INTERCULTURAL EXPERIENCESAn Interview with Nerea Musita by Mokeira Masita
Nerea Musita has lived an experience that many spend a lifetime dreaming about and never get the opportunity to savour. Despite her young age, Nerea has travelled extensively and has been exposed to various cultures and ways of life from when she was young. Nerea was born in 1981 in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a passion for sport and it is actually the reason behind her extensive travel. She started playing basketball when she was very young and everyone began to realize that she was very talented at it. It was then that she was granted basketball scholarships, which saw her move from country to country, developing her talent. Her first experience abroad was in April 1994 when she went to Hawaii, where she studied at the Moanalua Intermediate School. In May 1995 she relocated to England for five months. During this time she was not formerly enrolled in any school but her parents made arrangements for private tuition. In October of the same year she moved to Cyprus. By this time she was in the 10th grade and studied at the American Academy. In September 1996 she came back home to Nairobi and joined St. Austin's Academy. After nine months she was off again, this time to Virginia, USA, where she enrolled in a Catholic High School for one year. On completion of her high school education in January 1999 she moved to New York until August of the same year, during which time she was involved in a number of projects. Nerea has been home since August 1999 working on short term contracts with various organisations, doing volunteer work with Ungana (Young Friends of AMREF) and also playing soccer for Inter-Continental Hotel and Basketball for Nairobi Pentecostal Church. Nerea is not the only one in her family to have had the opportunity to travel and live abroad. She is the youngest in a family of seven children, all of whom have also been to various countries and lived amongst people of different cultures. Currently one of her brothers lives in America and another in England. Her father also conducts business in Denver-Colorado while her mother does hers in Nairobi. The frequent movements of Nerea's family were partly due to the nature of her parents' work and partly just because the parents wanted their children to enjoy, learn and grow from experiences. As anyone can imagine, Nerea's intercultural experiences have been quite varied since she has been exposed to a mixture of Kenyan, American, English, Hawaiian, and Cyprus cultures. It might have been confusing and overwhelming for Nerea at such a young age to be able to cope with all this but she was never alone during this time: there were always people to guide her and see her through. When she looks back at it now she says that it was an experience of a lifetime and if she had the chance she would do it over again. She says that it has molded her and made her what she is now, a young person who is mature and open-minded. The experiences she has lived through have taught her the art of blending in wherever she goes. She has no difficulty relating to people from any walk of life, race, or religion because she has actually lived with people like that and has learned to appreciate and respect what they believe in and how they live their lives. An example of this was the Summer Carnival in London, in 1995, which she says was unlike anything she ever experienced. It was magnificent, this mixture of people and cultures from so many countries, displaying and selling their wares. There were also performances as well as dance and music through which one could learn more about all those cultures. Nerea recalls how much she enjoyed sampling the various dishes and how keen she was about learning how to prepare them. Living with and learning to appreciate people with beliefs and lifestyles different from one's own is not always a purely enjoyable experience. You may go through culture shock, when you face an environment totally different from the one you are used to. Like most people in such situations, Nerea did not escape this: it happened to her when she first went to Cyprus. Unlike in most African cultures, where visitors are warmly welcomed and where people are eager to know about you and about the place you come from, the people of Cyprus were cold and unaccommodating. It was the first time Nerea experienced outright racism. This was a very trying period for her, especially because she was so young. When she would go to school the other children spat at her; they thought she was permanently dirty because of her black skin. This cruel treatment lasted for about three months, after that the other children started accepting her slowly. Nerea says it took prayer and patience and through God's strength she was able to pull through. She understood this treatment was a result of the fact some Cypriots had never seen black people before. Of course, this was not an excuse for them to treat someone who is different from them unjustly. From her experience Nerea has learned things that she would like to pass on to others. She says that when you go to a new place there is a need to learn about the people and the country. However, you should not compromise who you are: do not lose yourself, your values, your beliefs, your own culture. In order to live harmoniously with people from different cultures, you need to create a balance between retaining what your own culture has taught you and developing an understanding of the culture of other people. What is intriguing about Nerea is the vast experience she has had so early in life and how positively she has been able to translate that into the way she thinks, acts and relates to others in her day-to-day life. It was interesting to talk to her about the impact of other cultures, especially on young people. Her view is that young people have to a large extent disregarded their cultures, not just in Kenya but everywhere she has been; this is very sad because many of these cultures are rich and have a lot of good things to offer. Young persons are too easily influenced by new or foreign practices whose intricacies they may not fully understand. In Africa, for example, we are very eager to ape Western culture, to the point of wishing to dress like the celebrities that we see in films and music videos. Nerea also shared her views on the negative experiences we have had in Kenya in the area of intercultural relations. It is her feeling that the battles we have experienced in this country, like the ethnic clashes, are unfortunate and are not called for. It is possible for different people to co-exist peacefully and to solve conflicts amicably if they will take the time to learn about each other's culture.
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