When Benjamin, 33, had a "miserable" experience dating around Phoenix, Arizona, he expanded the distance range on the dating app. Now? He's on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days after he met 25-year-old Akinyi from Kenya on the app.
"One day, it popped up, ‘Hey, this person liked you!' Her name is Akinyi, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow! This is a pretty gal.' I mean, she's gorgeous! But she's all the way in Nairobi in Africa. How is she liking me?" Benjamin says in the exclusive Before the 90 Days sneak peek. But he sent her a message and the conversation has been ongoing since.
Benjamin, a recent divorcee and father of a 5-year-old, had his doubts. How could he be sure this woman was who she says she is? So, he asked Akinyi for a very specific photo of her doing the Vulcan salute from Star Trek.
"Who would have a random picture of the Spock sign? I was definitely impressed and once I saw Akinyi on video chat, I knew that she was the one," he says.
But they've never met, so he's packing his bags and heading to Kenya. What is she looking forward to most?
"Hugging you and kissing you and holding your hand," she says in the sneak peek.
Akinyi has never dated a white man, Benjamin says, "And I tell her that I'm pretty fly for a white guy."
She's never dated a white man, nor has she introduced a beau to her family before, and he's likely the first white man to visit her village in some time—or ever. This family meeting? Oh, it's poised to be awkward. But Benjamin is ready to ask for her hand in marriage and is even studying Swahili to impress her family.
Click play on the video above to learn more.
90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days airs Sundays, 8 p.m. on TLC.