“I met him on Instagram. He was living in South Africa while I was here in Amsterdam. I had no idea who he was but two days later I quit my job and I was on a plane to South Africa. This was one and a half year ago. Now we are boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Welcome to Jerusalem where my journey together with Carl and Epiphany from 365docobites starts. This means that for the next two weeks portraits from our journey will be up on Humans of Amsterdam combined with docobites (2-4 minute film portraits.) Combining photography and film is something I always have been very interested in so this was a wonderful opportunity to do so. Feel free to share your feedback. Please remember that the idea of this project is not to make a political statement of any kind or to represent a people or a nation. Our true intention is to simply share the human stories from the people in these areas that we met along the way.

*Also I would like to give out a special shout out to those who got involved by voting or contributing financially to this project.

“I’m from Italy. I came to Amsterdam be more free.”
“How are you more free here than in Italy?”
“For example, In Italy it’s illegal to smoke marihuana. I don’t understand why our government makes such a big deal out of it. I think they should be more worried about alcohol consumption, which in my opinion is a much bigger problem in our society.”

“What is your biggest struggle right now?”
“Finding a place to live in Amsterdam.”

For those who wander why I’m in Nicaragua and what exactly I’m doing, here is a small explanation. I came here supported by UTZ Certified. UTZ is a not-for-profit international organization based in Amsterdam that stands for making sustainable farming the norm. You would recognize the certification by the small UTZ logo on coffee, tea or chocolate packing. Why Nicaragua you might think? A lot coffee consumed in the Netherlands and the rest of the world comes from Latin America. During this trip I met many farmers and other people who are involved in the process of producing coffee. The sustainable coffee farming has a big influence on these communities. It gives farmers more control over their own life and the decisions they make. They are well informed about their rights and it protects their natural resources. During this trip I realized how responsible consuming influences the lives of entire families and communities. So far it has been very touching. Thank you for following this journey with me.

“We were fed up with making meaningless TV programs so we both decided to quit our jobs. We came up with the idea to travel the world in 365 days and to meet a stranger a day. Every day we shoot a small clip and ask that stranger for their story. I call it ‘the pursuit of humanity’ but Carl thinks that sounds a bit dicky. So far we have traveled to more then 20 countries and shot over 200 docobites.”
“What has been biggest struggle so far?”
“When you have been filming all day long and you post that clip online and it goes completely unnoticed. We don’t like to complain about it because this is the best thing that has ever happened to us but it can be pretty tough sometimes.
’‘What have learned from this journey so far?”
“That whatever your passion or dream is, life doesn’t become easier when you choose to pursue those dreams. In fact it becomes harder because suddenly you do something you actually care about. But In the same time everything you do does become fuller of meaning”

I met Carl and Epiphany about a week ago they stopped by Amsterdam for their project 365 docobites. As an independent blogger/photographer I know how hard it can be to survive sometimes. They shot this clip of me while I was working and I can only say that they did an amazing job. Thank you both so much!

Here is the link of the docobite they made about Humans of Amsterdam:
http://365docobites.com/post/100011927312/humans-of-amsterdam-if-we-are-strangers-its