By Joan Salmon
The first time Contance met Simon, he was rude to her. Put off, she decided to buy her favourite lipstick and go back to her hostel. Simon saw this as a chance to make amends by helping her bargain. At Makerere University, he was known as an activist. Word had it that a strike without him was unheard of. However, this stalwart of justice also had a side to him that only Joan Constance Wanyera knew.
Their meeting was coincidental and held no promise for tomorrow. “We met at Mary Stuart, the famous ‘Box’ where I resided at a jewellery stand where I was trying to bargain for a lipstick in 2016, around October.
When I saw this tall man coming my way, I did not give him much attention immediately until I heard him and his friends speak my mother tongue, Lugisu. I tried to talk to him to show that I knew the language but unfortunately, his rude response was a turn off. I think, later he felt guilty so he helped me bargain until I got the lipstick I wanted and then insisted on escorting me to my room. From then on, he would come by or call to see how I am,” Joan says.
“Standing at the hall entrance with the Chairman of Lumumba Hall, we were conversing in Lugisu when Joan overheard us and said, “I know that language, I know what you guys are talking about.” I shouted and yelled at her, telling her to shut up and asked her how she got the audacity to speak to us; I bullied her. Feeling low and dejected, she replied, “You do not have to be rude.”
Thereafter, I joined her in bargaining until she got what she needed before I insisted, against her will, to escort her to her room. While she agreed, it was only because she felt intimidated and did not want to be bullied again. Thereafter, I asked for her phone number, and we kept in touch,” he laughs.
With time, Simon started noticing that Joan was a beautiful, Godly woman, not forgetting her amazing hair.
“Everything about her was amazing. I also realised that she was an intelligent and virtuous woman,” he says.
Was bullying or intimidation, his way of life? Many would agree but Joan thinks otherwise because while his height was alluring, she was drawn in by his immense love and care, responsibility, accountability and his captivating smile that she came to appreciate and enjoy with time.
Proposal
No wonder, Joan’s heart still beats at the thought of her proposal. “A few days to the proposal, I saw my cousin preparing a dress and I asked her why. She told me she was preparing for a mutual friend’s proposal, which was heartwarming. Later, this mutual friend asked me to escort her to see her parents in-law and emphasised the need to dress decently thus buying something long enough to meet the ‘parents’.
However, she kept me at her workplace for long that I somewhat got frustrated. Then, timid about the meeting, we made our way to the meeting point although the journey was through some dark corridors, which felt strange. Click to read more…
