Jessica Nabongo: ‘What touring to each and every nation on the earth taught me’

(CNN) — As her airplane started its descent into the Seychelles on October 6, 2019, Ugandan-American commute influencer Jessica Nabongo peered out of the window, getting ready herself for the momentous instance about to happen.

No longer handiest was once she about to develop into a member of a prestigious membership made up of the only a few individuals who’ve traveled to each and every nation on the earth, she’d be the primary Black lady to have documented doing so.

Nabongo was once accompanied by means of 28 of her family and friends, who had flown in to commute on that remaining flight together with her.

It had taken greater than 450 flights and over 1,000,000 air miles, however she’d made it to all 195 UN-recognized international locations at the globe.

The revel in was once onerous — Nabongo took greater than 170 flights in 12 months, and says she just about give up on a number of events.

“There have been various occasions the place panic set in and I used to be like, ‘oh my god, is that this going to lead to public failure?'” she tells CNN Shuttle.

Epic problem

Named after her in style weblog, it recounts her record-breaking adventure, that specialize in 100 of the 195 international locations she visited.

“I am a geography nerd,” Nabongo says of her determination to take at the problem, explaining that it was once one thing she’d been prepared to do no less than a decade sooner than she in fact tried it.

“In 2017, I kind of decided that I sought after to do it by means of my thirty fifth birthday,” she tells CNN Shuttle.

So, was once she in a position to satisfy her closing date?

“I overshot my birthday by means of 5 months,” Nabongo explains. “However I stopped up completing on my father’s birthday. He handed [away] simply two days after my nineteenth birthday, so it was once great in an effort to deliver him into the fold in that manner.”

In step with Nabongo, who was once born in Detroit, one of the vital key causes she felt pressured to put in writing “The Catch Me If You Can” was once because of the truth that only a few Black persons are a few of the 400 or so vacationers idea to have visited each and every nation on the earth.

“We are so used to seeing the sector during the lens of white males,” says Nabongo, who has used her personal footage within the guide. “And that is other. There may be clearly some forte within the reports that we have got, as we exist on the earth, as very other folks.

“But additionally, simply in the case of how I see humanity. My recognize for humanity. I see an enormous distinction.”

Nabongo touches on her reports touring as a Black lady within the guide, launched on June 14, noting that such illustration is vastly vital.

Growing area

“It’s about normalizing our lifestyles, as a result of, sure, even in 2022, I’m regularly the one Black particular person on a airplane of 300,” she writes.

“I will commute for days and not see anyone on the identical finish of the colour spectrum. My venture is to make space. To shake s**t up. To mention, we’re right here and we belong.”

She feels a accountability to constitute locations that are not essentially vacationer hotspots as sensitively as conceivable to problem preconceptions.

“That is truly vital to me,” she admits. “To inform tales about puts that the general public might by no means commute to and truly use my platform to place those puts in a extra certain gentle than we in most cases see.

“I discovered numerous good looks in numerous puts that folks almost definitely do not have anticipated.”

Those puts come with Afghanistan, the place she was once entranced by means of the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, sometimes called Blue Mosque within the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif, Pakistan, the place she could not get sufficient of the road meals, and Iran, the place she visited the traditional town of Yazd.

Whilst social media was once undoubtedly round when Nabongo first started touring widely, it wasn’t rather as influential as it’s lately.

“When I used to be in Maui [Hawaii], I discovered this truly superb wooded area, ” she says. “I did not do a geotag [add the geographic coordinates of the location] as a result of I do know what that can have completed to that wooded area.”

“Being an influencer or anyone of affect, you need to be extremely cautious with the way you percentage. For me, it is truly vital to verify the preservation of puts that I am visiting.”

Influencer have an effect on

Nabongo is wistful concerning the perception of “touring blindly,” noting that this has develop into virtually not possible within the trendy international.

“It is for sure one thing that I pass over particularly,” Nabongo admits, mentioning Peru as one of the vital locations that she felt moderately underwhelmed by means of just because she’d noticed such a lot of photographs of its ancient attractions previously.

