 In America, people want to tell you, oh, it's fine. We got a high standard of living and this and that. But they're totally ignoring the police brutality, the criminal government, the executions of black people. They just blocked that out. One brother's getting shot 20 times. And the police are saying it was an accident. Now, that's impossible to get shot 20 times in that beer accident, right? Wouldn't y'all agree? So I had to get out of there. I don't miss it at all. I don't understand why everybody else don't leave. Hey, family. You're at Black Eggers of the Gamma. My name is Rick. And this is my beautiful wife. Cynthia? Or a.k.a. Sweet Juicy Mama. We're back, guys. Yeah, we're back. Had to adjust the camera and stuff. Anyway, guys, for those of y'all that might not be familiar with us, if this your first time tuning in, go ahead and subscribe. Hit the notification button. You know the little bell. Little bell. Now prepare to be overwhelmed. You see the dynamic duo, guys? So anyway, we want to welcome them to Black Eggers of the Gambia. And we're going to talk a little bit. And then we'll give them a tour around the place and stuff. All right? Stay tuned. I just want to say that it's a pleasure meeting you in person. Thank you. I mean, I've always been seeing you on camera. I interviewed you on a live stream. Right. And we're going to do this in real life. Oh, OK. Got you. Thank you. What am I right here? The one and only annoying village boy. I love farms. That's why I didn't want to interview them in their own houses. I wanted to come to the farm. Let me see what's going on. What have you been showing us? Is it really real? Yeah, man. And I'm seeing the vegetable. Can I take some of them home? I have some cucumbers in this game. Later. You can take some. OK. Next time. Next time. Welcome to the YouTube channel. Thank you. Tell me more. You know, I really want to know more. All right. Back. What does back mean? OK. Bagged. Black anchors of the Gambia. So that's what back stands for abbreviated. Black anchors of the Gambia. And basically what we've done is we are sitting on right now about 12 hectares of land. And basically what we want to do is make the transition for people in the diaspora coming back home to the continent easier. Because when we came here in 2015, there was nobody ahead of us to say, hey, here's a smooth transition. So we was running into this and that. And like you said, on other videos, you go places and everybody's hitting you up for that money. We found that to be distasteful. And so what we want is a smooth transition for anybody coming to the African continent. You might not want to stay in the Gambia. You might want to go to Ghana. You might want to go to Tanzania or Egypt. But here is a smoother transition for you coming into the motherland and stuff, all right? And so what we do, we have organic crops, fruits, vegetables. So when we'll be getting livestock and hotels and restaurants, and we want to hold a wouldn't buy a Miss Trudy Day where all the YouTubers can come in. You're building all of that in the tour makers? That's why we're looking for 24 hectares. This is a city, a chocolate city. Where are you from, generally? Mentally or physically? Physically. Physically I'm from America. USA. African continent, baby. You know what I'm saying? What brought you to the Gambia in the first place? I did six months of research because in 1991, we were going to go to Burundi. But I'm an ex-battern and was fighting it. There's a shit, there's a storm. So after that, I wanted to go to East Africa. But Sweet Juicy Mama kept having kids and stuff. So we didn't leave. So 2014, we started looking at leaving again. And so I did research. Six months came up with Gambia number one, Tanzania number two, and Zimbabwe number three. And I like those countries because the presidents were talking pan-African. Black man, black woman, black babies, black and poppin'. So I said, I'll take it. And so anyway, we came here and visited first and we just stayed here. We were like, this is it. Which hour is that? 2016. Yeah, 2016. June. You've been here since 2016. Yeah, been here ever since 2016. No, we went back to get another daughter. And more containers. And more containers. Because like I said, we ain't got what in my money. We can't just put it. Give me that, give me that, give me that, you know. So we just. Went back and put your dollar, store it. Yeah, we came back. That's right. Back family. Hey, back family. Back with another video. And today's topic, we want to talk about what makes a good night's sleep in the Gambia. Sound like something you might want to sleep on? Check out this video. All this life being since we moved back here, it's been amazing. Yes, amazing. I will change it for the better. You don't regret coming to Africa? No. One of my biggest regrets I will have to say is not getting here sooner. That's lovely. I almost talked Rick out of coming here. I'm sure he probably would have left me and came by himself. But yes, I believe that was one of my biggest regrets. It's not getting here sooner. I wish we'd have got here a little earlier. And maybe learn the language. And you know what? It's raining on us right now. What are we going to do? You want to go to another area, or we just stick it on the rain? Because you'll get wet. Because as I take you around, now I'm going to show you. I don't know if you can see a house. There's a house back there that's 4,000 square feet. And I told you this is sitting on about 12 hectares. In America, our house was the size of our bedroom. So do I regret coming to Africa? Hell no. Hope that don't get you censored. But that's the same. Was it expensive getting this land? This land? Short answer is no. Well, we're using multi-crops. As you can see, we've got pineapples growing, and lettuce, and... This is collard