Women Who Travel Podcast: Jessica Nabongo on Her Global Cookbook and House Hunting in Senegal

So I think we have to think beyond the world as places for us to go and vacation, and we have to think about these different little neighborhoods all over the world that are filled with our neighbors, and we always want to just try to be a good neighbor, both when we’re at home and when we’re abroad.

LA: Whether it’s cooking in someone’s kitchen in Morocco, or it’s trying to buy a Cathay Pacific flight in the airport in Taipei, what are the lessons you’ve learned recently?

JN: I think the biggest one that I will forever and always come back to is, most people are good. And I will not allow people to displace their fear onto me. When people are saying negative things or telling negative stories of places they’ve been both domestically and abroad, I will continue to vocally challenge it, whether I’m with friends or strangers.

And one thing I’ll talk about really quickly. In April of last year, I finished visiting my last five U.S. states. It was Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, south and North Dakota, and I did it solo. It was a road trip. It was amazing. And a lot of people were like, oh my God, aren’t you afraid, there was no Black people? And I’m like, number one, the absence of blackness for me does not equate to fear, and it doesn’t equate to a dangerous place. Of course, there’s certainly danger out there, but I’m never going in and assuming because there’s an absence of Black people that I’m going to be unsafe.

And I had so many beautiful experiences through all of those states, and yeah, I barely saw Black people. But it was a lot of small towns and people were so kind, so welcoming. And I’ll say really quickly, when I was in Fargo, North Dakota, I did have a little racial incident that happened and it really put me off. This guy was just being rude and talking crazy to me. And I was like, it was my last day of the trip. And I was like, man, I’m not going anywhere. I’m so over this, right?

And I was like, no, Jessica, you’re going to get up and you’re going to go out. And so I went to a bar, and I’m sitting at the bar by myself and I’m probably looking a little down, and they’re like, Hey, what’s going on? I was like, well, it’s my first time in Fargo.

And I was like, it was all good until this incident happened. And they were so disgusted and taken aback and I ended up making friends in that bar and they bought me drinks. I ended up going out to dinner with one guy. I had a very early morning flight, and one of the guys at the bar came and picked me up from my hotel at 5:00 A.M. And took me to the airport.

And it was one of those things where something bad can happen, it won’t always happen, but I’m again reminded of the goodness of humanity because even on the backs of that happening, there were all of these people who basically held me in their metaphorical arms and made sure that my last experience in their city was a positive one. When you think about your everyday lived experience in real life, most people are good.