“After I were given to Machu Picchu, I used to be like, ‘Oh, it seems to be similar to the images,'” she admits. “So it was once disappointing.

“You consider puts like Bali, and Morocco, everyone’s going to the similar locations and doing the similar issues. And that’s the reason simply no longer fascinating to me.

“However there may be Yemen, Afghanistan and South Sudan. There are such a large amount of puts that folks do not assume are treasured in the case of tourism, the place I had a fully superb time.

“I truly hope that thru my storytelling, there is a relief in bias about Black and Brown international locations particularly.”

All over a few of her hardest moments at the street, Nabongo started to query whether or not she’d make it to the Seychelles, the overall nation on her listing.

However the travel had develop into about way over simply reaching her goal by means of then — she knew she was once showcasing puts her fans would most likely by no means have thought to be visiting.

When she reached her snapping point all over a talk over with to Mali, a landlocked nation in West Africa, it was once the phrases of a few locals that satisfied her to stay going.

“Probably the most guys stated, ‘It isn’t for you. It is for us.'” she says. “That was once truly an enormous turning level. As a result of as my target audience was once rising and folks had been emailing and DMing me, I used to be understanding that the adventure was once turning into such a lot larger than me. The ones males truly helped get me to the end line.”

Whilst Nabongo notes that having a US passport grants her privileges that are not afforded to vacationers of different nationalities, she explains that she was once in a position to commute to over 40 international locations on her Ugandan passport.

Secret weapon

“Having each an American and a Ugandan passport truly labored in my choose,” she admits. “As a result of it is tremendous laborious for American citizens to visit Iran.

“That was my secret weapon. If I only had an American passport, I probably wouldn’t have finished when I did.”

Her success, along with that of other travelers like her, will no doubt have inspired others to attempt to travel to every country in the world, but she’s keen to point out that this particular goal isn’t for everyone.

Before jetting off on such a quest, Nabongo stresses that travelers should really question why they want to embark on this challenge, “because that’s the motivation that’s going to get you to the finish line.”

She hopes her story will encourage others to go after their dreams, whatever they might be.

“I don’t think everyone is interested in going to every country in the world,” she says. “But what I do want people to know is that they have everything inside of them to do whatever it is that they want to do in life.

“And if I could go to every country in the world, which is wild, I feel like everyone’s dream is attainable.”

Worldwide network

In “The Catch Me If You Can,” Nabongo shares various tales of strangers who’ve been particularly kind to her during her travels, including a tour guide named Maha in Jordan who gave her a dress as a symbol of their friendship.

“I definitely have friends from all over the world,” she says, before expressing her delight at how writing the book has helped to put her back in touch with many of those she’s met on the road.

“It’s been really great,” she adds. “At any given time on my WhatsApp, there’s probably conversations going across 20 countries.

“People, of course, will always start out as strangers. But if you’re open to it, you can quickly make friends and in some cases, even family.

“For me, home isn’t about people. I think that’s why I feel so closely connected to people when I travel. Because it’s like I’m building little houses all over the world, if you will.”

While she found the process of visiting every country in the world grueling, Nabongo confesses that writing “The Catch Me If You Can” has been harder “hands down.”

But she hopes the book will inspire more kindness in the world, explaining that she’s noticed a shift in the behavior of others, particularly while traveling, since the early days of the pandemic.

“It was all love and kindness, and then it became madness,” she says. “Now you’re seeing people fighting on planes and being just really mean.

“So, I think unfortunately, that initial bump of love and humanity that we got in the first four to six months has dissipated.”

Nabongo admits that this has left her feeling rather disheartened at times.

However, she remains encouraged by her own experiences of human kindness and continues to look for beauty in the world wherever she goes.

And now that she’s visited every country, Nabongo’s passion for travel has only grown stronger.

At the time of writing, she’s about to take another trip to Senegal, which she describes as her “happy place,” and eventually plans to tick off another goal. visiting every state in the US.

“I have six left,” she explains, before stressing that she’s in no rush, and will complete this particular task, “when I get to it.”