 How are you all doing? Welcome back to the YouTube channel. It's your favorite village boy Mr. Ghana baby right here. Listen, I told you guys that moving to Africa is now a movement. It's a revolution that is happening and you cannot do anything about it. Listen when you talk about moving to Africa, I think I've done videos in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and all of you think that moving to Africa is just about going to Ghana. Ghana is light everywhere. That's why we are the light of the world. Oh wow, Ghana is the light of the world? No. We are making Africa home again everywhere in Africa and South Africa is also chosen. Nelson Mandela is from here because one of my favorite coat of Nelson Mandela was it's always seems impossible until it's done. I think most of you might be wondering like why would you leave America and move to Africa? See, they already waiting for me like I'm super excited. Yeah, welcome to South Africa. I'm from Africa and they are telling me that welcome to South Africa. Welcome to our home. But I want to say welcome to the motherland. Thank you. Thank you sir. Listen, I thought I'm going to see some horses or some camel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a horse and a camel, huh? Yeah, together. Wow. That's a push man. You live here? I'm here. I'm here. I live here. You live here? Yep, I'm the owner. I trust in Africa we live in hearts. We do, big ones. Big old mud huts. This is it. This is what we aspire to. So here we are. Wow. Hello everybody. This is Mark Blanton from the Real South Africa. And I am Natasha Blanton also with the Real South Africa. When you had the name Africa before coming here, what goes through your mind before coming to Africa in the first time? Well, it's funny you say that because I can say I never really thought about Africa. Nobody's had anything positive to say. You know, I grew up, you know, born in 1969, good, good year. And through all those years, nobody said anything positive. It was always negative from television, things that we all know. And then so I didn't think very positive of Africa, regardless of where it was. You're smiling a lot. I'm laughing because we have this conversation all the time about how we feel like we were lied to until we actually got here. And we were expecting to see something not this. And then when we got here, it just like my brain had a hard time computing what I was taught and what I was seeing. Tell me some of the lies she had. Oh, wow. I mean, there was no real infrastructure here. I know my niece asked me one time. She says, you know, Uncle Mark, is there anything there? So basically there was nothing there. The only thing that we did know that we saw on TV that there was always poverty. If there was any wars going on anywhere on the continent, as big as it is, it was happening in all of Africa. They didn't, they didn't have running water. They didn't education was what is that? Just the whole plethora of things that we heard before we got here. You know, it's very off putting, you know, for example, we had a young lady call us the other day and she was saying, I want to eat good food. I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to do this. And she was calling from America and I'm like, so basically what you're telling me is you want to do what Africans do because that's what we do all the time. Food is affordable. Food is cheap yet. That's why I'm going to be here forever because food over women for me, I don't even care about her. I would choose this over her any day. Maya, say hello to that I love food. Maya. I don't even have to continue because my question has already been answered in a positive way. But tell me, I didn't wrote in Africa. Yes. We're looking at a road. Yeah, highways. There's a road. Yeah. And there's, there's actually structural homes, not huts that you just mentioned. So we have, oh, we have actual cars too, not just horses and camels. Yeah. Are you surviving in Africa or you're living? We're living very well, not just because of the things that we have. It's just the fact that we around other other people like us. And it just makes it better. So when people are calling on you, checking on you, hey, are you available tomorrow? Let's, let's have a, you know, let's sit down and have a drink. Let's talk about things. It's very uplifting because they actually care about you. Doesn't mean they couldn't do that in America. No, nobody's too busy. Everybody's working. I was, I used to be that guy. I used to be working all the time, you know, and then when we had our businesses, we was working even more. So you really don't have time for all that. You really don't. You bought this or you rented it? We bought this house. We bought this house because in South Africa, we found that you can actually purchase property and you get it, you get a title of the house or the deed in your name once you purchase the home. As an African American. As an African American. Yeah. As a foreigner. Coming to South Africa, you managed to buy a home. Correct. In Africa. Yes. Is this a million dollar home? It's well over a million rands. Let's say that in South African money. So which means that it's okay to live good in Africa. This is not a million, a million rand is not a million dollar. Yeah. I don't know the calculation yet, but I'll do it and tell you guys later. It's $61,000 US dollars a million rand. $61,000. But not enough for this house. Okay. But