dispatches from here

As many of you readers know, I spent the 10 weeks starting Feb 12 in the Middle East, through Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The core of that time was spent in Syria, living in an Iraqi refugee camp and putting together a documentary film (more on that later).

To keep things interesting and to log my travels, each day I took a photo telling the story of that day somehow. Most of them were done with a tripod and wireless remote, with an occasional bystander snapping the photo. I tried to switch things up, and the fact that I didn’t spend much time in the same place helped out.

Check out the complete slideshow below, 10 weeks of daily photos while bopping around the Middle East.

Hit the play button to get started.

Finally back home, resettled, and slowly catching up on sleep. Working on the project, which should be up in a few days.  In the meantime, I came across this article from the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ.  They just published a list of the 10 WORST countries to be a blogger.  Coming in at number 3 on the list is Syria, due to government filtering, internet cafe harrassment, surveillance, etc.  During the six weeks that I was there and blogging, I dealt with content filters (easy to bypass), constant passport/ID checks, and 3 days of one on one, around the clock surveillance from the Syrian security forces.  Odd to think that I’ve been in 4 of the 10 worst countries to blog from. Needless to say, its good to be back home, where you can almost taste the liberty.  Enjoy it while it lasts.