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 is your gateway to unforgettable African group travel experiences. We curate journeys that honor the rich cultural, historical, and spiritual heartbeat of the continent - crafting vacations that leave every traveler transformed. With a seasoned group operator holding over 15 years of expertise in African travel, we make your journey seamless, meaningful, and stress-free from start to finish.
Beyond Africa, we also design personalized domestic getaways and international vacation packages tailored to your unique desires. Every travel partner we work with is fully licensed and bonded, ensuring your adventure is not only extraordinary but safe, reliable, and handled with the utmost care.
At Oasis HRL Travel & Tours, we don't just plan trips - we create life-changing experiences.
Hi, my name is Juanita McDowell, proud owner of Oasis HRL Travel& Tours LLC. My love for travel began long before passports and boarding passes-back when I was an 8- or 9-year-old girl riding in the back of my father's car, headed south to visit my grandmother and the rest of my family.
I can still see it now: travel trailers and mobile homes rolling down the highway beside us. I would watch them until they disappeared, imagining the adventures happening inside. Something about them sparked a fire in my spirit. Even then, I knew one day, I was going to travel like that. And I did.
As an adult, I brought my own travel trailer and spent years creating unforgettable memories with my family, exploring the beauty of America mile by mile. Those journeys shaped me, deepened my passion, and ultimately inspired the creation of Oasis HRL Travel & Tours - a place where I help others experience the same joy, freedom, and wonder that travel has always given me.
With my deep love for Africa, I've traveled to destinations across the United States and around the globe - but nothing compares to the magic of the Motherland. My very first African journey was to Nigeria, and I will never forget the moment I stepped off the plane in Lagos. I felt a mix of fear and excitement, unsure of what awaited me, yet knowing something profound was about to unfold.
What I discovered was pure warmth. The people welcome me with open arms. Their culture, traditions, strength, and joy resonated with me on a soul level. I fell in love - not just with a place, but with a part of myself I didn't know I was missing. Africa is a must-visit destination.
Add Africa to your bucket list...and let it change you.
My mission and my deepest passion are to inspire as many melanated souls as possible to experience Africa for themselves. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime journey that no other country on earth can replicate. Africa changes you. It awakens something ancient, familiar, and powerful within you.
At Oasis HRL Travel & Tours LLC, we invite you to discover Africa through an African American lens - authentic, heartfelt, and intentionally curated. Our journeys take you off the beaten path, into the heart of the continent, where warm welcomes await you, where communities embrace you, and where you don't just visit... You belong.
Join us, and step into a place where you are seen, celebrated, and connected.
Join us, and become a part of the culture, the rhythm, and the tribe.
Join us, and let Africa make you feel at home.
Accomplishments - I began my journey of service at just 19 years old, when I proudly joined the United States Army. I served with honor for 6 years and 8 months, a foundation that shaped my resilience, discipline, and leadership.
After the military, I continued my commitment to service with the United States Postal Service, where I worked for 3 years and 6 months, and later with the Chicago Police Department, dedicating 18 years and 6 months to protecting and supporting the community before retiring with distinction.
Beyond my professional achievements, I am the mother of two children, both of whom spent two years attending Abeokuta Grammar School - a historic boarding school in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Their time there blessed them with friendships and connections that now span the globe.
I am also a proud landowner in both Ghana and Nigeria, further deepening my roots and connection to the African continent. I'm not soliciting anyone to move to Africa, just a friendly visit to experience the culture and traditions.
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.