greens. Collard greens? OK. Thank you, sweet mama. What's that? That's a pineapple. This is actually a weed. In America, people use this for stroke. For strokes. So I didn't want to get rid of it, so I kept it. You can use it, juice it. You can put it in your salad. It's good for a lot of diseases. Now whatever the land gives us, we'll take it. So we're not rejecting anything. Now, come rainy season. Certain parts hold water. And then when you come in here, you have tilapia there. You have catfish, just out here. So this rainy season, I'm going to grab it and make it a palm. Which is the people working here? Are people living around the village? Right in front of the village? The most we've ever had at one time was 20. And so now we've downsized a little bit. And so right now, we've got about, like, maybe 8 to 10 guys that are working for us from the village. How do you get water in here? Huh? You hear the generator pumping? It's a series of lines that is pumping through those hoses. And we do it that way until we can get the drip irrigation system in place. Well, you just hit a button and a pump. And there's a pump coming. That's generator number two. Generator number one. There's another one back there by the 4,000 square foot house. And we're going to put another one there starting Monday. What has been the major challenges you have most to offer? Oh my god, now. It is relating to our brothers. Now, we come in, we say, hey, look, we're going to pay you above average pay for acceptable work. And guys want to come in and do substandard work. And so I got to chase them to the gate to get them out of here. And that has been my biggest struggle. Getting the bang for the buck. You know, our pay quality, our we pay quality, our above average prices for the labor. And guys are not wanting to show up to work or complete the project that they started on. And they would say, you know, there's a death in the family. And I can understand the death in the family, but not every day. So, you know, at the end of the day, somebody has to do the work. So something is generated income-wise to pay your salary. That's been our biggest struggle. So let me start you over here because this is my pride and joy right here. This is me and Sweet Juicy Mama's bedroom, master bedroom. This right here is our master bathroom. We'll put a jacuzzi, bathtub right here where we both can get in there. Like, then we got an enclosed shower here. Come on. Here's her dual vanity, my side, her side. The whole family are going to move in here? Only the ones that are here now. This is a closet. This where I do our live videos that we're doing now. That's just to go outside. And this is our bedroom here. Like I said, this here is 2,000 square feet. This is bigger than our house. Just me and Mom's bedroom is bigger than our house in America. So when people say, what's your biggest struggle? What struggle? Do you think you ever go back? Why? I got the food out here. It's free. I got the water. It's free. The rent is free. We're on the land. And this right here is Sweet Juicy Mama's kitchen. So next time you and Miss Trudy come down here, we'll treat y'all in the kitchen and stuff. And you know, we can go ahead and have a good old continental or African style breakfast. But is it going to be the first house you ever built since you moved to the Gambia? Yes, this is the first house in our life. In our life? In your life? Yes. In America, you just buy the house, everything done. You just buy the house, everything done. But over here, you build from the ground up. So would you say life in Gambia has really changed or transformed your life? Absolutely. I feel free now. You know what I'm saying? How free do you feel now? I feel free. How free? How free? Yeah. Peace! That's how free I feel. In America, you know what would happen to me if I would have said that? So free to say it. Huh? If I said I hate the police in America, like I just screamed, you know what would happen to me? Pow! So you ask me if I feel free? I feel free. Nobody's bothering me now. But I feel like you're so hyped in Africa. Because you're here. Ah! No, I think that's how I feel. No, no, no, no. You know, even today, I'm so calm, you know? Because I feel like your hypheness is overshadowing my hype. Oh, I'm going to stop then. I'm going to calm down. OK, I'll stop. But this is the kitchen. And this right here is the living room, dining room. And this is where we put the big screen TV to watch our videos. We only got four of seven children here. So we got two girls and two boys. Two girls share this bathroom. Two boys share this bathroom. And then over here, we got the dog house. We got about 20, 30 dogs. Today is Gambia's independence. In the days. That's right. Absolutely. It's Gambia really independent. If you're independent, you can control your finances. You can control your economy. You can control your politics. You can control your education. And we don't think that Gambia controls these things. As far as, let's say, I wanted to teach. And I want to teach that we are the superior people. Nothing racist about that. Nothing racist about it. You can do your research and find out who the gifted people are. The gifted people are the ones that have the best continent, the most prosperous people on the planet, and the smartest on the planet. Because we got nine strands of DNA, which means we are genius. We just don't know it. Where all the other races have six strands of DNA. So I'll let you come to your own determination. So anyway, if we use that, then we get back on top like we used to do before colonization and enslavement. And so if I wanted to teach that curriculum in the school system, I would have problems. Because they would say, well, that's not in conducive with, you know, we discovered y'all and y'all was primitive. You understand what I'm