What Jessica falls in love with most of the countries are their people
Jessica Nabongo she has been a full-time traveler long before she was trendy on instagram . In fact, even when very few had heard of Twitter.
So it was in 2008 , when after a week of poor results in a successful career , she decided overnight to leave her excellent position in a pharmaceutical to go to Teach English to Japan.
"I remember the day I got on the plane, sweaty and exhausted after packing and unpacking my two suitcases of 45 kilos . I had never lived abroad, so I put ALL what you might need, including deodorant, toothpaste, and enough books to survive a year. As I walked to seat 34A, I took a look around. Nobody looked like me. The plane was full of asian people And as I sat down, my heart sank as I realized that this would be my life for the next year. In United States, we take diversity for granted , but I was going to a very homogeneous country, with 98.5% of the population japanese ethnicity ", she explains on her website about that first great trip.
The **culture shock** continued as she got off the plane and couldn't even understand a poster , but soon she fell in love of the environment, of the people and of the gastronomy and she lived one of the best years of her life. "At some point during my stay in Japan, I told myself that I would never live in the United States again for three years. In the end, I lived abroad for almost seven years , between London, Benin and Rome. I also traveled to many countries, over 70 , and I got a master's degree and worked for the UN Jessica recalls.
Jessica feels at home everywhere
In 2014, however, she decided back home. She had missed too many birthdays, births, weddings, funerals. She came back to get a well paid job and she shared a cool apartment with a friend. "Again, here she was, living a life that everyone considered enviable. But to me I wasn't interested nothing". However, when preparing for a friend's honeymoon, she hit the lightbulb: she would start a travel agency . And she would travel again.
Establishing the company was not easy, but after many ideas and comings, in 2016, Jet Black started working. And even though your instagram profile , full of perfect photos , seems to suggest the opposite, ensures that she has never worked more that right now. Besides, he has a new goal: to be the first black woman to visit every country in the world.
"In 2017, being in balinese with a friend, I heard that an American woman had won the Guinness record for being ** the fastest to travel to every country ** on the planet, "she tells us from Beijing." I did some research and discovered that no black woman had completed this feat. In fact, less than 200 people have done it all over the world, and most of those who have done it are northern european men . Once I found out that no black woman had ever done it, I thought, why not me!"
By land, sea or air, Jessica will visit every country in the world
Now, Jessica is in North Korea , her country number 142 of hers, a counter that started when, with four years, her parents took her to Canada. But this time she does not intend to wait a lifetime to set foot in every state in the world, but she plans to enter the 135 that are left in two years and a half.
"Since I am a traveler, visiting all these countries in a short period of time is like a tasting for me. Therefore, after achieving this goal, I will continue traveling , and now I will know exactly where I want to return and spend more time ", account to Traveler.es.
For now, her favorite places are being those whose nature and whose people They have the greatest impact: Indonesia , Kenya , Jordan , Uzbekistan , Cuba , Japan , Laos , Colombia , Namibia , Uganda ... And, in fact, what has surprised her the most during her journeys are the ideas that her audience has of places like these. "Having a platform like Instagram has been great for to share my experiences, but it has also been interesting to learn about people's preconceived notions about certain countries. Many of my followers thought that Jordan was a dangerous country , when I knew it was one of the safest in the region. In addition, many people did not know the wealth of the Gulf states, and many others thought that Suriname and Guyana they were countries that were in Africa, instead of South America," she explains.
The most striking thing has been knowing the opinion of his followers
TRAVELING AS A WOMAN AND BLACK
That female travelers have it **more difficult than men** is a fact that Jessica also clearly appreciates.
"I definitely think it's more difficult for women travel the world, largely because we live in a global patriarchy. I think that men do not understand how fearsome, what predators what they can become. Even when trust is built with a driver or a guide, in a fraction of a second, the relationship can become something sexual, which makes me feel insecure. The men they will never have to deal with it," she says.
In fact, she tells us how, in Senegal, after traveling for two weeks with a local driver, he asked her a question: if she wanted join an "Easter orgy" with him and his friends. "He surprised me tremendously," she remembers, especially since, after that time, she had built a trust relationship with the. "I told him not to pick me up from the airport, and despite his multiple calls I never answered."
Traveling as a woman is more complicated than being a man
This situation can become even more complicated when, as the traveler told us Gloria Atanmo , it is black . "Of course, I have faced inconvenience because of my race while I travel. The world sees me as african, whether I'm using my Ugandan or American passport," she tells us. And that usually leads to problems, like being asked for a second identification in addition to the passport, because, for example, the customs official affirms that she can't find out if the photo corresponds with her face, or that they demand a residence permit her in her country despite having said passport. Both things happened in their own USA "The vast majority of my race-related problems occur when I am crossing borders ", she sums it up.
However, none of this has made me consider stop traveling, If not the opposite: encourage all women of the world to do it. To get them to jump in, she gives them some advice: "Whether it's because you know the language or because its inhabitants make you feel comfortable, find a place where you feel comfortable, because that will make you feel confident, and when traveling alone as a woman, you should possess and exude confidence. That keeps you well away! the idiots !" she assures.