Our Love Story
How we met
Cape Town, South Africa // Sept, 2019
I was ending my first quarter in Cape Town and thought the next step was heading to Malawi to help a friend. Last minute, a school was going to start in September that needed staff and aligned with my values of justice and equality, so I stayed in South Africa. Gabriel arrived as a student of that school, only studying English for three months prior and looked overwhelmed and so was I. One of the first nights.. I was having a breakdown and hiding in my room upstairs on the main campus building when I heard a guitar playing softly downstairs, and a man singing. I tried to get the guts to go down, and finally told myself, "it's just that quiet Brazilian guy, you will be fine". I asked him if I could join him and draw while he played. I was serenaded with John Denver and then it all began...
THE FALLING PART
The Republic of Georgia // Dec 2019
We quickly became besties after that. But I started noticing that he would always sit next to me and offer to peel my daily orange for me. He was getting suspicious, but internally so was I. As we got closer to the 3 month portion of the school where I led a team to Georgia (next to Russia), Gabriel, who was originally on another team was moved to mine! We spent three months in Georgia together, serving people, experiencing a vastly new culture together and grew more and more in love. Seeing him laughing with babushkas and eating my portion of moldy pickled cabbage soup that I could not stomach.. made me even more respect and adore him. We flew back to Cape Town together and that is when we both knew for sure, that this thing was going somewhere.
The Proposal
Kirstenbosch, South Africa // August 2021
After a year of long distance (thanks COVID), we reunited in Brazil where I got to meet his family and experience his culture. We both knew that going back to South Africa was the goal and so we headed there in April. I was convinced that he was going to propose at every slightly nice outing we took, and we both made jokes about it. But one Saturday, he said, "let's go for a picnic"! Of course, I made another joke about proposing and he "very seriously" said, Leigh I am sorry but it is not today,let's just enjoy it. So,I was sure that it was NOT today! He took me to a botanical garden in the mountain range and brought an incredible picnic of my favorite things (corn samosas, lemonade..) and out of nowhere began to say nice things. All of a sudden he was down on one knee. It was a stunning.