I would tell you straight up, obviously for people that are looking to move to South Africa, you could buy places that are much larger and of course something more towards your budget based off where you are. We have been looking at South Africa for years to move. So it wasn't like we just picked up and just did it overnight. So we had planned and planned and we put our things in order. So I think for us when we bought this home it was roughly about 230 US. Yeah. About 230 US when we bought this home. How many bedrooms? We got a three bedroom. We could have made it four because they were still building a house when we purchased it. But we just wanted three because it's just us. We're the two that live here. No. You know the reason why I'm asking you because like when you buy a property you buy the environment and when you are living it's more like a paradise. Yeah. A little bit. Come on. Like you have the greens, you have good roots. It's well structured. I mean this estate alone is super organized, man. Please show me the way because I want to buy a property here too. What am I buying houses everywhere? Whoa. This is a beautiful house. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How's South Africa so far? Good morning guys. I don't have any complaints. I mean like no complaints. I get to be myself every day which is just a black person without having to think about being black every day. I'm I get to eat good food. I have nice weather. There's good people around and I think that that in and of itself just like adds to your overall like mental health and well-being. So that's what I like about being like I feel like I'm healthier mentally just living here. What really inspired you to choose South Africa as a destination to move to? Well to be honest with you obviously there was a documentary that came out Blacks Without Borders Chasing the American Dream in South Africa. Part of it came out 2008-2009 and honestly that was the first and the only thing that I ever saw that said Africa and it looked nice and I was like okay great and so then in 2010 I ended up coming here for World Cup. I used to work for the U.S. government and so I had to come here and I was I was thoroughly impressed you know thoroughly impressed with with the infrastructure when I saw the food the people I mean the vibe was on 10 you know doing World Cup and it you know it still rises to 10 from time to time especially before COVID but um but yeah it was you know that would that that inspired us to say you know what maybe South Africa is something that we can actually achieve you know so and here we are. So you moved here we moved here? We moved in 2018 we moved in 2018 but I want people to understand that you know it was a journey it wasn't like we just picked up and moved uh we actually you know we came in 2010 then actually I came in 2010 and 2011 she showed up and we both came and I brought brought my um my daughter when she was little now she's still now she's 24 and coming on her own which is great um and then I bought my mom and you know that was like her best trip ever and her mind she was like that was you know she's I taken her to Hawaii she's been to the Caribbean she's done that but until she passed that's all she talked about was South Africa so she told me she's you know not on her dying bed obviously but just in conversation she says Mark if you can get there go and uh well here I am and and so that inspired me as well because you know she gave me her blessing and um so we came here and we we didn't look back but it was a journey we came here many times before we actually settled there actually how can it how can it live the land of milk and honey and come to South Africa because we don't live inside a square box it's called televisions so most people see America through television through the movies through that and so forth but we don't live in those spaces we actually are on the ground and unfortunately where we come from you know we're not highly regarded at all um regardless of you know what our positions are you know her education level you know my achievements in the military and of course with the government it doesn't really matter um you know you can you can carve out a little niche for yourself um but you're always defending it and it got to a point where I didn't want to do that anymore and so I was fortunate that I actually came here because if I think if I never would have came to Africa at all and just kind of listened to the what was going on on TV I would have never came here I've been I don't even been doing what everybody else does everybody moves you know I'm east coast yeah because things are expensive and we always at the bottom of the of the totem pole so we make the the least money so we gotta make moves so I probably most of my friends are somewhere in one of those places like most of my friends um but none of them have said you know what Africa so I'm I'm sure I would have been very similar to them um which is nothing wrong with I just happen to get the opportunity to see Africa for what it is cost of living in South Africa cost of living is good here I can honestly say I've been here I remember when we came here in 2009 right no 2010 yeah and the yeah and the exchange rate was was what was the exchange rate it was like nine to one right and I was like wow this is great I mean I can I could do well for myself yeah because there was a time that I was thinking