Digging deeper into hard conversations
A couple of times a month, I will be linking to articles which throw a different light on some of the topics we might be discussing or which highlights current news and events in this area.
Today I want to introduce you to one of my favourite writers on living overseas. Rachel Pieh Jones lives with her family on the horn of Africa in a country called Djibouti which I have to admit, I didn’t know was a place until I discovered Rachel.
Rachel has been living overseas for 17 years and writes in a number of publications about what she has learnt, her experiences and faith and parenting in a different place. I discovered Rachel’s writing when we were new to Cambodia and I was feeling particularly dejected about not knowing how to cook for my family in a new place. Her assurances that popcorn and bananas were a full meal gave me great assurances that a) I had found a kindred spirit and b) I was going to get through this.
Rachel and I have connected on a professional level as I developed the Rok Kern project and she started writing regularly around many of the issues we will talk about here. About a year ago, Rachel started a Substack subscription called “Do Good Better” for development professionals and cross-cultural workers to have a space to reflect on what they were seeing and learning. We spoke a few weeks ago about how these two blogs can complement each other - hers from an American and northern African perspective. Mine from an Australian and South-East Asian perspective. I thoroughly recommend checking her work out.
A couple of months ago. Rachel wrote a piece about how we can have hard conversations with open hearts and humility and I thought it was a great opening link for us as we start as a community.
https://rachelpiehjones.substack.com/p/respectfully-engaging-in-complicated
Which of these ideas did you resonate with the most?
Which of these ideas do you think is the hardest?
What do you think we should have as some community guidelines for this space moving forward?
