Meet the expats : Mauritius with Kids… In Conversation with Mini Mauritius!

We moved to Mauritius from the UK almost a year ago and at the time, I (Sabah) was pregnant with our second child. The baby was due in December and I was panicking, having no idea on how to dress a newborn baby in the blazing Mauritian summer heat. Thankfully, I came across a blog called Mini Mauritius – run by 29-year-old Milja Rowden from Finland, who now lives on the island with her husband and three children – which was extremely helpful and put my mind at ease (and thankfully, the baby survived through the summer too – yay!). We had the pleasure of meeting Milja and her gorgeous 4-year-old son this week, in the north of the island where she lives. We shared a great conversation discussing life on the island with young children and her experience. Here’s what happened…

Hi Milja, thank you so much for coming out to meet us today! So firstly, we know that you’re from Finland and your husband is from England. How did the two of you meet?
Actually, we met in high school in England. I was living in England with my parents – they were scientists in the Genome Project in Cambridge. So yeah, that’s where we met, in high school.

Wow, so you’ve known each other a long time then!
Yeah, we’ve been married for 11 years now. I was 18 when we got married, he was 19.

Aw, that’s great! So you mentioned your parents’ jobs took you to England. What happened next?
We lived in Finland for a while, while we were studying. My parents moved to South Africa, to Cape Town, so we went to visit and we loved it! So then we moved to Cape Town for a year and did some studying there and then went back to Finland. Then my parents moved to Saudi Arabia to work at a university there and so we went to live there too and that’s where our first two children were born! Then, we moved back to Finland for a bit and then we decided ‘no, it’s too cold, let’s go to Mauritius!’.

So how did Mauritius come about then? Did you have any links here?
No actually – we’d never even visited! One of our friends in South Africa said ‘Oh my mum’s just going back and forth to Mauritius’ and we were like ‘what’s Mauritius?!’ *laughs* And then we were Googling it and we were like ‘we need to live here, this is amazing!’. My husband is a remote web developer so we can be anywhere. I mean, we had family in Finland but the darkness is too much – we’d rather be picking mangoes in the Mauritian sunshine!

And when did you actually make the move to Mauritius then?
It was around two years ago – 2015.

Amazing. So you’ve travelled around a lot and lived in different places. What was it like living in Saudi Arabia? Must’ve been totally different to Finland!
Yeah it was totally different – the polar opposite in fact! But we loved it. We love being in different cultures. It’s just so fascinating and eye opening, and we love the expat life! We were living in a compound where there were a lot of expats and it was nice to have that in common, so it was easy to bond with people.  That’s also one of the reasons we moved here - because the community is so small, like you ask somebody and they know this person and that person – that’s exactly what you want. In Finland, we were so isolated and nobody talks to you on the street. We love Finland, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just a different culture – everyone just keeps to themselves.

How did you find adapting to the Mauritian lifestyle and the culture here then?
It was amazing. When you first arrive you’re like ‘wow, I’m never going to take this for granted’ and it’s all so amazing. You go to the beach and look around and it’s like wow, amazing. Now it’s just our daily life is like that and sometimes you have to stop and remind yourself that this is like Paradise! We absolutely love it here.

That’s great to hear. It’s also interesting as you say you’d never visited the island before deciding to move here…
So my husband came here on his own a few weeks before we moved to apply for the visa and it all worked out, thankfully. It was a pretty straightforward process although the wait is long. I think we read online that it would take six weeks and it pretty much did take bang on six weeks – although we were calling everyday! I think that’s what you have to do here as it’s so relaxed – I like that. Some people don’t like that, but I do.

Now let’s talk about the children. You have three children, two were born in Saudi. Was your youngest born here?
Yeah, she was born in Apollo or whatever it’s called now.

And how was that experience for you?
It was great. I’ve only ever compared it to the Saudi experience, which was great too. It’s private healthcare – it was a good experience. My labour was very straightforward, there were no problems and the doctors we had were amazing. Both experiences were very similar – I feel like with both, you kind of need to know what you want and then vocalise it.