about moving to another uh state car Arizona because it was a little cheaper not anymore houses were a little cheaper retirement a lot of people were retiring there and I just decided to say you know what I'm gonna go to Arizona until I came here and that was a long time ago nine to one right now we're at 16 to one today so we've been enjoying since we've been here what uh 12 to one 14 to one 15 to one and 16 to one is and it's been as high as 18 I believe to one you couldn't go anywhere but yeah yeah yeah but it was it was up there and so um I don't the whole time I've never seen it just drop over all these years so I think that the the cost of living in South Africa for for people who who have the British pound the US dollar even the Canadian um monies and even other other places you can live you can live pretty well um you can live pretty well you live in Africa and you have a swimming pool at your backyard yeah I needed this this was part of my requirement as we were looking for homes you know there were certain things she was looking for there were certain things that I was looking for in the US I had a pool what's as nice as this one um no it wasn't yeah because there's different lights up at night and I like that uh you know I got a little uh little mood light it changes colors okay um but yeah um though all these things are possible here because first of all the weather supports it most of the time we get a couple cool months like right now and then you know I I just I just needed to be here a period what are you doing here at this very moment hello everyone it's Natasha Blanton with the rail South Africa as you guys already know we are the premier travel company here in South Africa specifically designed to bring diaspora and like you to South Africa if you've been to our website thank you if you have it you need to go because it's designed to make booking easy for you you can book your trips day trips directly from the website which means you can get the South Africa a whole lot quicker and a whole lot sooner so please be a part of the grassroot movement get the South Africa has everything you could possibly imagine we've been everywhere else in the world and as diasporan we deserve to be here in Africa but yeah so we we were in business for 10 years easily and then so when you become entrepreneurs you just kind of you're used to it so we came here actually just before we came here we looked at the tourism space we said okay let's let's see what the tourism is because I did all my research I know the same way I would do for our physical therapy businesses that we have back in the US and I'm like you know what there's a big there's a big market here um but if we attack this properly or we can actually provide you know proper um you know tourism options for those that are in the diaspora who keep asking us when we were there man when you go back to South Africa man I want to go you know what I'm saying like I want to go I want to go so there was a lot of people asking us about coming to South Africa um and a lot of people calling us because they just thought we were the authorities on South Africa anyway because we was here all the time yeah so which means that you bring African-Americans or Africans living in the diaspora who wants to visit South Africa you make it possible for that very possible yes but you call yourself the real South Africa why the real South Africa well it's it's to us we wanted people to see the South Africa that we saw from 2010 11 12 15 18 we wanted them to see that South Africa in the South Africa that we saw was very progressive we met a lot of great people we met people that were in business we met people that you know own their homes and nice estates you know they they even had their own businesses driving nice cars they you know they they almost shamed shamed me and I was like this doesn't make any sense matter of fact um you know I I wanted a 9-11 back then and I kept coming back here and I met guys that were driving like Toyota Corollas in two years later they're rolling around in a 9-11 and Porsche I'm like what am I waiting on you know so they motivated me um so that South Africa is the South Africa that we wanted people to see that it actually existed versus what they've been seeing on TV like when they put Google South Africa they start showing all the you know the bad stuff that they show and I'm like no there's a there's another South Africa so we just named our company the real South Africa so we're gonna we're gonna wrap this thing up um hopefully tomorrow and then so then you can guys can go to our website and start you know booking your trips to Durban where we are right now where are they can book Tassie they can book to Cape Town we're settling in on some new adventures and and for Malanga for you guys and also in Limpopo and we're thinking about adding the Eastern Cape because I hear a lot of good things about that obviously we did it before but they've got some really exciting things that we want to share with you guys so hopefully we'll be adding the Eastern Cape yeah so stay tuned with the real South Africa obviously you guys know and of course it's a grassroots movement so let everybody know hey this is how you get here we we are professionals we we put the work in to be in this location we did and we put the work in to make sure that the people that come um enjoy themselves as well so we will see you soon and so far so good