According to Tony Toni Tone, it’s our anniversary! A great song from my teenage days…

Yes, today is our third wedding anniversary. And if you are married to a son or daughter of the African soul, then you have multiple anniversary dates around your wedding. On May 29, we marked three years since our Gusaba. Gusaba is a Kinyarwanda word meaning ‘to ask’ and is the ceremony where the family of the groom-to-be officially requests for a girl as a bride. The Gusaba is a fascinating event that includes all members of the two families who come together to discuss the giving away of the bride and marriage of the two families. The two families go back and forth debating why the bride or daughter should be released to marry the potential suitor. (https://fredayinafrica.com/2016/08/03/the-gusaba-to-ask/)

On June 2, we celebrated three years since making it official with the Rwandan government. Today, we celebrate going before God and committing ourselves as husband and wife. The last and final wedding anniversary is July 10 when we celebrate the day we became legal in the United States and again, before God. That’s a lot to keep track of!

For our anniversary, we wanted a complete escape from Nigeria. So we found ourselves in the former Austria-Hungarian Empire! We spent four days in Austria traveling between Vienna, Obertraun, Hallstatt and Salzburg. We went “high in the hills” to experience the Sound of Music, learned to sing in the Mirabell Gardens of Salzburg and “Touched the Sky” high above Hallstatt. On Monday, we flew to Split, Croatia and have been hanging out in the walls of Diocletian’s Palace and chilling out on the shores of the Dalmatian coast. We will hang out here for a two more days before heading south to walled city of Dubrovnik.

We took cable cars up the mountain in Obertraun (left) and took in the picturesque town of Hallstatt on the Hallstatt See (Lake). (right) 

It has been a busy year for us. After many trips between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, Sheila returned to Abuja after completing her master’s degree in psychology and we traveled between the UK and France with my parents and brother/sister-in-law. We spent Christmas in the US and a few days of the New Year in Turkey before returning to Abuja to prepare for the 2019 general elections in Nigeria. The elections came and went (thankfully fairly peaceful for Nigeria) and we spent Easter in Rwanda.

Family in Paris (Nov); Sheila’s graduation from Coventry; at the Bowl Game in Nashville, TN (Dec) and posing at a lake in Scotland (Aug).

Sheila and I are truly thankful for the wisdom and growth that we have gained over the past year as husband and wife. We continue to learn and grow in our marriage through each conversation, disagreement, adventure and disappointment. We are forever thankful for the love and encouragement that is showered down upon us by our family and friends. We look forward to another year as #Shentell! https://fredayinafrica.com/2018/06/04/two-years-latercelebrating-our-two-years-as-shentell/