"Ever since childhood, it was my dream to be an actress," says 39-year-old Inbar Sharon, now an African travel guide and mother of a baby boy. "I grew up in Hod Hasharon, studied acting at Tel Aviv University and performed in several plays, including Fiddler On the Roof."
She says she was an actress above anything else and took odd jobs, like a restaurant hostess and babysitter, just to pay the bills.
"At 31, I divorced my husband of five years and found myself struggling to make ends meet, despite acting in several plays. I needed to restart my life and the desire to accomplish a lifelong dream began gnawing at me - so I enlisted as a volunteer in an African lion reserve. I scraped enough money and flew to Zimbabwe.
"For three weeks I lived in the Savannah and felt great. I discovered that acting wasn't my only passion and that working in nature was for me. When I went back to Israel I still hadn't given up on being a successful actress, but I also knew I still wanted to work with animals."
She began working at Safari Ramat Gan, and signed up for zoology and African history studies when a chance to become a travel guide came her way, with an offer to move to Zanzibar for a few months.
"At first I was reluctant, but after auditioning for a role in a student production, which would not have paid anything, I realized this was a chance to make my African dream come true. I moved between Zanzibar and Tanzania, I was there for almost six months. I had a connection with the local residents and took up Swahili.
"All throughout my 20s, I studied Egyptian history at the university, and realized I could make a living off of it, so I began guiding there as well. As time moved along, I gradually retreated from acting until I stopped altogether, focusing solely on being a travel guide."
"When you think about it, being a travel guide is a form of acting. The audience and the set change, but you're in charge of writing the play," she says.
During a relationship with another guide from Zanzibar, an African Muslim man, she became pregnant.
"I didn't want to get married, but the idea of having a child with him appealed to me, and five months ago I gave birth to our son, Moana. It's a unisex name and I chose it because I loved the Disney character by the same name. "It means Ocean in Hawaiian and I love the Indian ocean, she says. "I gave birth in Israel and took Moana to Zanzibar when he was three months old. I wanted him to have a good childhood and also be around his father."
The arrangement allowed her to continue her career as a guide with the baby's father playing a part in the child's care as well as her neighbors and even a nanny.
"I live in a nice home and have a full time nanny. Mostly, it's about community. In Israel having to go to the supermarket means carrying Moana, but here the village women help out with everything. If the nanny is unavailable, I can leave him at a neighbor who feeds him and plays with him. It takes a village.
"Once a month, I take a group of tourists through Egypt, and I'm away 12 days at a time, during which Moana is with his nanny, village women or his father who visits frequently. When I come back I'm with him all day long, taking him swimming in the pool or the ocean.
"I made sure he had all the vaccines required, and I'm in direct contact with doctors in Israel when needed. I speak Hebrew to him, but with the others he hears only Swahili. When he's old enough, I'll enroll him in an international kindergarten.
"As for my family, they were very accepting of my choices. My parents are divorced, but my dad remarried and I have a sister. They've all visited Zanzibar, they love Moana's father and they understand my choices.
"I don't know how long we will stay in Africaת but I feel I'm giving Moana the best childhood possible, where kids play outside, not glued to the screens. He's surrounded by nature and an entire village that loves him.
"Bottom line is it's never too late to make changes. Sometimes they turn out even better than what you originally hoped."