my dream is to move to the middle of the desert
Black Rock Desert
The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region "(in the Great Basin shrub steppe eco-region)", of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt playa north of Reno, Nevada that encompasses more than of land and contains more than of historic trails. It is in the northern Nevada section of the Great Basin with a lakebed that is a dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.
early summer of 2001, when I was 19, I made the mistake of listening to my older brother and going to Afghanistan on what I thought was a dream vacation. His friends, he said, were going to look after me. They did — channeling me to what turned out to be a Qaeda training camp. For two months, I was there, trapped in the middle of the desert by fear and my own stupidity.
Benchellali said that his training didn't make him an enemy of the United States