip, which starts in Istanbul.

A little context before we begin.

It's my last day at work, my bags are packed: In two days I leave for a six-month journey that will take me across South Africa and Northern Iraq and stretch my storytelling mettle to new heights.

First to South Africa, where I will write a new kind of travel guide for intrepid explorers and produce multimedia stories about a nation in flux in advance of the World Cup.

Then to northern Iraq, where I will be teaching I will work with the nonprofit I help to run, The Tiziano Project, to teach aspiring and professional journalists new media and multimedia journalism skills.

I've been working for over a year to help The Tiziano Project prepare for these upcoming training sessions. We provide community members in conflict, post-conflict and under-reported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives. Our organization has found its success through collaboration -- something that, over and over, our Impact bloggers have stressed is necessary to overcome the financial and bureaucratic confines of nonprofit business. We work with news agencies to promote stories that wouldn't otherwise be heard, to train people who wouldn't otherwise have a global voice, and to create sustainable community work where otherwise there would be none.

For the duration of our Tiziano: Near East program, we will be working with community members from the Iraqi Kurdish minority to produce multimedia stories about their singular experience of facing of centuries-long discrimination and their recent turn to near-autonomy within northern Iraq. I, and my fellow trainers, will be working with our students to produce additional reporting to give those less familiar with this culture context and depth.

Here, you will find updates from my journey and the reports I produce. But this is also a story about me -- a vastly curious young woman with a penchant for examining the world with wide eyes and straight talk.