Moving to Africa for Business
i'm just going to africa where where at you need a little bit more than just people being nice and talking to you i made it four months and that's it couldn't do it couldn't do it couldn't do it i tried lord knows i try to sit them out if there's a way that i can help you guys why not right hi y'all my name is rita mobunda and i have decided that i want you guys to have all the information that i have learned in the last few years of coming to kenya in africa east africa and starting a business here and really being able to do this business by myself we get a lot of questions we get a lot of asking like rita like how did you do this how did you know this like how did you even know how to start this like where did you start why did you pick what we're doing so i decided i think it would be kind of cool to be able to just share this information that i have learned i've taken a lot of beatings i've been like screwed around a lot but here we are and we are growing we're moving and we're thriving so i said you know what why not um if it can help you guys if there's a way that i can help you guys why not right so like i said my name is rita melinda and i am a citizen of the world if you will um we can do another video like a little bit about my background later but basically my mom is indian uh red dot not feather and she was born in kenya there's quite a large indian population in kenya about 400 000 indians we have actually been also recognized as the 44th tribe in kenya and we'll talk about the tribalism that goes on around here and how that affects you and in your day-to-day work in a later video uh and my father is from drc congo and i was born in poland in krakow and i've kind of lived everywhere all over the world so that's why sometimes it's just easier to say i'm a citizen of the world um so one of the reasons why i came to kenya was because we i do have ties to kenya i've been coming to kenya as a kid since the 80s um i stopped coming for a long time when i was like between like 12 to basically like 20 25 or so just because there was nothing to do out here like whoo lord like what you see of kenya now compared to when i was coming here in the 80s it's like night and day uh for those of you all who are looking for a different place to move kenya's what's up uh i know that we get a lot of americans who are like i'm going to ghana or south africa um i mean that's fine if that's what you want to do that's fine but in my opinion as one who has traveled quite a lot across this continent and globally in my opinion for being anywhere on this continent top five cities genia is definitely top three um i would probably say top one maybe unbiased but whatever y'all will deal with it um but like kenya's what's up it's got kind of everything that you need here so one of the first things i would suggest is anybody who's moving to africa who wants to start a business and do that you got to figure out where do you want to be in africa right this place is huge this continent is massive to give you an idea traveling from kenya to senegal is about a 10 hour flight with a stop in between the refuel and pick up but generally it's about a 10 plus hour flight so that should give you an idea of the vastness the expanse and just how big this place is um so you got to figure out where you're trying to be at right like uh if ghana's where you want to be at because you're watching all these shows like oh ghana ghana great go check it out i'll be honest with y'all i've not been to ghana yet so i cannot tell you um but i will say in terms of the way the men's look i'm nervous to go to ghana y'all i'm nervous to go to ghana like they are just they big they large they in charge uh i would pr i would say you know for a lot of y'all this east african side at least in kenya uh you know like if you're into smaller men um you know that's fine the girls are very pretty here but the men generally are like you know they're small i'm a big girl i take up space so i need a man who's also going to be able to take up some of this space so i ain't been out to ghana but i already know if i ever get out there i'm gonna be running the streets instead of working so again these are certain small things you gotta keep in mind for what you need in your city so back to what i was saying you gotta figure out what you want in your city so like i said for me nairobi is it's it we got everything out here like there's literally there's everything out here you got your high end you got your low end you've got your beaches to the east you've got your savannas your bush your mountains going into the west you have deserts going in the north and we really have everything we've got a very variety of people and because we are a coastal country there are throughout the history of time there's just been all types of different types of people who have come into this part of the world and settled here in this part of the world like i said the indians here were bought over here by the british um and since then there are more and more indians who are not only living here born here but you're also even noticing a large uh massive indians from india coming to here um so anyways all of that to say we've got a lot of variety a lot of movement so for me what was really important is i got a top five criteria for any city that i know that i can go that i feel like i could be able to live right because living in a city traveling to a city working in a city is different right like you can go to i'm like i've grown up for the majority of my life in miami florida and you know miami i mean we street runners you know mia 305 dade county we out here we you know if anybody's been out there for all y'all who you know who are from miami and i'm talking about old miami not this new stuff but the old miami from the 90s like 80s 90s miami y'all already know what i'm talking about right um so it's really important to know yourself