 Mommy yeah, it's good to meet you. Good. Nice to meet you, too. I've been I've been watching you in less than 2017 2017. Yeah, so you don't have to introduce to me. I know you My audience my name is water Maya no one and only annoying village boy who's on a journey to change the narratives of Africa I'm currently here in Somaliland and I met this beautiful woman in here I mean I met her on YouTube before coming here. So I checked it out on YouTube when I was on away coming here She got a very beautiful daughter. I'm definitely gonna bring it on the camera for you to see her the owner YouTube channel So, you know what before I start an interview do me a favor There's a link in the description box go there subscribe You see my daughter relationship over there and I know that you're gonna see a lot about Somaliland from there Yes, it's a pleasure meeting you and thanks for I mean taking me around Somaliland I was literally scared of coming here Are you welcome? You're so welcome. Thank you I'm a lot of people don't know who you are Tell us who you are and what's your name and what you represent. My name is Shamsa Hashi. I'm from Canada I've been living in Canada for 30 years. Then I decided to move back home You we're living in Canada for 30 years. Yes, what's your kid to Canada in the first place? Well, everyone liked I'm going to America not America. So it's one of those Yeah, but I find out that's it's not what everybody think it is. What's what are you saying mommy? The life here and the life is good here. The life is not America is you struggle The life in America is struggle. Yes, but life in Africa is good I mean, what was the struggle like living in America living in Canada? How was the life then you have to? Fight your way in to make living you fighting for your living like you get a lot of money But it goes back to them. You have to pay the rent You have to pay the car insurance you have to be your phone You have to pay the children's school and everything. So if you are without job for a month You've been you've been thrown away So you've been living in the streets the constant worried about what is going to happen What's going to happen? What if you were out of jail? So I was I was I was working 6 a.m. To 6 p.m. Just to provide for my family 6 a.m. To 6 p.m. Yes How many jobs are you doing one job one job? Yes Because you have to commit to commit two hours to go to work and two back and eight hours of working Wow, yeah, and what made you decide that you know what I'm tired I want to get out of this place. Well, I've been deciding last 15 years. How do I go back home? Okay, so we're thinking about it a lot and trying to go back with money That's the hardest thing you you're never gonna come back with money I don't understand you live in Canada you're working you're making money But when you want to come back saying that you can't come back you can't come back with tons of money that you Want to do business with so I will tell you save your side save your save Time for yourself and just make up your mind and come home I came back with $10,000 and I've been going for 30 30 years 30 years and the finally I decided I said I'm not gonna get that I'm not gonna be a millionaire I'm not gonna go back with lots of money at least push myself to go back and that's what I did And how do you feel coming back in here? I'm so happy And I regret the couple that the many years I've been away and said why wouldn't I come back earlier? You regret the number of years that I've been away with yes, how long have you been here at three years three years? And I even don't think about I've been there a month I feel like your story is more Inspiration about after coming back in here. Do you regret I mean living away the time I wasted in North America? Yes, you regret the time you wasted there in North America. Yes Every family who wants who's been there have a dream about one day you will go back but they never go and they never come back because They constantly worry about who you're gonna leave your kids with What's gonna happen if you leave? Just this my cousin she have 21 year old son and she worry about leaving him in UK she's leaving UK What do you worry about 21 years old? Why are you taking care of her 21 years old? That's the first mistake you should leave Retire come back home and take care of yourself. Well, it's a lie. You're taking care of yourself. Yes Have you retired already? Yes, I did. What what are you doing right now? I follow my passion now. I do gardening. I do some Whatever I like I'm doing it not whatever I have to leave to survive The survival time is over for me. The survival time is over for you. Yeah Now you're living your best life. I'd live in a best life Wow, and how do you even convince your daughter to come here? Oh, she was keep coming back here every couple of months She's been away not away in more than two months and she keep coming back and then Corona happened the best thing that happened Was Corona Corona is not bad if people think Corona is bad It brings good things to Corona bring her back here. She was stuck over there and she said what what am I doing here? My mom's over there doing having having her life there. Why am I here in this? Struggle your mom said Corona brought you here. Is that true? Yeah, Corona made me do it Yeah, I was just she was telling me for years stop struggling You don't have to spend 30 years struggling like I did just come and I was being stubborn I just wanted to live my life and be free until I came here and there the freedom was actually here Living as a diaspora kid was not free Still had to wake up and go to work and work for people That don't understand you and then you come here and you're only with your people That was freedom for me So how long have you been staying here now? This has been nine months straight, but for the last three years that