Note to Reader: While I do cover the good, bad and the ugly in the blogs listed below, please keep in mind a majority of the struggles & difficulties we faced, were with Zanzibar alone. These views on the island and our struggles should not in any way, reflect mainland Tanzania. Mainland Tanzania vs Zanzibar is like comparing an advanced city like NYC to the Gaza Strip. 

While Social Media puts pressure on us to only show the positive, glamorous moments we live to give the impression our lives are “perfect”; this blog is to give an authentic, unfiltered reality about living as an expat in a third world country. We are here to share real experiences, the challenges, and the triumphs of building a life in Africa..  

So, How did we get here? Well, we invested in a small established safari company as a side gig, but it organically grew on its own and we had to make the decision wether or not to give it our all. Believe it or not, this move was Ryan's idea. And Yes, We were not liking the quality of life in America,  where you are spending 95%+ of your life trying to create a living, but not actually living. Although we loved our lives in America, we felt something was missing. It took us moving to a very undeveloped island that tested our every nerve in our beings; to finally realize the only thing that was missing was truly realizing how incredibly rare our bond is. 

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We always found ourselves dreaming of Africa and decided to just go for it. While everyone was thinking we were nuts, we knew we would only regret it if we didn't do it. (Always better to regret something you did, than didn't do.) And so, we rented out our home in America and decided to build a luxury villa on the island of Zanzibar, which is off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa. A very bold move, yes. But  it quickly became our normal and the fear of it all was quickly a fleeing feeling of the past. All of those fears of the unknown, the "what if's" that kept us up at night, forgotten about quickly once we stepped on that one way flight. 

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While here on island, we faced some serious life challenges; Challenges that would probably make the average person pack up & go. Chaos became our "new normal"; little fires everywhere. But. we did not quit. We stood by our plan and just stuck to our guns; We were adamant to make it all work. The universe just wanted to test us to see how badly we wanted this. Thru all of the chaos, we never once let it cripple us, we still continued to live our lives, experiencing once in a lifetime opportunities, giving us memories to last a lifetime. 

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Yes, there were many moments when we had to question ourselves (& our sanity) if we were making the right decision of sticking by our decision to move here, or were we just being stubborn? How long do you stay in a place you’ll never find peace? 

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Just when we were beginning to think it was all for nothing (besides incredible once in a lifetime travel opportunities!) a huge opportunity falls into our laps. ​It just goes to show you; when you take risks in life, you are rewarded with great opportunities. ​

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We realized at the end of it all, that the chaos we faced in our "new normal", would've really tested most couples, pushed them to their limits, and probably would've broken a majority. However it wasn't until the final stretch of our time here, that we realized the 2 years of chaos brought us even closer as a couple than we could ever imagine. Perhaps we do have something incredibly rare, and it took us moving here to truly realize it. 

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This blog page is simply to share some of the real stories, good & bad, we have faced for the last 2 years we have been here. 

 I decided to write about these in different subjects; So you can pick & choose what you'd like to learn/hear about. ​

I truly hope you enjoy reading them, as it has been emotionally therapeutic & enjoyable in a way for me to write it all.