and what you really need in a city to be able to thrive so that you could really be your best so for instance my top top five criteria for being in any city where i know for a fact that if i got there i know i'd be able to live here are my criteria one it's got to be an all-night city like i said i have grown up for the majority of my life in miami florida i'm a street runner the streets call me i answer on the first ring what's up what are we trying to do um so there are not many many cities that are actually full on all night cities right like in the states i'll tell you the cities that i have been to where i'm like all right these are all all night cities right miami's one new york is one new orleans is one but i remember when i went to undergrad and law school in dc the first year of undergrad i was like shocked my stuff shut down right like if you're from miami you're used to like going out for dinner right around like eight or nine having some drinks and then you go out to the club at like 11 or 12 right because it ain't pop until then and it's not a good night unless you come home and like you know until the sun comes up so i remember going to um when i went to dc i was like a little bit shocked right because i was like oh so we're gonna go out at like seven okay and they just go kick us off the club by like two and then you gotta go to the after spots and blah blah blah anyways so all of that to say for me one of my criterias is number one an all-night city the other reason why i like an all-night city is not just like saying oh hey i'm gonna go hit the club or whatever but an all-night city also lets you have like just a lot of options right because there's always going to be something that's going on right like you could go down to like a real chill lounge out here at like 11 30 and it can just be nice and calm but or you could go hit up and tear it up and go out um the restaurant scene is actually like pretty lit out here there's a lot of variety there's a lot of stuff for you to choose from um don't come out here expecting like you know a new york pizza you're not gonna get it out here don't come out here being like oh well this don't even taste like how it tastes at home is not supposed to taste how it's supposed to taste at home it is what we've got out here and for what we have in this part of the world this is what's up so anyways number one all night city uh number two i kind of just touched on it a little bit it's the variety of food i am a female that i cannot have the same thing twice i like variety i like new i like something different if it's a surprise sign me up i'm into it i'm a person who i will try anything twice and i mean and that kind of extends to everything um anything twice so for me i am a person i need variety variety variety of food and the one thing that's great about here because we are a city that has a lot of international um representation here because we are a city that has historically had many different types of cultures and peoples move through and settle and remain here we got all types of food out here like i said as an indian the indian food on here is on point this is what's up it is different than like food from india right because we have been in kenya for so long there are ear there are certain foods that are you know they've got like a african tone to it but that's what just makes it so fun right that's what gives you just a little bit of like oh wow these are like different places different things that we're doing right um we got a lot of arabs so a lot of arab food is really tasty uh there's a lot of british people here so if you kind of like you know sausages and that there's definitely a lot of new british farmers who are making different foods and then we've got a lot of people who've been coming in just setting up uh the one i don't know like i'll talk to you about my my like or dislike of the chinese but let's be honest they're noodles and their dim sum is what's up right so you do get a lot of chinese we have a lot of korean japanese um and like actual japanese restaurants run by japanese right not like run bike onions but run by real japanese which definitely um gives you more authenticity right so number two is variety of food number three i've just kind of been interweaving it with everything we've been saying um but number three is a variety of people i could never live in a homogenous city i grew up like i said i've been all over the world i've lived all over the world i've grown up most of my life in the east coast and for those of us who live on the bike coastals especially like in america or for those of us who are living in europe in the larger cities you get a variety of people right and for me i mean variety is the spice of life i don't know those people i don't have a friend circle where everybody is exactly the same i think that would be like you know shoot me dead why would you ever want just the same as people around you all the time um so what's really nice about this place is there's definitely a variety of people you can get into different places different groups you can meet different people in and i'm saying this more so i'm talking about being in nairobi right um because this is a country where the where with tribes and tribes um generally have different parts of the country where they're where they are predominantly so generally when you do leave and go out of nairobi and go into further parts of the country you're going to be going into more of those tribe lands so in those areas you know you're going to just get most of the same people right like so in western most of the people in western or one tribe most of the people who are in the new kenyatti on that side by mount kenya are generally another tribe of people so i'm speaking specifically with nairobi being the capital this place we've got a lot of variety now could the people mix a little bit better out here yeah sure um for any of