she been here I kept running back every two months every two months. So yeah, how is the feeling being with your own people? It's unmeasurable, but it's something I didn't know I needed I grew up in Canada Born and raised there You barely know much about your culture because families are very widespread across Canada It's not like in the UK where there's Somalis in this vicinity It's houses blocks apart. So I didn't get to learn about my culture mom was gone Obviously not her fault work in 12 hours a day. When does she have time to teach you anything? People make fun because you don't speak perfect Somali But it's like you have to understand the circumstances we were put in our parents are working hours They don't have time to teach us the culture. Yeah, so I don't blame them, but now it's on me I'm here to learn my culture and that's why I moved and are you planning to stay here forever? I'm not going anywhere. You're not going anywhere. I like that. Oh, you like that. I like that You wanted to be around you. Yes, you have other siblings. Yeah, it's four of us Oh, wow, inshallah. They'll come when their time is ready to Came to learn from my mom and my mom's mom. Yeah, and then I'm in the motherland So it's like three generations and an extra sprinkle of motherland My my learning days are like endless. I'm always shocked by everything. Let me know What is the main aim behind a YouTube channel? My YouTube channel is to show well when I came I was shocked with how my mom was living I just posted it because I needed storage on my phone. Turns out there were so many people Equally shocked and relatable So I realized there's a spot there for the homesick diaspora to see how easy it is to live here But there's also another view that I'm showing. It's sustainable There's an easier a different lifestyle than your typical lifestyle mom and I do nothing out of the ordinary She makes me go pick up cow poop on any given day. Yeah for me noor for the blend I See mom and I in the trenches digging cow poop. Whoa, what other diaspora comes on holiday to dig cow poop with their mom But I feel like doing that is more fulfilling. You know, I'm more fulfilling and very relatable I really want to understand something. Yeah. Now you're here. Yeah, you live in your best life I think she's smiling a lot. She's smiling more than when she was in the dash bra But out of all places In Africa you decided to settle in Somalia, I mean we all have that perception out there about the Somali region Do you feel safe coming back in here? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The first thing I feel it is the safety That's what make me decide to stay here In Somali land remember when they were calling you in a hash yay Yeah, and the thing guys are being surprised is have been called my my father name No one knows me over there and saying that in a hash yay like my dad and my grandfather's name Oh, your title. No one will call me my first name basis. They were calling me my family name and I said, oh my god It's been you've been known here. Yeah, and Proud no one knows me about it. This is I'm like ordinary people over there Wow, but here but here I've been known as a family generation of families that makes me cry the first couple of time now My ear get used to it, but The beginning I was emotional And my family name It seems you want to it seems you have a lot of like it seems you have a message for the dash Yes, the way you speak in Africa speak out of passion you love to Connect with other If you have a message for them, what would that message be? But then there was just a way I said just drop all you have and leave and I know that everyone They're back back of their head. They want to come back one day But the time hasn't come that time will never come if you don't make a decision and come home and leave whatever you are Telling yourself that you're gonna go back one day one day will never arrived So just come back home. It's it's easy life here But it's not difficult living in Africa. What are the challenges? The challenges? I Don't see a challenge. I really don't see a challenge really You don't you don't see a challenge. I don't feel it. I don't feel it Mom and I made a made an analogy when we first got here It was like we were living every day like we were tourists because it's exciting things are new people are It was it was a different mentality that we had and so by being called the Somalian tourist It's because we switch the tourist mentality where you are here to learn observe and Enjoy when you're a tourist traveling all your other countries aren't you in the best state of mind exactly? Then if you only put your tourist cap on because I did Billions of travels, but when I got here the same feeling of my happy travel feeling was it was it didn't stop for two months so When we put our tourist cap on you can you can really enjoy and feel easy We still travel we go places. Okay, that no one went Wow gotta go for those adventures adventure time we take adventure time and tour around the country just to get to know your own Yes, because you've been away for so long. I mean like a lot of people are saying that there are no opportunities in Africa Let's talk about Somalia land right now. What are the kind of opportunities that you think that the Somalis in the dashboard that are coming But what are the kind of opportunities that they they will have when they get in here the business? There's a lot of business that need to be opened Rental is one of them. Yeah. Yeah, I have a lot of business opportunities I see it but I'm not interested but anyone who wants to do things this the option is there If you see in our video when we're traveling to one of the epic waterfall destinations couldn't get a car rental We even mentioned it in our video. That's the kind of content. I'm giving to the diaspora is look There's so many