Associated Reporters Abroad (ARA) - Professional freelance journalists reporting for media outlets worldwide

Jabeen Bhatti, managing editor-ARA, reporter, Berlin, Germany. Covered, contributed to and edited stories from Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon and Egypt:

When I randomly decided to vacation in Tunisia in December 2010 for the first time, I had no idea that it would change my life, or ARA, that I would for the next year, would get caught up in the revolution that started there on Dec. 17, when a desperate young man, Mohammad Bouazizi, set himself on fire.

Even though I didn't witness it directly, I knew something was up while I was there. I didn't have enough experience in the country to interpret it then. But when I returned to Berlin Dec. 21, 2010, I saw it right away what was happening and what it would lead to.

I was obsessively following it. I couldn't get most US papers interested in it initially. And because of financial difficulties (barely being paid for work in 2010), I couldn't just take off and cover it - but I wanted to. Tunisia got under my skin that December, and that was before I knew there was a revolution starting.

In the end, Aida, my colleague and friend in Morocco, and I decided to raise money to cover expenses soon after Ben Ali left to report on the aftermath of the revolution. We did that on a crowd-funding platform, and it tremendously helped (and gave us a community as well, unexpectedly). We wrote a lot of stories on Tunisia after that trip. I wish I could say I was satisfied. I still have a lot of story ideas I would like to fulfill. Maybe I will someday soon.

Besides, for some reason, I can't explain, I take these uprisings personally.