A Baltimore native, Shauna K. Henson was recently in her hometown, the city she loves, renewing and spending time with her family following her grandmother’s death. But her heart was 2,000 miles away, on the island that has enriched her life and helped her stage her second act: Barbados.
Don’t get her wrong: Henson was born and always will be an American citizen. Yet the Caribbean nation, southeast of Puerto Rico and just north of South America, is where she has built a new life. Henson landed there after taking a leap of faith — literally.
”I feel so compelled to show people: that thing you feel about moving out of the country, being somewhere else? That’s not a call to vacation, baby,” Henson says, who quit her job and set up her own business on the island. “That’s God trying to ignite your mission.”
Reorienting Identites
She answered that call and began creating a new path for herself and for clients of Uncultured, her Barbados-based life coaching and consulting business. Mirroring her personal life, Uncultured centers on Henson’s strong Christian faith and on helping others live the expat life.
“What God is calling me to say to my clients is to be ‘uncultured,’” Henson says. “God’s trying to reorient your identity to what He created you for.”
That thing you feel about moving out of the country, being somewhere else? That’s not a call to vacation, baby. That’s God trying to ignite your mission.”
Shauna K. henson
That’s what Henson felt when the idea first hit her in 2014. She’d traveled from the U.S. to Barbados for around 5 years, rarely staying longer than a few weeks. But she found herself gradually extending her stay; the notion that she must relocate there wouldn’t go away.
Her decision to follow divine guidance and stay for good was a challenge to explain, even though her family is also devout Christians.
‘It’s About Showing People Freedom’
”They were, like, ‘God wouldn’t tell you to do that without family. God wouldn’t tell you to do that without a plan,’” she tells Word in Black in a recent interview. “And then that same week — I’ll never forget it — the pastor of our church started a preaching series on Abraham, who God told to head out, and that God would show him where to land, so to speak.”
Like the decision to adopt Barbados as her home, Henson’s calling is clear: help others find their true path in life, especially if it leads them out of the U.S. Her services include assisting people in finding what they need to know to establish a new life overseas.
“What He has been revealing to me in this process is that He is showing people their true identity by changing their location,” she says. “The Lord made it very clear to me that my going to Barbados would have nothing to do with me. It’s about showing people freedom now.”
Henson’s interview with Word In Black has been edited for length and clarity.
Word in Black: When you were a little girl playing with dolls, were you thinking you’d rather live someplace other than Baltimore?
Shauna K. Henson: Wish my story were cuter. I’m grateful for my mother and grandmother and her matriarchal influence that decided my vacation needed to be in Mexico when I was eight. I had done Montessori school and all those things. I knew a little Spanish. So when we were ordering breakfast, I would be ordering my breakfast and helping them order theirs. Mexico has always had a place in my heart because of that.
WIB: So what precipitated your first move?
Henson: In January 2014, the bottom fell out of my life. I had just gotten divorced and my business had a catastrophic failure and all these things were going on and swirling around in my life and in my world. So I decided to leave.
I went on a scouting trip that spring to Spain because again, Spanish, right? I’m so in love with Latina culture and like all the things. I love the Spanish language. I’ve been very committed to becoming bilingual before I die. So it had to be Spain.
WIB: Tell me about Spain.
Henson: Spain rejected me. I have a heart condition called Raynaud’s Phenomenon. It’s not like gonna murder me or anything, but it does make cold very, very, very uncomfortable for me. When I went to Spain in the spring, I don’t know where I thought I was going. I had bathing suits in my bag. I had, like, one little short jacket. I thought, I’m gonna go to Spain and have a good time. My best friend came with me.
I was in Spain for two weeks, and I have not been back since.
WIB: How did you finally choose Barbados?
Henson: I had been home, working on my business, working on the election and all my consulting work was firing off. I was making more money and was more successful than I’d ever been. And my cousin brought up the subject of Barbados — how they were managing the pandemic. They were doing a fantastic job of keeping the case count low. They were being very protective of their citizens because their population is only 300,000 and the prime minister, Mia Motley, didn’t play any games. She set curfews to keep everyone protected, so we felt safe.
WIB: How long did you stay?
Henson: When I got there, I wasn’t thinking about relocating. I was thinking about a three-week vacation. But my cousin and I both extended a week, but then she works as a social worker in a hospital, a couple of days a week, and had to go home. Since my business was fully transportable, I could and did stay. And three weeks turned to three months. I came home because my grandfather passed in the midst of COVID, but I went back. I made many trips, none of them fewer than 30 days. So the move to a more permanent location is not as big a jump as maybe it seems.
WIB: Describe a typical workday.
SKH: Well, not every day, but I can spend 150 U.S. dollars, in the same way people pay for co-working spaces, and work all day on a shared cruise. You get on with 12 other people that you don’t know. I take my iPad and write and journal my thoughts. There’s a private chef on board who’s preparing your lunch. You can take a break and get out into the ocean. I’m doing all the work things. It’s my very favorite version of life honestly.
WIB: What do we need to know before we go to Barbados?
SKH: First and foremost, be prepared to speak to everybody. I miss that in the U.S. and the food culture there is amazing. I really miss all of it since I’ve been here since July.