pockets if you need something and you can't find it in the country move That's your business. That's your thing. It's not hard. You just have to live here for six months Observe and you you're gonna need something the thing that you need. It's not here. We're a young country It's only about 30 years this nation of some other land. So there's lots of Lots to be done. I mean I will add that to it because the IT people the young people who's in broad that knows IT They are lacking a lot of IT here for like businesses. They don't have Advertise and Instagram social media. They don't have it. So anyone with a computer is smart There's a little business area. I want you to speak to young Somalis if you have a message for young Somalis My people absolutely. I'm a young Somali. Don't look at it any other way That's what I'm saying. You have a message for young Somalis or that message be you got to come and Observe absorb all of this culture because you're not getting it over there You're in a forced culture over there and you know, you've heard it from your adero and your uncle That can come to see Dane that can come a bottle. It means hold on to your culture Don't lose your culture. Our elderly are worried that we're gonna lose our culture I used to take it the wrong way when they say that to us, but they're actually in fear But I know a big thing that's holding you all back could be the language barrier We didn't grow up speaking tough Somali, but I pushed myself through it and you guys can too But there's a lot that you're missing and you're not gonna get it over there. So you got it You got to come back. Yeah, when we have a message to anyone watching us right now Yeah, farming is one of them one of the businesses that we needed in Somalia because we've been supplied from Ethiopia and We have the water the rivers. We have the land. Why not farm? So green house is one of them That that you can Harvest the whole year round, but we have the water, but you have to you have to engineer the water Yes, we don't have water we live in drought But what mom has created is you capture the free rain runoff runoff water People told mom you're never gonna succeed. Oh, is it a first green house in Somalia one of few Yes, this is a custom first one and everyone said this is Don't do it. There's no point. It's only a 20 foot by 18 foot plot of land. You're never gonna succeed You there's no water in this country. Where are you gonna find water and mom found water that I captured the Runoff water and I directed to that and I put a tarp in it and I collect the rain water To use for the farm every is this rain water. Yeah one rainfall in the entire year is enough To give you 500 in Kechi of tomatoes for last season and this year is a green house tomato So I'm expecting it more triple triple this much give you 5 kg Imagine 500 in Kechi and this another 500 in Kechi and this another 500 in Kechi You do the math This is like your hobby, yeah, this is my hobby Yes, and I'm doing it for passion and I see they're lacking for and Tomatoes so I decided to you grow the tomatoes for them. Yeah, all of our imports come into Ethiopia So like the country imports imported for vegetable from Ethiopia So you're trying to I mean solve that problem. Yes. That's amazing You know, you just have to you have to open our people's eyes with visuals. So I don't blame them They lived in drought. They don't expect there to be water But when they saw our two barricades of water, yeah, they change them. Oh, that was a different thought So you'll see the other plots of land. They have now got a water catchment system This plot of land everyone made fun of us. It's a singular plot of land for one person's house It's only 18 by 24. Yeah, that's not gonna be a farm. You're never gonna make a farm That's not gonna be now they come it's a gallery people come knock it on the door every day Let me see the lady who made a farm from a plot of land Wow, I want to say that Please help me do this go to their YouTube channel. The link will be in the description It's by force, you know, it's by force to subscribe to the YouTube channel They're gonna give you entertaining, educated videos from Somali land I'm personally here because of them because their video really inspired me I won't lie. I was so scared of coming here, but that video gave me a different perspective. That's what I got in here So hey, do me a favor go to the YouTube channel subscribe and be part of their awesome family I just found out that apart from the mom doing what she loves She's also making a huge impact here in Somali land by putting young girls in school We noticed the the male female literacy rate was off and it wasn't sitting well with us So actually one of my subscribers mentioned that we should start a fun and now we've Successfully got three young kindergarten girls in school and they come from a family who's never even been to school before It's a new beginning. Nice. How many girls are you sponsoring right now? 13 So I know that we are an army and we can actually make it 30, right? So what does it take to sponsor a K2 school 25 us dollars a month 25 us dollars a month. So I need 30 people Well, I'm gonna donate 25 dollars every month Where do they have to donate the money you can send it to a PayPal link I'll have it here for you guys or you can send it direct to our money Instagram page and Mention that you're really in it for the long run because these girls are they're starting kindergarten and they need to finish through high school We're not here for we're not here for half schools. We want to get fully educated girls Can somebody pay because I think somebody can pay it throughout instead of paying 25 dollars every year Yes, it's absolutely take one-time donations if that's the case So I need 25 people to do one-time donation. Thank you. It's a favorite village boy. Mr. Ghana baby No