saying? So there would be some pushback on that. But still, we're going to push that anyway. Yeah, it's already bought for it. Paid with cash. Everything's bought and paid for. In Africa, we pay staff with cash. Yes, I like it. You usually pay with a lot of money. Me, no. We came to Africa with $6,000, US dollars. $6,000. $6,000. So how much do you worth right now? How much do you worth right now? If we can break the land down and sell it what they're selling it for now, we're multimillionaires. Do you miss America? No. No. There's nothing to miss. I mean police brutality. You know what I'm saying? I'm a realist. I will look and see what is actually there versus what you tell me. Because people can tell you now the sky is purple. And I would look and say, wait a minute now. I know what purple is. It's not purple. It's blue. You see what I'm saying? So in America, people want to tell you, oh, it's fine. We got a high standard of living and this and that. But they're totally ignoring the police brutality, the criminal government, the executions of black people. They just block that out. I don't block it out. I see it for what it is. One brother's getting shot 20 times and the police are saying it was an accident. That's impossible to get shot 20 times and that'd be an accident, right? Wouldn't y'all agree? So I had to get out of there. I don't miss it at all. I don't understand why everybody else don't leave. They block it out and say, oh. What are you doing to inspire more people to come join you guys? I show them what they can have. I'm not the smartest person in the world. I'm just the average person that wants to do above average things. I just showed you the house that we're building. This right here, after we're complete, it'll be 60 acres. So we're living 10 times the value of what we were living in America and peaceful, you know what I'm saying? You haven't jumped me yet? It's the same amount that you can spend to live in America. No, man. Oh, no. In America, if we didn't have $10,000 a month income, we were struggling. Over here, if we got $1,500, we good. Are you living or surviving? No, no. No, no, no. We're living. We're finally living. Now surviving, well, you just barely got your nose above water. We weigh above that. And when we get to the land, it's a done deal. Once we get to the land, this is crossing the finish line for us. Right now, we're still in the race. But once we get to the land, this is the finish line. Because again, with the beautiful sun, solar panels, no electricity bill. You hear the solar panel pump scoring? Free water. No rent. Everything is paid for, you know what I'm saying? So we were to cross the finish line and be independent of the system. Do you think there are opportunities in Africa? Yes. It's a bond. I don't understand why the youth don't see it. So somebody's misleading the youth. You know, there's too many opportunities here. And they like to say, well, you know, you're lucky you come from America. And I explained to them, if I was in, if I was born on an African continent, physically, the way I would come up is, well, first of all, I don't mind putting in the price to get what I want. Because after you get it, then, you know, you're successful versus putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, then you become an old man. You can't put it off no more. Now you got to go back to work. That's the backwards way. So the way I would come up in the system on the African continent, if I was a youth, was I would not place any limits on what I would do, provide it. I'm not hurting anybody or doing anything illegal. And here's my story. I would not hesitate to work 12 hours a day. I would find a way on the African continent, what we found is if you could find an open piece of land, nobody would bother you as far as planting, sub-known it, waiting for rainy season. So once rainy season comes in, whatever you planted, you can harvest that. And once you harvest that, let's say peanuts, for example, you can sell those peanuts. And you do that for a couple of years. You should have enough profit to go and buy you some type of taxi. You work the heck out that taxi until you get two taxes, working 12-hour days if you got to. Work the heck out of it until you get three taxes. Once you get three taxes, now you can buy you a big bus of galley-galley. Now you got three taxes in the galley-galley. Just keep repeating that to where you can step out the picture. Now you got three. I think if I understand what you're saying, you know, when it comes to agriculture like this. Yes. So many of the youth of Africa don't see a value in it. Right. It's because of our education system. Exactly. Our minds were tuned just to sit in the office. Right, exactly right. But there's no money in that because in agriculture, if you look at the business opportunities on the African continent, always in the top 10 is agriculture. In fact, the African continent can feed the rest of the world. So don't believe the lies that you're being told that people are starving here in the place on the African continent, Africa can feed the rest of the world. That's why I'm not sure which one of your cameramen told me, but there's a foreigner here that's bought up a large piece of land and they're selling agriculture, but they're selling most of it to the UK and America. They're exporting it. So why ain't they supporting people here, see? Because sweet mama, please tell the story about the chicken and the eggs, how the price is going up. Oh yeah, that's where it has gone up. We actually, I believe last month, I went to look for eggs and I couldn't find them for four days. It used to be when we first moved to the continent, the age was 125, then it got up to 150. The last thing before it went up, I believe it was 190. The four days that I was looking for and I couldn't find them, the next fifth day I found some, it was 290. 