y'all who have been out here you know you kind of know karen is mostly like white parklands is mostly indian right going in like outside of nairobi you get more of your africans you know um right now i live in this kilimani area which is basically like chinatown now but chinese folk out here um so you do get variety which is great but i would love it if it was a little bit more of a mixing but we could like talk about that later if anybody's interested about it like you know hit me up in the comments and um let me let me know um so that was number two for i mean number three variety of people number four now this might be silly but for me it's really important a major airport uh if you are people who travel a lot then you understand the benefits of having a major airport right major airports or major hubs major airports have lots of flights major airports actually have things in the airport for you to do major airports make it easier for you to get in and out right i remember one time visiting a girlfriend of mine in st i mean in missouri and she lived in this city called cape girardeau god damn do you understand i had to fly into st louis and then we had to drive another like two or three hours to get out to where she lives now that for me sounds like a hell in and of itself i'm not interested in nothing like that y'all get me into that city and let me go do what i gotta go do and let me go ahead and get in and out uh the beauty of being here in um nairobi jamal kenyatta jki we've got flights from everywhere you can literally get everywhere the beauty of also having uae dubai right up the street i mean uae is basically a global hub for every part of the world right so one thing that's really great about being here in nairobi is you really can get to pretty much anywhere in the world within like two flights you know what i mean um kenya airways just started this amazing direct jki to jfk it is what's up please do not cancel this flight i could be their spokesperson for this flight it's amazing for those of you guys who do travel a lot and for those of you guys who do long haul flights this is what's up oh this is what's up so imagine you get out of here um in the evening the flight leaves at 11 30 pm so it's an overnighter which means you could just go lay your ass down however you choose to do that whether it is with some sleeping pills gummies whatever it is you could just go to bed you wake up you land in jfk at 7 30 a.m the beauty of a jfk 7 30 a.m arrival there ain't no other planes there's no other customers you will clear customs immigration like legit in 45 minutes last time i was out there uh i had appointment in the city to you know go get my hair done because i don't let blonde over here not that not that i'm not saying there's not people here who can do you know blonde highlights but i'm not trying to have all my hair fall out but anyways i had left out of here at 11 30 landed in jfk at 7 30 and i made it into the city by 9 a.m imagine so for all of y'all who know what that route is like i got out there by 9 a.m y'all got my hair did had time to go and hit up a happy hour meet up some folks and then went right back to the airport for a 6 30 flight down to miami um and again the beauty of going from major airports to major airports is are all your options right like you can just get in and out um kq flight that kq flight getting airways flight it's great the stewardess are just really helpful very amicable um really easy on the eyes both men and women which is always a pleasure if you're gonna be sitting over there for 15 hours uh it is about a 13 to 14 hour flight but the beauty of this direct flight is you don't have to stop in europe you don't have to stop in the um in the desert you're just in and out you don't have to do with layovers and especially now with this covid nonsense however the hell this thing is all going to look you have to deal with all of that right you don't have to deal with delayed flight you don't have to deal with like do you have your little coyote test it's like i got it get out of here you know so um number four major airport and my last one this is very particular to me um it's a swimmable ocean right so like i said for a lot of my life i grew up in the mia 305 dade county and back in the day before like that obscene traffic i mean you could get out to the beach pretty much from anywhere in like 20 minutes right um so i've grown up by the ocean i've lived by the ocean i used to have an apartment right on the ocean i love the ocean nothing heals and soothes and makes things better than the ocean for me i know all y'all who are like mountain dwellers the mountains do the same for y'all you deserve dwellers the desert do it for you all um but for me as being a person who's grown up on the majority of my life it well the majority of my younger life uh by the ocean the ocean is just something for me i used to say just an ocean and then i remember when i had gone down to um south africa to cape town i was like oh so there's oceans and then there's swimmable oceans right so for y'all who might have gone down there like that camps bay it's just so picturesque it's beautiful right like that water comes lapping in the sand is just expansive and beautiful now go ahead and go and try to take a dip in that water you're not going to be able to take nobody's dipping that water it's trash all right it's freezing it's cold don't show me a good time and then tell me i can't get into it to have a good time you understand what i'm saying so for me after that trip i had to put a little caveat on my number five with the ocean it must be a swimmable ocean okay so for those of y'all who have maybe spent some time in different parts of the world with different oceans and the seas and what we have in my opinion all right in my opinion when the universe and god was creating all the things all of that he dumped over here in that indian ocean he gave a good dose