Tanzanian safari leader's journey leads him to Wisconsin

[bright accordion music]

Angela Fitzgerald: Along Main Street in Stoughton, the town’s Norwegian heritage is on proud display.

Angela Fitzgerald: But off Main, Ben’s African Mediterranean Cuisine shows that Stoughton’s global connections go even broader.

Ben Pallangyo: Well, I grew up in Tanzania, East Africa. Born and raised.

Angela Fitzgerald: Ben Pallangyo’s East African background is seen in the decor and on the menu.

Ben Pallangyo: Then you go to main course, then you go to dessert. This is so fresh. You can do this with any meal.

Angela Fitzgerald: Keeping it fresh for Ben means an always-evolving menu.

Ben Pallangyo: Our menu changes every hour.

Angela Fitzgerald: And hours could be spent looking at the trophies of Ben’s travels across Africa. There, he leads safaris featuring encounters with animals unlike any from Wisconsin.

[lions roaring]

Ben Pallangyo: The pride of lions. The hippo up closer. Up-close encounter with the elephants. If you go on safari, you come back different person.

Angela Fitzgerald: The word “safari” simply means “journey” in Swahili, one of Ben’s native languages. His journey brought him along an unlikely path to Stoughton. Ben met a Wisconsin woman while working as a restaurateur and tour leader in Africa.

Ben Pallangyo: My now ex-wife, but great friend, good relationship still because we have a family together.

Angela Fitzgerald: Ben still remembers the shock of arriving during Wisconsin’s winter.

Ben Pallangyo: It was bloody hell cold. I feel like I’m at 19,340 feet, which is the height of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Angela Fitzgerald: But Ben quickly found Wisconsin’s warmth.

Ben Pallangyo: My first impression was Wisconsin people are wonderful people. Make no mistake.

Angela Fitzgerald: And Ben found other signs he’d come to the right place.

Ben Pallangyo: When I come to Stoughton, I found this flag from Tanzania.

Angela Fitzgerald: It was at the Lutheran church he’d just joined.

Ben Pallangyo: They support a mission in Tanzania, and I have a family member who works there. I immediately felt that it was no coincidence. You cannot ignore a sign, a good sign. There is a good sign sometimes lands upon you.

Angela Fitzgerald: But not all signs have been inviting. Ben’s own restaurant sign was vandalized a few months after he opened. And that wasn’t all.

Ben Pallangyo: I just woke up, I went to parking lot, get into my car, and I found out, [glass shattering] the window, it’s broken. I’m not concerned about the small intimidation of breaking my window. You can break the window, but you cannot break Ben. Ben is an unbreakable animal from Serengeti.

Angela Fitzgerald: And the community rallied its support.

Ben Pallangyo: People were very upset. The community was upset. So many people came here to support me. I’ve never seen this love before. Now there is something personal to me about Wisconsin.

Angela Fitzgerald: Wisconsin will always be a part of Ben’s safari through life.

Ben Pallangyo: Wisconsin has given me a family. My son Remi, my daughter Chloe, they’re both Wisconsin kids, raised here, and they are incredible. Wisconsin has given me life.

[gentle music]