 traveling in the motherland has really humbled me. There is a saying that don't listen to what they say but go and see things for yourself. Go live your life. Go learn something new and make sure you explore. Traveling in Africa has really opened my mind. This is Mozambique. Yo what's up beautiful people? It's your boy Mr. Ghana baby right here in Maputo Mozambique. I mean most of you are Maya. Why are you not giving us these interviews? I mean people even talk that I'm not gonna interview black Americans again. No I just went on a short break but I'm back. Hi my name is Maya. Hi Taryn. Oh okay yeah and just tell us who you are. My name is Taryn. Okay. I've been here in Maputo going on two years now and I teach. I'm American. I'm from the States so yeah. I'm American from the States in the Portuguese. Exactly. Countries. What brought you to Maputo? Well I knew I wanted to leave the States just to get an experience living somewhere else. Since I'm a teacher I can teach like everywhere needs teachers right. There's always a place for a teacher to go. So I went to this job fair and there were schools from all over the world. I went to the ones in Africa and I was choosing between here Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire. Okay. But the beaches here in Mozambique are so beautiful. So yeah it's like I'm gonna come to the beaches I want to learn the new language so. Just wanted to be behind the sea. Yeah. Not behind the scene but behind the sea. Exactly. Yo tell me how long have you been here? This is my second year. I'll be here two years in August. Wow. Yeah. And how is the experience like in Mozambique? It's different. How different. Okay so I was always the odd one back home for just kind of going with the flow a little bit more. Like the States can be very structured. You're expected to be somewhere at a certain time and do this thing. And it's like there's a lot more expectations whereas here I feel like it's more open and just more accepting. So people can kind of just exist how they naturally are a little bit more. Yeah. I can see you're so happy. Yeah. Do you have like African friends because I you know I have so many African-Americans. Yeah. What am I? You know I know Africans don't like us. No. When I come to Africa I don't even know what I'm gonna do because no no no. These people are not gonna like us. Do you have African friends? I do. I have a lot. I mean no no. I mean we are all Africans. Yeah. You are an African born in America. You're still an African but I'm talking about do you have Africans born in the continent as a friend? I do. I mean even in the States a lot of I won't say a lot but I had a lot of friends who are African either their parents or they were born and then moved to the States. Mostly Ghana. A lot of Ghana of course. Nice. Nigeria, Kenyan. Yeah Benin and then when I moved here of course I have a lot of Mozambican friends but I've met people from Malawi, South Africa so I think it's actually pretty it's not hard to make friends with people from here. I think sometimes there is there can be like some misunderstandings and sometimes people like it can get a little weird sometimes. I'm not gonna lie because people are like wait but you're American like yeah I'm American but I'm not just American like I'm African American and like that conversation can get weird sometimes but yeah. I mean like apart from Maputo apart from Mozambique which other African country have you been to? Yeah so since I've lived here I've been to South Africa, Swaziland and Malawi. Which one is your favorite? Well of course Mozambique but actually Malawi. Malawi is beautiful really laid back the the lake there is gorgeous the people there are probably some of the friendliest people that I've been around like I got invited into so many people's homes just for dinner and breakfast and it was really cool. They don't mind you are African American? No they don't mind. They don't mind. No and a lot of people don't believe I'm African American until they hear me talk and they're like oh yeah she has an American accent I hear it. Wow so which means that you have a message for your fellow brothers and sisters over who believe that when they come to Africa definitely people are not gonna like them. I mean they have a message for them. Don't believe it you know there's always going to be people who maybe see you as different than you are want to say you're something different than you are but I think being here has really helped me learn about myself and connect with other people and I wouldn't let fear of people not accepting me stop me from coming here because if you fear that it's going to happen yeah. So now you leave are you going to leave here forever or you have another country that you want to go to? I'm not I don't know in July I'll be moving to Tanzania to Dar es Salaam and I'll be there for two years and then I don't know I plan to stay in Africa I just don't know where I'm going to settle. Just don't know when you're going to settle which means that you are slowly falling in love with Africa. Yeah yeah and I'm going to explore it I'm going to go everywhere. I mean let's clear this misconception I mean let me know before coming to Mozambique or before stepping on the continent what's the kind of misconception that you have for the continent were you scared of going to Africa or I mean anything that you heard about Africa that you came you realized that no this is not true. I didn't believe most of the negative things people told me anyways. But you had some of the negative things. Yeah yeah of course like I don't know people are going to try and take advantage of you and rip you off and you can't trust people and everyone scammers and oh you're not going to be able to wash your hands and you're not going to have a running water and you're going to live in a hut like yeah we hear those crazy things um but I never really paid any mind to most of them. I mean do you see people living in huts in here? Here? I don't see any huts around here. No no. Before I let you go I want you to send a message across I mean like you're living in here right now I mean any okay first of all do you feel like there are opportunities in here I mean is it cheap to live in here first of all is it cheap to live in here? I think for people coming from the states it's going to feel cheaper just because of the the like currency exchange and everything like that like it is I've never felt like I couldn't survive here right um but I benefit from earning US dollars so I think that just kind of depends on your situation but there's definitely opportunities and there's people making so many just making so many new things and old things here so there's plenty of opportunities. Which means are you living or you are surviving in here? Oh I'm living I'm living I'm living I just wanted to hear that because it's very important because people feel like oh you moved to Africa because you want to survive because you can't you can't survive in the state but she is not surviving she's living her best life in Africa I mean I want to say thank you so much for talking to me if you have any message that people need to hear that I'm not asking you but you feel like letting the world know? Just come I think you let them know that too well like you just I think it's something you can have a lot of ideas in your head of what it might be like to come to Africa and you're never going to know what it's like for yourself until you come here and everyone's going to have a different experience and everyone's going to learn something about themselves about their brothers their sisters the continent and that's what makes it so beautiful so everyone needs to come like all the diaspora needs to come but apart from the diaspora we also have Africans that are watching us I mean Africans born on the continent a message for Africans born on the continent yeah a message for the Africans born on the continent so free they want to hear from you oh man what would I say wow I don't know why that like because there's so much that I want to say um I guess thanks for welcoming us and thanks for trying to understand us despite whatever differences we might have and I think yeah having that openness that's that's how we can build those connections so thanks I also have a message for both Africans and Africans living the diaspora you might born in the diaspora but you're an African born in the diaspora so you're an African born in America born in Jamaica born in Caribbean but those of us born on the continent they are just one people so you know what meet that brother from America and tell him oh hey I love you oh thank you so much for coming to me