Oasis HRL Travel & Tours LLC
Travel Consultant and Tour Operator
Get Away The Right Way
ABOUT US:
"I HAVEN'T BEEN EVERY-
WHERE
BUT IT'S ON
MY LIST."
Susan Sontag
Oasis HRL Travel & Tours LLC, we curate memorable African group tour vacations. We focus on the cultural and historical aspects of Africa. We are committed to making travel to Africa as easy as possible for our customers. We provide our Africa Group, Vacations, and tours with a skilled group operator with over 15 years of Africa travel experience. We provide custom group and individual vacation packages for our customers. We also provide domestic and other international travel destination vacations for our clients. All of our travel vendors are licensed and bonded for a safe and reliable vacation experiment.
Hi, my name is Juanita Osei, aka Juanita McDowell, owner of Oasis HRL Travel & Tours LLC. A little background about how my love of travel started. My first memory of travel is sitting in the back of my father's car traveling down south to see my grandmother and other family members. I was around 8 or 9 years old or so. I remember pasting a few travel trailers and mobile homes on the road. I would watch them until I could no longer see them again while thinking, to myself, that looks like so much fun to travel with a travel trailer or mobile home. So I made up my mind then, that when I grow up, I am going to buy a travel trailer and I did. I enjoyed so many years with my family traveling all over America with our travel trailer.
With my love for Africa, I have traveled to so many destinations around the globe, domestic and international. But, I must say there is no experience like Africa. My first African experience was in Nigeria. I landed in Lagos a little scared because I didn't know what to expect, but at the same time very excited too. The people were warm and welcoming. I love the African people, their culture, and their traditions. Africa is a must-visit location for all melanin skin tone people. We all must return home at least once in our lifetime. Add Africa to your bucket list.
My mission and my passion are to enlighten as many melanin skin tone people as possible to visit Africa. It is definitely an experience of a lifetime. You can't get this experience from any other country, especially being of African descent. Come join the Oasis HRL Travel & Tours LLC for this unique experience from an African American point of view, off the beaten path in the heart of Africa, where you will receive warm welcomes, acceptance into the African communities, and become a part of the African tribe and culture.
Accomplishments - Join the United States Army at the tender age of 19 years, served 6 years and 8 months with them. Worked for the United States Post Office for 3 years and 6 months. Worked for the Chicago Police Department for 18 years and 6 months and retired from the Chicago police department. Mother of two children. Both of my children attended the Abeokuta Grammar School for two years, a boarding school located in Abeokuta, Ogun State Nigeria. Needless to say, they have friends all around the world. I am a Landowner in both Ghana and Nigeria.
Oasis HRL Travel & Tours LLC
P.O. Box 3334
Montgomery Alabama 36107
Call US
773-501-5151
My Africa tale
Putting my name on the wall of return
My visit to Assin Monso Ancestral Slave Riverwalk site, one of Ghana's many tourist locations. That is me writing my name on the wall of return. The Memorial Wall of Return is where African descendants write their names to indicate they have found their roots. Also on this site is the first and last bath. The first bath is where returned African descendants can wash their face, arm, hand, etc... The last bath was where captured slave took their last bath before being auctioned off to merchants. Two different rivers running in two different directions, same location.
My Africa tale
Hanging out with the local herbalist
Village life, enjoying the day in one of the villages in Nigeria. Sitting with a native doctor while he is preparing some local herbs. This particular herb is for women threatening miscarriage. It is a long process to prepare natural medicine. You have to go out into the bush to pick the herbs, then you have to bring them home and spread them to dry for a day or two, next you have to pick through the leaves to discharge the bad or unwanted leaves. Later, you have to soak the leaves for several days. Then the leaves are cooked or steamed to extract the medicine and left to cool down for several hours.
My Africa tale
Mud houses in the village Nigeria
This is called a mud house, how people in the village used to build their homes. Now they used blocks like the western world. In my opinion mud houses are more efficient in Africa. I went inside one of these updated mud houses and discovered that the temperature was at least 10 degrees cooler than the blockhouses. Only using a ceiling fan and it felt like the home had an air conditioning system. Sometimes in life, we don't realize when we have it good, we are too busy trying to be like other people. I personally like the old traditional African ways of living.
My Africa tale
Dancing with the Maasai tribe, traditional dance.
My visit to Kenya. Met the Maasai tribe and spent some time with them learning about their culture and traditions and way of life. This tribe is one of the tribes that held on to their culture and traditions in spite of western world influences. They are a pasteurized tribe that moves from location to location to feed their cattle. In this picture, I am dancing with the Maasai tribe. The dance is called the Adamu, also known as the famous jumping dance. The Adamu is part of the Eunoto ceremony, where boys transition to men. The jumping also acts as a way for men to attract a bride.
My Africa tale
Grinding corn with the Dotoga Tribe.
A village visit with the Dotoga tribe. They are a Nilotin ethnic people group from Arusha Region of Tanzania. They are a tribe that has held on to their traditional lifestyle. In this picture they are teaching me how they grind corn for cooking. Dotoga self identifies as semi-nomadic pastoral. They herds consist of goats, sheep, and donkeys, but cattle are by far the most important domestic animal. The meat, fat, blood, milk, hide, horn, tendons and dung of every animal have either practical or ritual purposes. However they rely on a range of economic resources, like farming, blacksmith,market, and wage-based labor.
My Africa tale
Dancing with the Hadzabe tribe.
My visit to Tanzania. Met the Hadzabe Tribe and learn their traditional way of life. The Hadzabe people are an indigenous hunter-gathers group who lives in the Eyasi Basin, situated in the Great Rift Valley, the Ngoronhoro Conservation Area and Tarangire National Park. As a hunter-gather society, the Hadzabe have no domesticated livestock, nor do they grow or store their food. They survive by hunting their food with hand-made bows and arrows and forging for edible plants and berries. The Hadzabe diet is primarily plants-based but also consist of meat, fat and honey. They live in tempory shelters.
My Africa tale
Hanging out with the Zulu tribe while they preform their Zulu wedding.
The tradition Zulu wedding always takes place at the family home of the groom. The bride will leave her home early in the morning, covered in a blanket given to her by her mother. The bride's father leads her to her new family home, and she is advised not to look back, so as not to invite bad luck. The groom buys two cows which are eaten on the day of the ceremony. The father of the groom opens up the ceremony by welcoming his new daughter, with the bride father saying a few words, as a sign that he approves of the union too.
My Africa tale
A visit at Madela's House, hanging out with Winnie Mandela.
Nelson Mandela's humble house in Orlando West, Soweto, now called the Mandela Family Museum, is an interesting stopover for those keen to imbibe a slice of authentic history on the world's most famous former prisoner. It is known to many simply as Mandela House. It was where Nelson Mandela lived between 1946 and 1962. The house is a humble abode of 4 inter- leading rooms that today contain a collection of memorabilia, paintings and photographs of the Mandela Family. Today the house function as a museum.