“When I was 16 years old she decided to relive her youth. My dad wasn’t around so I had to take care of my two younger sisters. At some point the situation got out of hand and I left the house. For years I wandered from one place to another without anywhere to go. When my ex-girlfriend got pregnant it was the first time I found peace within myself. All of a sudden my goals were very clear. I changed everything about my life that was unstable. When we broke up we agreed that our issues would never be a burden to our son. I would never want him to go through same shit I went through as a little boy.”

When I asked her if I could take her photograph she agreed. Every shot I took she somehow looked away or tried to hide her face from me. I asked her if she felt uncomfortable in front of the camera, she answered: “I have been modeling in the past for quite a while. Being photographed reminds me of the fashion world. I’ve seen it up close and believe me it isn’t pretty. But your blog probably has nothing to do with that so I’ll try my best.”

“I travel the world making jewelry. Each country inspires me in a different way.”

“Are you a musician?”
“I’m trying to be..”
“Do you play music in the conservatory?”
“I play music in life..”

* And then he shared his orange with me.

“Twenty-three years ago I came to Amsterdam as a refugee from Burkina Faso. I didn’t know anyone and I barely had any money. For three months I slept outside in the Sarphatipark without any place to go. It was summer so luckily it wasn’t too cold but neither did I had much expectations after leaving my homeland behind. Back home I was an actor so after a while I got involved in the acting scene of Amsterdam. Soon I understood that acting wasn’t going to make enough money to provide for a living. I decided to go back to school and get a degree in finance and now I am working in a bank.”
“What is the most important lesson you have learned from your journey?”
“To let life carry you instead of trying to carry life itself, it’s to heavy anyways.”

“I was raised Christian but I converted to Hare Krishna years ago. When I told my family I wanted to convert they were happy for me, even my brother who is a pastor gave me his blessing. The beautiful thing is that even though I converted, we still believe in the same god.”