Martin
Uganda 🇺🇬 “I grew up in Ottawa and moved to Toronto after graduation in search of work. In 2017, I ended up getting a job offer in Gulu, Uganda. The International Rescue Committee hired me. I lived in Gulu at a hotel and work as a designer for the domestic violence project. I came back and loved Uganda even more because of Gulu. In Gulu, the community accepted me more and I got to know people on a much deeper level. That’s how I first met Martin.
His friend Candy saw me dance and said that I should join their dance group, StarFace, and that me and Martin should dance together because our styles are similar. On the Ugandan independence day, Martin and I did a whole day together rehearsing and did a flash mob at night. Right off the bat, we were really good teammates, we were really working hard together. We both loved the work ethic that we’ve put into our dancing and pushed each other creatively. During that week, we decided to train with each other. He’s a high level dancer and he was looking for someone at the same level, someone who can also push him. We trained together the whole week. We would have dinners together and we became good friends. I ended up teaching him a solo that I had choreographed. I said: “Let’s do it together, it looks better as a duet and we will perform it together.” We worked really hard. We boarded the bus to go to Kampala for our performance. I showed up, looking super sleepy, no makeup, showing what I believe to be the unattractive side of me, but I didn’t mind. I just felt like I could be myself with him and that he can accept me that way. He just likes me for the inside and I just felt it.
During that trip in Kampala, we really got to know each other and that’s when we started our relationship. At the beginning of 2018, I was on a work trip taking me back and forth between Tanzania and Uganda for a few weeks at a time. Martin would usually pick me up at the airport alone, but this time, he came with flowers and a few friends. I knew something was up. He started announcing to all the people and taxi drivers in the waiting area how much he loved me and then he went down on one knee. It happened so fast, and of course, I said yes.”
“In November 2019, I moved to Uganda. I never imagined myself, living in Uganda and being in quarantine with Martin. We had planned for the wedding to be this July (2020). I really want my parents and my bridesmaids to be there. We decided to move it because Uganda is still in lockdown. We hope for the wedding to happen but for now we are kinda just enjoying time with each other.”
