Why I'm Here
Kathryn McNamara 鈥�11 had stopped to buy chicken skewers at a street market in Bandung, Indonesia, when a crowd of teenage boys approached her. Their eyes widened as they struggled to reconcile her long dress and black headscarf with her freckled skin and blue eyes.
鈥淢iss,鈥� one of them asked her in Indonesian, 鈥渨here are you from? Are you Turkish or Arabic?鈥�
Several weeks into a one-year appointment as a Fulbright English teaching assistant, it was a question McNamara was already used to answering. 鈥淚鈥檓 American, from Washington, D.C.,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ear Obama and the White House, and I teach English at an Islamic school in Cijerah.鈥�
Next came a tougher question.
鈥淏ut Miss,鈥� the boy asked, 鈥測ou are Muslim, right?鈥�
McNamara鈥檚 answer would cut to the heart of why she came to Indonesia after graduating from Dickinson with a double major in international studies and Arabic. From her first days at Dickinson, she knew she wanted to make an impact on the world. 鈥淚t was really the 鈥榚ngage the world鈥� philosophy that cemented Dickinson as my first-choice school,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淚 knew that I wanted to focus on international studies.鈥�
The only question was how to use her studies to make that impact.
McNamara鈥檚 first clue came during the summer after her first year on campus, when an internship at the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute鈥檚 Sub-Saharan Africa office helped her develop an interest in diplomacy and learn more about Islam. But the full answer would come nearly two years later, during her year abroad in Rabat, Morroco.
鈥淭hat remains one of the most formative experiences of my life,鈥� she says.
In addition to strengthening her skills in Arabic, McNamara developed strong ties with her host family, taught English to disadvantaged Moroccan students and volunteered for a women鈥檚 rights organization. That opportunity to immerse herself in the culture, rather than just study it, showed her exactly how she wanted to make a difference.
鈥淢y experience in Morocco cemented my desire to work toward a greater understanding between the United States and the diverse regions of the Islamic world,鈥� McNamara explains. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I applied for the Fulbright scholarship to Indonesia.鈥�
Faced with the Indonesian boy鈥檚 question more than a year later, McNamara didn鈥檛 need to worry about how she would explain what a non-Muslim American was doing in Indonesia. She鈥檇 already had plenty of experience building bridges between Islam and the West, and this was an opportunity to build another.
鈥淣o, I鈥檓 not Muslim,鈥� she told the group of boys. Then she spoke about her admiration for the Islamic faith and explained that she wears the headscarf as a sign of respect to her students and the teachers with whom she works.
鈥淭hey accepted this explanation with delighted smiles, and I smiled as well,鈥� she recalls, smiling again as she thinks back on the small but important moment of cultural exchange. 鈥淭his is why I鈥檓 here.鈥�
Published January 12, 2012