Our YES Forever to Each Other

It all started in 1993 when our parents began their jobs with UNHCR in Guékédou, a town in southern Guinea near the Sierra Leone and Liberian borders. Our families immediately developed a special bond, since we come from sister nations – Burundi and Rwanda- and share a similar language and cultural background, which must have been reassuring, in a place as foreign as Guékédou at the time. It turned out that Cyusa’s mother and Kaneza’s father attended the University of Burundi during the same period in the 1970s. Our parents’ friendship grew beyond Guékédou. Even as Cyusa’s mom and Kaneza’s father went on to work in other countries, our families always kept in touch. Every now and then, as we skim through the photo albums kept by Mama Cyusa in Kimihurura (Kigali), we’re reminded of all the wonderful reunions after Guékédou. For instance, Cyusa and his mother travelled to Bamako to visit Kaneza’s family in 1997. We’re hardly visible on that one photo we still have of that reunion, but you can tell that we’re all squinting our eyes as we’re looking at the camera, in an attempt to shield ourselves from Bamako’s crushing sun. At this point of the story, it’s also worth noting that, judging from the pictures of our childhood, Cyusa already seemed very fond of Kaneza (if not completely enamoured) (see exhibit 1) - this is Kaneza’s version and THE true version of the beginning of our story. Fast forward 2012 - at Kakunze’s wedding (Kaneza’s sister) in Bujumbura - we were in our early 20s and our lives seemed quite different. Kaneza lived in Paris, Cyusa in Fargo, busy with Uni-life and figuring out careers. But we promised each other that we would try to meet as often as possible when we were in each other’s city, country or continent. For the anecdote, Cyusa offered Kaneza her first pair of earrings in 2012 in Bujumbura, he didn’t know that Kaneza did not have her ears pierced. And since that day, Cyusa continues to supply Kaneza – much to her delight - with very cool earrings from Rwanda Clothing, Abraham Konga, and K-Tsobe! We met in Paris, in 2012 and 2018, during which time we got to know each other more. In the Spring 2021, we began talking on a regular basis (should we thank the Covid lockdowns?) and decided – on a hunch or a strong intuition – to go to Mexico together in the Fall. We are glad we took that leap of faith because the intuition grew into a loving relationship. The Sunday 18th of December 2022, Cyusa proposed to Kaneza while contemplating the breathtaking sceneries of the Lake Bunyoni in Western Uganda. We’ve been travelling together ever since, in Rwanda, Uganda, Turkey, France, the United States. We look forward to many more travels and to this wonderful new journey together.