There are many valuable lessons that Jessica learns in her time spent in Kibera about being an engaged, attentive, and respectful person in a situation where she is unfamiliar with most cultural practices and beliefs. Jessica learns how to think about her own positionality in comparison to the community she becomes immersed in, and she learns to not let feelings about her own privilege limit her from learning about and becoming involved in the cultural practices in Kibera. If I were giving her advice before she were to leave, I would say to expect to feel discomfort and use this discomfort to ignite curiosity and open mindedness instead of being inactive within that discomfort. I would also say to remember to acknowledge that people’s beliefs have an entirely different foundational context than her own, so do not expect your ways of thinking and solution finding to be the same as others.
First of all, I would say that to expect to feel like an outsider, to feel uncomfortable, you must understand that feeling that way is completely natural, you do not have to force yourself to find a sense of belonging within a community that you know very little about. Instead of going off of what you might think to be polite behavior, ask questions and base your actions off of what others are doing. Of course, you would want to be polite, but you have to know that politeness looks different in different cultures and to be inquisitive and not just go with your gut instinct on how to behave. It can be hard to push yourself to be inquisitive when you are uncomfortable, but that is the necessary step towards having success with intercultural competency.
Additionally, there are instances throughout Jessica’s experience when she does not remember to acknowledge the different belief system of those around her. I would warn her specifically to not expect to completely understand and help people with traumatic experiences. Seeing Jess learn that her own positionality caused her to try to help people in a way that seemed right to her, which was maybe not right for them, had a significant impact on me. Seeing her become so upset when people weren’t able to receive her help in the way that she wanted made it clear that it’s much better to look at issues through the lens of people of that community and culture and to not try to impose your own point of view that comes from a very specific and different context and experiences.
Being open-minded and seeking discomfort are two important aspects of being successful in new cultural settings. Although there were some instances where I felt like Jessica could have pushed herself more to do these things, I think that she did challenge herself and grew in discomfort throughout the book. Given her background and experiences up to this point, I think that she did a great job for the most part.
