Harriet and Daniel Waited For 19 years!

“I had a project at Kimaka dam where I was supervising electrical installation of houses now called Senior Army Camp Kimaka,” Harriet Praxedha Nalugya, an engineer working UETCL recalls how she met her husband Daniel Lyagoba, an architect. “Then he came to me to ask that I repair their family house electrical installation, although it was evident that the main reason was to come close to me and get to know me.”

19 years later, and they are still together. During lockdown, on 23rd May, they said their vows in a scientific wedding at Namirembe Cathedral. This was a week after she had introduced to him to her parents in Jinja. 

Read on for all the details of how they met, their engagement and how they put together their scientific introduction ceremony.

Meeting

It was in Jinja, Daniel claimed that he used to see me going to work at Power Engineering Limited in Jinja. That time we had a project at Kimaka dam where I was supervising electrical installation of houses now called Senior Army Camp Kimaka. Then one time he came to me to ask that I go and repair their family house electrical installation, although it was evident that the main reason was to come close to me and get to know me. It’s been over 19 years now and we are still together.

(Wow. 19 years is really a while)

Engagement

It was one evening as we were coming from Jinja Golf Club. He stopped in the middle of the road and proposed to me. It’s something I had not thought about. My thought was that it was too early for me to make a decision so I said no (ouch!) and told him to give it some time for me to digest the whole thing. But he wasn’t pleased and took a couple of days without talking to me.

The wedding

(Had you planned for a pentagon Wedding?)

Yes. We intended for our wedding to have many people but we had not started planning for it.  We kept talking about it then we would leave it there. It’s until we were in lock down, when he saw couples wedding that he was challenged and brought it up for discussion then he set the ball rolling.

First of all we had not started any preparations, its only when my husband watched the scientific weddings on TV that he brought it up for discussion. I welcomed the idea after giving it a thought.  Then he went to church and was encouraged to do so, then moved in full speed. We picked dates and began looking out for service providers.

Traditional wedding

Planning for a kwanjula in lockdown was tricky because it was a total lockdown by then. Our initial plan was that the groom’s side would have atleast 2 people i.e. the groom and bestman but we ended up with 10 people. On my side, I expected my mum to gather about 10 people but everyone that got to know about it got excited and wanted to be there. We had to inform them to adhere to the COVID gathering restrictions. I was now tasked to get masks and sanitizers for over 50 people.

We sought permission from the relevant government offices. At the end, the event was beyond scientific and everyone was excited.

Challenges:

Transport was the biggest challenge but because I was among the “essential workers” I had the privilege of using my car to move around. Although my friends couldn’t come in to help as I would have loved because of  the restrictions on movement. My matron was among the essential staff too, which was a blessing. But with the restrictions on the number of people allowed to move in a private car yet we needed to move service providers from their homes to their shops to make choices on everything we needed, it was really tough.

During the kwanjula, when the time allocated to us to party elapsed, police came in and people scattered in different directions. Fortunately, we were later allowed to proceed with the event.

(😂, Sorry but this is funny. Anyways, what’s a function without some drama)

In total we had about 70 people in attendance.

(Yo! This was real African) 

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