Moving on to your blog, Mini Mauritius. Can you tell us more about that?   
Well currently, I’ve taken it down because I couldn’t publish as often as I’d like. We’d never come to Mauritius or been to Mauritius before, so before coming all I had was information online. Firsthand information like blogs was difficult to find two years ago. So I thought ‘I’m gonna get there, I’m gonna start a blog…’ and to talk about what it’s like to be here with kids, to help other people in my position who wanted to find out more but didn’t have the resources…

That’s what we loved about your blog. It was the only Mauritius blog that was focussing on Mauritian life as an expat with kids…
Yeah… and I still want to do that. I got distracted and we had the baby and it was tough to keep up. I didn’t want it to be there unattended, as I didn’t have time to check on it and write content. But I’m starting to pick it up again and I want to do that.

We look forward to it! Looking at your Instagram, it appears that you’re in to professional photography now?
Yes! So basically, I just enjoy photography – it’s like a hobby and I enjoy the learning process. It’s like, all the time you’re learning. I love families, babies, pregnancy and everything like that, so I’ve started to do some photo shoots. One of my best friends inspired me actually.

With my Instagram, @minimauritius, I also want to showcase Mauritian brands and the hotels, and just everything here – getting as much visual information out there as possible.

I love the community here, it’s one of the great things about being here, and doing this is a way to meet and connect with more people.

How has the photography been going so far?
Well, I’ve only just started. But I have something today and tomorrow. I just love it – I could do it all day, everyday.

That’s brilliant! We wish you the best of luck with it. Back to your daily life here – what do you like to do in Mauritius for fun?
With the kids, we basically just love to go to the beach. Because we have three kids, daily life is just daily life… they go to school and we’re working, and then if we have time we go to the beach. But what’s great here is that everything is just so relaxed. When people come to visit us, we love to take them to do all the amazing things that are on offer on the island like swimming with dolphins! Like, you don’t have that in London! *we all laugh* I think we just don’t do enough of it – with three kids, it’s tough.

We love going to the hotels with the kids – a day at the hotel is amazing! Imagine their childhood! Normal kids don’t do that… it’s a privilege.

Do you ever get a babysitter and go and do some of those amazing activities with your husband?
We usually take the kids with us everywhere we go, but it’s definitely on our to-do list. There’s still a lot to explore!

But you said you do go to the beaches often. Which are your favourites?
Well, we go to Mont Choisy beach a lot. But the Point aux Cannoniers public beach is so quiet, that one’s probably my favourite. I really should keep that a secret! *laughs*

Tell us about your friends. Do you have more expat friends or locals?
Well we have expat friends because of the school the kids go to, so yes, mainly expats. But some are locals. We know a lot of people whose parents are Mauritians, so they are Mauritian, but they’ve been living abroad. I think the thing with expats is that once an expat, always an expat and you have that in common.

How does your husband feel about life in Mauritius?
He loves it here! He’s working remotely and it’s an amazing lifestyle. We have no desire to leave. Before it was always like ‘where should we go next?’ but right now, we’re happy here.

And is there anything about being in Mauritius that you find or have found challenging?
I miss certain shops. But you’re sacrificing it for this, so it’s not a problem. It’s just kids’ clothes, like basic things… there are some lovely things here but just in terms of basics, like what I’m used to. H&M, Zara… things like that. It’s not really a challenge though.

Some people mind that things take a long time, but I don’t mind at all. I love it here.

One of the downsides about Mauritius is that travelling from here is so expensive. Our friends in Europe are going away for the week for like £70! It’s just so expensive here.

Do you and your husband ever have a night off from the kids together?
Yes, date-night! Date nights here are amazing – we go to the hotels, go to the hotel restaurants. After the third kid, you need to make date night a priority! We have a babysitter, a nanny and a back up!

How did you find your nanny and babysitter?
Just word-of-mouth, that’s how it was for us. I have a friend who has lived here for five years – any time I have a question I go to her.

Well, if you can recommend someone to us, let us know! Can we ask, is there anywhere else in the world that you’d like to visit?
Lots of places! We love the Middle East and we’d also love to spend more time in the East – maybe check out Singapore. But right now, we love it here.

And finally, what does the future look like for you?
Just taking it one step at a time – just organically see how the blog and photography can grow. With three kids, I’m a full-time mum so I’m busy with that.

You can follow Milja on Instagram as @minimauritius and contact her for pregnancy, new born and family photo shoots on contactminimauritius@gmail.com

By Sabah Ismail & Khalid Khadaroo