Show follows Beacon family’s move to Africa
Many Americans bluster about leaving the country over political tension and other heated issues, but in 2021, the Smiley family of Beacon bailed for Zambia.
Their participation in an HBO Max show about four families that became expats in various parts of Africa, Coming from America, which began streaming last month, came through happenstance.
Evidenced by a Zoom call and the family’s social media channels, the Smileys are living up to their name and enjoying a laid-back lifestyle. The family appears to have seamlessly integrated into the daily rhythms of the country’s capital, Lusaka (population 3 million).
Their new home also serves as a launchpad to tour the world, and they have returned stateside for visits (school-age children, River and William, attend a Beacon summer camp).
The family still owns a house on Jackson Avenue, which is rented out. When asked if they plan to return, Gabe slowly shakes his head, “No.” Elaine looks wistful. She misses her family in Brooklyn and upstate, but her mother, Marjorie Baynes, overcame a fear of flying and joins them on some jaunts.
After meeting in Brooklyn, the couple found themselves priced out. Eight years ago, they moved north after discovering Beacon during upstate escapes to ride bicycles. Elaine worked a health care job in Manhattan, Gabe as a career counselor at the Poughkeepsie Day School.
He says they became increasingly uncomfortable with “racism, generally, and volatile politics” and began looking for a job abroad. After getting an offer in Belgium and another at Lusaka International Community School, they jumped into the heart of Africa. Then, a friend of a friend told them about the Max show and helped make it happen.
“I love Beacon, it’s a bubble,” says Elaine. “It’s progressive and all, but I felt tokenized.” Shortly before the move, though, she met a lot of “women of color with similar lefty values whom I wish I’d met years ago,” which softened her views. But she also mentions “Karens” and the “white cop on the corner.”
Their social media videos tick off some things they miss (tacos and sidewalks) and others that they were glad to jettison (commuting and the rat race). Instagram videos show them zipping around on four-wheel dirt bikes and visiting their adopted country’s Kafue National Park.
Over three years, they’ve racked up mileage points jetting to the Philippines and just about every country that surrounds landlocked Zambia, which is centrally located in the continent’s sub-Saharan southern section. Elaine took a solo birthday trip to Mauritius.
Now that they’re outside the U.S. looking in, they sometimes find it hard to describe their feelings. “In Zambia, there’s classism, but no internalized racism and no ultra-macho attitudes,” says Elaine. “People are calm. Almost everyone is Black and, for me, that’s empowering. I can wear my hair any way I want.”
Before the move, friends and relatives gave them an earful. Someone asked Elaine: “What are you going to do, sell mangoes on the street?” Hardly: The couple created the Zambridgian Leather Co. and is looking for a retail partner in Beacon.
The name, which mashes up Zambia and Gabe’s hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, hints at a metaphoric span between countries and continents.
Besides Elaine’s mom, the Smileys’ friends and neighbors from Beacon, Matthew Condon and his 91-year-old mother, Nancy, have visited twice and plan to return this month.
The Condons have taken a safari, swam in the Devil’s Pool, visited Victoria Falls and walked with lion cubs. “It’s a wonderful, stress-free place; they’re so relaxed over there,” Matthew says.
Condon recalled visiting a high-end steakhouse “where you could cut the meat with a fork because there’s no steroids.” The check was $100 for six adults and two children.
There are downsides, like bad sushi, power outages and the locals’ surprise that they take their dog, Mango, on walks. But Gabe, who is seven minutes by foot from work, thinks the family made the right decision.
“We had a good life in Beacon with our young children and aging parents,” he says. “In a way, it was a tough decision. But when the school offered the job, we wanted this.”
Coming from America can be streamed at max.com. To watch the Smiley family videos from Zambia, visit youtube.com/@gasmiles.
