“My tours are very personal because we have family, often my own family, running operations. And we really get to know our customers so closely they become like family, too,” says 31-year-old Ben, who started his company at only 19 years old after graduating from Nairobi Institute with a conservation, tourism and hotel management degree. Although fate led him to permanent residency in Wisconsin after meeting his future wife in a Tanzanian café (Jessie, an American-born wildlife ecology student studying abroad), you never fully appreciate home until you leave it—and Ben’s love for Africa only grew after leaving in 2007. So has his business, along with a desire to share his successes with the villagers he left behind.

“By Madison Magzine”