Ilhamdulillah.

I have been doing some intense reporting this past week. I can’t post photographs or really go into detail about what I’m writing about (you’ll all be reading it soon), but suffice to say, it has been haunting. I listen to their stories of atrocities that I haven’t seen in even the most vile horror movies and I can’t help but think of my family and friends. I am so grateful that they are free and safe. These are things we assume to be our rights in America. I certainly always have.

But I’ve seen firsthand that in this part of the world for certain groups of people, it’s not a right. It’s a privilege reserved for few. Children grow up only knowing a brutal regime. They become used to seeing spent bullet shells in the streets.

I am free. I am safe. Ilhamdulillah, thanks to God, or whatever entity, if there is one, watching over all of us. And to the people I care about that are reading this, know that today I am thinking of you.