Home » global travel

Tag: global travel

S3, E48 Marianne: A Magnificent Millennial

Ethiopian by birth, but raised in Rwanda, Marianne Mesfin Asfaw has committed her professional life and her personal projects to gender equality on the continent she calls home. On this episode, she talks about how her job with an international women’s rights organization and her involvement with a collective of largely African feminists have informed how she navigates the world as a young feminist with global experiences. Marianne shares that her background as a global citizen began as early as her teens – where she studied in the West and lived with her sisters. She explains that such an early taste of independence makes it difficult now to deal with older people who don’t take her seriously just because she’s in her twenties. Having returned to Rwanda in the past year, she also is finding it difficult to deal with the suggestion that she devote more time to preparing for marriage or otherwise tailoring her behavior to fit the cultural standards of a young woman who is on the marriage market. Marianne shares stories of professional conversations with mentor figures turning into guidance on how to seek a life partner, older women dismissing her indifference to starting a family with edicts that “you’ll get over that,” and the occasional free spirited auntie showing her how to push back against such restrictive cultural norms. Marianne also shares how her studies in gender politics and her maturity as a young adult have caused her to critique pop culture and the media she consumed as a high school student. She even reflects more seriously on what her work in women’s rights has shown her about how much danger and fear large segments of women around the world must navigate on a daily basis. “As a young woman who does feminist work,” Marianne explains, “I am aware of how much we have to think about our own safety.” Marianne then goes on to cite what it would take for her to be able to claim the title of free. “I always wonder what it would be like to feel safe and not have to calculate my every move to avoid potential harm. I think once we have that for more women, I would feel free.”

Listen to the episode below and then subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

S3, E46 Shannon: A Magnificent Millennial

Hailing from West Philadelphia, Shannon Griffin was exploring opportunities outside of her neighborhood from the time she was a teenager. On this episode, the 25-year-old traveler and thrill seeker talks about living in a predominantly Black neighborhood but going to school across town in an affluent, nonblack community. She explains how, in many ways, navigating these two worlds prepared her well for her college and post-college lives. After graduating from a university where she was one of few Black students, she moved to China. Shannon is honest about the hilarity and awkwardness that have been the themes of her experiences in the three years she’s called China home. She shares stories of curious questions about her hair as well as sincere attempts to connect with her and empathize with the oppressive treatment of Black Americans by their own country. Shannon is also honest about how cavalier she’s been in making lifestyle choices. While she’s grateful to exist in a time period where Black women can be flighty and just jump right into non-traditional lives without hesitation, she is cognizant that she’ll be thirty in only a few years. She is beginning to realize while the paths she’s taken so far have helped her grow and gifted her with many lessons, she has yet to take one that has purpose. She’s acutely aware that she needs to find her life’s mission. When asked if her life challenges what it means to be a good Black woman, Shannon thinks about the fact that she is an 18-hour flight away from all the people who share her last name in West Philadelphia. “I think I’m challenging this notion that you have to sacrifice everything for your family. I love them, but I don’t see it as necessary to return to Philadelphia or even America once I’m ready to leave China.”

Listen to the episode below and then subscribe to the show wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

S2, E33: Cole Travels the World Alone and With Sisterfriends

Travel Enthusiast and Accidental Entrepreneur, Cole Banks started Sisters Traveling Solo as a Facebook group. It was her response to an internet debate that discouraged Black women, particularly, from traveling the world unaccompanied. In this episode, Cole talks about the overnight success of that Facebook group. She had to quit a good job (that she enjoyed) unexpectantly when she went from hosting five trips in one year to putting together a team that organized twenty before the year ended. Cole shares that Sisters Traveling Solo is now much more than a Facebook group and successful business. It is a platform for Black women to share their joy exploring the world on their own and to build community for when they want to be in Peru with twenty other Black women in addition to sightseeing in Spain alone. She says that the fear family and friends often project onto single women when they get wanderlust is not allowed in the Facebook group that now boasts 70,000 members. She and her team have worked hard to create a space where statements like, “I am afraid to go here” don’t pop up in threads. Instead, the group has an abundance of “I took my first solo trip and I loved it!” posts that garner hundreds of support responses and impromptu trips among the members. In addition to sharing how much joy she gets from watching total strangers become best friends over the course of a week-long trip, Cole is honest about the amount of time and work she has to do to make sure her customers never see or feel how much has gone into their seamless trips. She talks about the realities of having this new good job (that she enjoys) in which she is “on vacation” more times than she is at home. While she is filled with gratitude for how well her business is doing, she admits she’s trying to find balance between organizing others’ memorable vacations and having enough free time to go on her own, even if it’s just to relax without a phone or laptop for a few days. All in all, she is content with her choice to leave her cushy job. “I don’t ever forget I have the life many people dream of,” Cole states. “I set my own schedule and make my own rules. I am always having a new experience in a different part of the world. I know that is no small thing.” It is also no small thing that she has turned this dream job into a million-dollar company in only three years.

