for many western kentucky alum, the egg symbolizes new beginnings: basic photography, new assignments and an unrelenting passion to shoot the best darn picture of an egg possible. it's our first assignment (as per Chad Stevens for this western student).

it's fitting. after a little break, im off to work again. it's back to the basics.

i was constipated for a while there. sometimes life is squirting with ideas and creativity, sometimes it's stuck in the bland intestines of uncreative-ness. im excited to get back to life reminiscent of sitting on a subway with diarrhea, ready to run through the doors to the next toilet. i guess i could say that this week i got diarrhea...kari and I are (happily) headed to Jhapa, Nepal where we're gonna start a multimedia story on Bhutanese refugees heading to the US.

we've been digging for access from the ministry of home affairs, a concrete manifestation of kafka's The Trial. but with a little persistence, we triumphed.

the bhutanese refugees have been without rights for almost 17 years now; hunkering in 7 camps in eastern nepal. it's a bit confusing because they're ethnically nepali, but lived in bhutan for many years before the government decided they're not bhutanese enough and made them leave. not a one has been accepted back since. but they don't have nepali passports either, making it hard for them in nepal to get jobs and lead a normal life.

recently, the US and other countries gave them asylum. the UNHCR has vowed to resettle about 60,000 of the 100,000 living in the camps. in march, the first brave bhutanese refugees, harassed by those few activists believing they should go back to bhutan - not other countries, left for america and new zealand.

we're going to hang out in the camps and hopefully escort them home; document the whole process and visually shed light on their beautiful culture and why they're in our backyards in the US.

that's the plan so far. stories change and grow along the way.

i just want to tell stories. and help.