From PRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jennifer Hicks. I see you is a phrase people use to indicate that they understand what headspace you're in or what you're presenting.

It's an acknowledgement of who you are.

In this episode, we'll hear stories about seeing and feeling seeing.

Our first story is from Ray Wynn Grant, and the people who really saw her were far from home on the other side of the globe.

She told it for us at a show at the Palace Theater in Los

Angeles, where we partner with public radio station KCRW. Here's Ray Wynn Grant. I was 19 years old

and a junior in college when I embarked upon a life-changing study abroad opportunity.

At that point in my life, pretty much all of my family and friends were curious why I would choose something like this,

but in retrospect, it all made sense. I was searching for some things.

For one, I needed a connection to nature. I was a bona fide city girl and had essentially never been outside.

Not only that, I was studying environmental science and had only learned about the outdoors through a textbook or in my classroom.

I really needed my real experience in nature. This study abroad program

would do just that. It was a wildlife management program in southern Kenya. We would be living in the

bush, studying wild animals in their natural habitat, and basically camping for a full semester.

I was pumped.

The second thing is that, like many African Americans coming of age,

I felt like I needed a connection to the African continent.

I imagined that my ancestry stemmed from West Africa somewhere,

but I figured spending time in East Africa would give me that

ancestral connection I was looking for. I couldn't wait. And so before I knew it, I was there. And as

soon as my plane landed, I was struck by two things. The first one was kind of a bummer. As it turned

out, I was the only black student in the

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