so far so good even through COVID um it's been really it's been it's been good for a lot of reasons I think you know for us you know I think we're I think we ultimately want to leave a what you call it a legacy because there are so many people that are coming here um discovering South Africa for the first time discovering Africa for the first time coming here saying you know what I want to stay in South Africa or I want to go to another country but now these people are geared towards going to Africa full stop and I'm like that's what I'm talking about you know regardless of where you go come to Africa if you have one message for your fellow brothers and sisters in the diaspora what would that message be what are you waiting on that's what I would say but whoa like what are you waiting for everyone that we talk to on the phone have these like grand plans like I'm gonna come in 2023 or 2024 or 2025 and all those things are great but the one thing that I remember when his mother was living she I had mentioned that I wanted to do something and she looked at me dead and she was like that's not promised to you and it was like like at that moment it was like she's so right like the next moment's not promised like what am I actually waiting for so yeah I don't so we don't wait anymore we don't wait until we retire we don't wait until we have a baby we don't wait until we get the good job you just have to make a plan because what I found is that if you really want to do something you're gonna find a way to do it make a plan go to our website book book yeah I mean we all know what's going on on that side a lot of times we we act like we don't know you know the people I simply don't know unless you tell me okay well you know people understand people understand that it's it's a scenario where you know prices are getting high I mean we all watch that tv show good times we all did and you know it's hard for us as black folks so whatever they're announcing on tv is harder for us and it's time you know I mean we don't got all the degrees we don't got we don't have the positions we're making six figures and we're still struggling trying to make it and so I'm saying in my message is if you know moving around the country isn't gonna isn't gonna make it happen well then consider Africa as as an option you know and I'm you know I'm I'm here in in in South Africa love South Africa they're treating me extremely well um simply because but that's not just for me it's for everyone who wants to come here and contribute it's that simple so just come here with the notion of contributing and then South Africa will love you back I'm so glad that South Africa will love you back which means the people in here accept you as the one of your own yeah I laugh because no matter which culture we run into they want us they want us to us to be part of of their culture which for us and as African Americans I don't know about other Africans and other parts of the of the of the of the continent but I know for us they want us to be I mean they know our situation and they want us to be part of something so they want you to be they want you to feel like home so they have to invite you in and then you have to accept it and then you go in and then you start learning all these things about the culture of regardless of you're talking to a Zulu person in the belly whoever you're talking to you start learning the culture and the funniest thing about the whole thing is that you end up saying you know what this sounds familiar familiar moving to Africa is now a movement you agree with me it is a movement and uh I think no we get a lot of calls and people are interested in coming to coming to South Africa and I think over time it will hopefully it would grow you know with some of the content that you're putting out and some of the things that we put out on our channel but I love I love your YouTube channel I love the videos that you've been posting about South Africa thank you thank you so much for spending time with us today if you like what you saw please subscribe and don't forget to hit the notifications button so you don't miss out on all things the real South Africa thanks again go check out the YouTube channel subscribe and be part of their awesome channel and trust me all you need to know about South Africa you're definitely going to see it from them yeah final message to all my audience guys this guy here has been has has been giving you all the keys to everything you need to know so if you are interested if you're an African on the continent if you want to know something about another um place on the on the continent you need to check out his channel no for real that was not a message no no no no I think he's doing well I think I think that's a I think that's a good message I think that's a good message keep following yeah following this keep following this guy but like I said all you know if you want to know anything about South Africa this is the channel for you to subscribe I'm just here as a messenger maybe some of you might not know him that's why I'm here so I'm doing a job for you now you so check out the description box the link is going to be there subscribe be part of the channel tell them that what Amaya told me that it's by force to come in here my name is what Amaya you're one and only I know you village boy from Ghana don't forget to subscribe to the channel and I'll see you all in the next one I am Maya peace out