Clear Minds Passion and the pursuit of passion define the core of being Human. It is the new story - one created with each new experience and each new lesson. And you are the teacher.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Ethiopia | Friday, October 15, 2010 | 5 photos

We were enveloped in a disruptive blackness. Somewhere, in the Horn of Africa, our carriage rested, while inside our bodies contorted uncomfortably on plastic benches. Supposedly, this was First Class: a 26 hour train ride from Dire Dawa, Ethiopia to Djibouti City, Djibouti. But our butts, backs and remaining body parts disagreed in Western fashion as the hours of darkness slowly ticked intermittently between quick slumbers of exhaustion. One person stirred, which caused a domino effect of passengers waking, rustling, and repositioning themselves into something vaguely tolerable.

Outside was more of the same. Shouts of Afar and Somali traveled in chaotic yellow beams of flashlights that sliced into the night air. Above, the skies were clear as stars glistened in their full desert regalia. They encircled a waning moon that reflected what little light there was, forming silhouettes of the surrounding landscape. We were found in the middle of a moon-like terrain of barren rock cast across a few craggy knolls.