Listen below and then subscribe to the show wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

S2, E32: Chineka Found Her Tribe in China

A native of Chicago, Chineka Nikko is at her happiest when she is inspiring others to be their best self and shining her positive light on the accomplishments of women who do the same. A poet, inspirational speaker and all around giving human being, she has seen her work and platform as an artist grow since moving to China. In this episode, she shares how her first experience living overseas was through military service and her current experience came after having no other choice but to leave Chicago. A sudden job loss along with an invitation from an old friend to move to Asia were the perfect combination for Chineka to start a new life. She has no regrets and feels it is the best decision she’s ever made. She has had no trouble finding work and has seen what was once a glorified hobby turn into a platform as a speaker and poet. She explains how quickly things happen in China and how many times what she thought of as a small, community event at which she had been asked to speak turned out to be a “big deal with news crews and cameras and more people asking me to write other stuff for them.” Chineka also addresses what is a recurring question by family and friends back home: “But, are there Black people in China, though?” She laughs as she cites all the Black people she has met from all across the diaspora since moving to China. She tries to be humble as she says she has about a hundred friends who, at any given moment, would offer her their bed, food, money and even a job if she needed it. She quickly confesses she low balled the number and has more like two hundred members of her tribe; the vast majority of them are Black. Though she had (and still has) a supportive network of people in Chicago, something about her network in China has resulted in Chineka being free to explore a much fuller version of herself. “It’s almost like I am living in a dream. It’s hard to explain, but I have accomplished and grown so much in my three years here. I have had to force myself to slow down.”

Listen below and then subscribe to the show wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Bonus: Donna, the Global Citizen, is Back!

On episode 6, Donnalee Donaldson shared her journey to global citizenship, which started when she left Jamaica at sixteen and headed to the United States. She eventually found her way to Rwanda in East Africa. On this episode, she returns to share her adventures traveling to over twenty African nations in the five years she has called Kigali, Rwanda home. From her deeply spiritual backpacking trip across Ethiopia to partying in Uganda to reveling in the traces of Jamaica she found in Ghana, Donna speaks passionately about all that Africa has to offer the traveler who is open to experiences beyond safari. She also debunks common myths about the continent, including one prevalent among black travelers who romanticize the motherland.  Committed to highlighting the excellence overflowing in many African nations, Donna hosts the podcast, Diaspora Diaries, which highlights innovators, influencers and entrepreneurs who call Africa home.

Listen below and then subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Ep 13: Ms. West Found A Better Life Outside the USA

Kimberly West is unafraid of transition because she is well versed in reinvention. In her 50 brief years on this planet, she has transitioned from a corporate worker to a management consultant to a restaurant owner to a farm owner to a globally minded entrepreneur. In this episode, Kimberly talks about her decision to leave the United States for Mexico. The impetus for her relocation was realizing just how tainted the food supply in America is and wanting an all around healthier lifestyle. Given the toxicity of the political climate and the cost of living, remaining in the United States seemed counter productive to her goal of holistic happiness. Ms. West talks about how much better she eats now because she has greater access to clean foods. She also is able to invest in her businesses because her dollar goes so much farther than it ever had in America. Another big advantage of living outside of America is the lessened anxiety of being dehumanized because of her blackness. Kimberly speaks honestly about not worrying about being a statistic now that she has left the United States and hypothesizes on why more Black Americans won’t follow her (and many others) lead. In addition to the joys of living abroad, she shares the assumptions people make about her as an unmarried, childless woman who spends more time traveling and building her businesses than trying to find a good man. She chuckles at this cross cultural concern that no man will want her because she is too independent and is making no effort to correct this character flaw that makes her less desirable to eligible men. “I am much happier than many of my friends who have done what they were supposed to do, who have the white picket fence, the good man and kids,” Kimberly states. “At any rate,” she continues, “the lesson from my story is not about whether to take the traditional route or not. It is simply none of us are bound to the country of our birth. No matter which country that is or what we envision as our life goals.”

Listen below and then subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.