down over there in the caribbean but other than that you know what i mean nothing beats over this this indian ocean over here now nothing beats it over here it's beautiful the water's god's bath water it's temperate all year round and it's just beautiful right the color the mood all of that uh same with the caribbean yes i get it but nowhere near the indian ocean for those of you all who are going to try to tell me that the atlanta at the atlantic and the pacific or what's up you are not part of this conversation it's clear you ain't never really seen a really nice ocean and you don't really know what you're talking about but like i said it's my opinion so i'm just letting you guys know so like i said when we are first um sitting here trying to figure out like all right look we're ready to make the move you don't want to live in the u.s anymore maybe you want to try something else right maybe you
don't want to be in europe anymore maybe you want to be in a country on a continent where you see black and brown people right and like they're around in every part right it's not like you know you go to the doctor they're in africa and they're black you go to see a lawyer you go to the go outside to get your garden done and it's a real pleasure right especially for those of us who have grown up in cities where that's not the case right where you don't see so many um people who look like you your color and you're not seeing some of that this part is really a pleasure so i guess just again so before you guys decide oh hey i just like for instance let me just say this again like one thing that just pisses me off like oh it's like when you meet those people where they're like oh i'm just going to africa where where at like this place is so big this place is so diverse i just kind of feel like it's just a nonsensical statement right it's like if you're going to say like i'm coming to america like beware right the west coast is different than the east coast the south is different than being in the north the midwest is different i don't know nothing about the middle states all that middle stuff all that landlocked metal stuff don't ask me about none of that i don't know nothing about that i really got no interest to go and see any of that but again let's be honest right idaho is going to be very different than being in new york right or you know being in washington state is going to be real different looking than being in texas so when you're thinking about these small things like narrow down kind of what you like what you don't like what do you need in your city what you don't need in your city to thrive like i said for me my top five criteria are number one all night city number two variety of food number three variety of people number four major airport and number five a swimmable ocean there are a few cities that i have identified as such and kenya on the continent fits all of those criterias for those of you guys again who like just love ghana that atlantic ocean is trash sorry not sorry that atlantic ocean on that side is trash um i've been to a few countries i've been to ivory coast i've been to senegal i've been to guinea where it's on that atlantic not interested so again when you guys are sitting here thinking about yourselves like where do you want to be how do you want your life to look what kind of a life do you want to lead what do you need in your lifestyle so that you can be your best i think that first question before you start saying to yourself like i'm just out of here i'm moving i'm whatever right everybody has those moments but when you're being really serious about it it does involve planning it does involve intention and it does involve having some real thought as into how it's gonna look right so we are out here living the life building the dream um i love it out here i love it out here i'm like really happy out here i'm very content with my life out here so for me kenya was just the easiest choice because it had all of my top five criteria so guys um if you guys want some help to kind of discuss where do you want to move what do you like not like and what city can fit your needs hit me up dm me um hit us up in the comments um i'd love to be able to talk about that but anyways so again number one before you decide i'm leaving i'm gone i'm out of there regardless of whatever country you're going to regardless of whatever continent you're gonna go to regardless of however it's going to look really take the time to figure out for yourself what do you need so that you can be your best in a new environment where you can really thrive and get that experience that you're really looking for so that's all i got on this one real quick um hit me up like i said the top five you need your top tie five criteria figure out where you're trying to be at what you're trying to do and what you're trying to live like i said when i first moved out here before i came and stayed properly in kenya i was living in lilongwe in malawi i made it four months i made it four months and that's it couldn't do it couldn't do it couldn't do it i tried lord knows i tried i said i'm out why because i didn't even have my top five criteria right wasn't no swimmable ocean out there there was a new major city out there no real variety of food or nothing were the people nice yeah sure but like you need a little bit more than just people being nice and talking to you know what i'm saying so anyways before you guys like even before we get down to like what do you need to start your business how do you start your business here you got to be able to know yourself well enough to know where do you want to go to be able to start up a business so that your business can be successful right my name is rita molinda i'm out here living the life and building a dream y'all and i want to help you all do the same so hit me up dm me whatever it looks like i'm around let me know alright thanks y'all bye
2022-05-12 14:37