290, see? 290 for the eggs. So yeah, they put it in perspective, the prices are doubling, but we know that the youth and the workforce here in the Gambia, the incomes isn't going up with inflation here. You know what I'm saying? So somebody's being left out and we say we want to try to offset that or we will offset that where our prices will be consistent. And just because there's no rain this season, we won't double our prices. You've been here a couple of years. What is the best advice you're gonna give to the best? Well, if somebody wants to come here and visit the Gambia, I would say that's exactly what you need to do. Most people want to say, hey, what's it like, tell me this and tell me that. No, you need to come and look at it with your own eyes. Come here, visit. And if you know some people, like for example, what am I, you're in Ghana, reach out to him or somebody that you know that you think is trustworthy. That's the key word, trustworthy. Reach out to him. They'll show you around, hopefully free of charge and help to acclimate you into the system. So definitely come here for a visit because the opportunities are endless. Endless opportunities. Karen, can I ask you a question? Now, why is it that people like myself from the diaspora can see the opportunities here, but youth like yourself on the continent, not exactly you, say there's no opportunity. No, it's more like exposure. Even me, I never saw the opportunities until I left the continent. Oh, okay. When I came back, I'm like, why are this here? That we can turn this around. Before I left, my mindset was all about going abroad, staying there forever, even without coming back. And I thought that is where the greener pastures. When I went there, when I started, I mean, moving around with Chinese people, seeing the pretty things that they do just to get money out, I'm like, you know what, four years time in China after five years, I'm like, I'm going back home. That's right. And when I came, I keep on, even as I'm talking today, I don't even have my own age mates as friends because when I talk, it's like, you know too much. When you talk to them, it's like, you know too much. So sometimes I don't blame them, but the little chance that I get through my videos, I keep on preaching on young people, all the opportunities are around. I mean, I met a young guy who has never left the country. He wanted to go abroad, so bad. Wow. At the end of the day, he realized that, you know what, he has money to buy a pig. Right, a pig. One pig. See? So he bought the pig and started running the pig in his mom's house. Now he has over 200 pigs. See? Wow, see? He sees himself as a billionaire. Right, exactly. This is the kind of education that I think that when we meet people like you, we're able to transfer what you know from a younger generation in Africa. I believe that they are watching, they want to learn something. Because I even think that education system in Africa needs to be changed. They need to scrap all of it and all. Because that is what is affecting our families. And they're not getting it. Right. I encourage the African diaspora to come back. Right. Whatever they've learned there, even some of us go to school, we've learned a lot. We just have to come and help develop our culture. Right, exactly. We don't want to. Exactly. And we're not each other's enemy. There's this little trickery out there to say, we fight each other. No, we're not. We're brothers and sisters, you know what I'm saying? Check out DNA. It all comes here, you know what I'm saying? And so when people... Are you in here? Yeah, and so when people put this theory out there, oh, we don't like black Americans, or we don't like gun-ins, or we don't like gamblers, no man. Put that out your mind. Hey, we're one people. We're one people. How do people in here show you their love, making you feel like you are one? Absolutely. They say, welcome home. And I said thank you. You know, I feel at home. You know what I'm saying? Mentally, this is where I'm from. You know what I'm saying? Physically, I was just born in another place. But yeah, we get showed their love all the time. I mean, people come in and say, oh, you're doing this wrong. Let me show you how to do this. And I said, thank you. I just learned something different today. You've been here for quite a long time. Yeah. Could you have one thing to change on the continent, or would it be? I would say, if I could make wooden miles of money, I could change a lot of things. No, no, no, no. No, I'm not sure. Sweet Mama's different. Mine is more of education. Yeah. That's what I would like. Yeah. Be taught more to the youth. Right. And that's the basis and stuff. But I would say there's no greater place than home. You know, people think the grass is greener on the other side. No, no, no. Like you just gave the story about the guy with the pig. This is the opportunity here on the African continent. If you don't see the opportunity, hold on for a little bit longer. It is coming. It is coming. I want to say thank you so much for taking me around. Thank you for coming. I appreciate your time. Thank you. And I'll be in Gambia for one more day. And I know that people watching us know that you have a YouTube channel. If you don't know, I think now you know. Yes, so the YouTube channel name is Black Echoes of the Gambia. Or Bag Family. Or it's Black Echoes of the Gambia, but they refer to us as the Bag Family. Can we all go and subscribe to the YouTube channel right now? All right. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. I appreciate you all. Thank you for visiting. I'll see you all in Ghana. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, thank you. We definitely will be there. We'll be in Ghana. No, no, never. We're coming. We're coming.