engaged in africa | Manolos on a Mission

As I was showering off the kilogram of dust off of me that had accumulated on my body over the past five days at my boyfriend’s Peace Corps site, in the pristine shower of the Hotel du Lac in Cotonou, Benin, where my boyfriend and I decided to splurge it being our last night – I began feeling very anxious. It had been 5 months since I last saw my boyfriend, and now after two fun-filled weeks, he was leaving again – and I didn’t when the next time I would see him would be.

Determined to have a good night anyway, I blow-dried my hair, put on make-up, and met him at the beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean – (we asked his brother to order room service this night and stay in his room and watch satellite TC. He evidently had no problem being excluded, as was evidenced from the three bottles of beer and room service we found in his room the next morning). After a great dinner of fruits de mer (“fruit of the sea” AKA seafood), and pizza we began to reminisce about the trip and how great it had been. Actually, we began to reminisce about all the trips we had taken together – including Poland, Russia, Latvia, Guatemala, Lithuania, Mexico, Estonia, Finland, Belize, etc – and exclaimed how amazing each one of them had been, and how we never ever get annoyed of each other, but rather are in total sync when we travel.

I began getting teary-eyed, wondering out loud how our lives would mesh. How were we ever going to manage to make our lives in sync when we were across the world from one another? When would we be able to finally be together? We had dated for 3 years and I was beginning to worry about how the next year would look. After my theatrical outburst, (Oscar-worthy I must say) my boyfriend looked at me sweetly and told me to enjoy the rest of the pizza. So I did.

After we polished off our dinner, we walked over to the edge of the terrace on the water. After a few minutes of gazing at the stars, I said, “I think we should go back to the hotel. We have a long day tomorrow.” But my boyfriend kept on walking along the terrace. Then again I said, “Maybe its time to go back.” But he just held on to me over the railing. I then saw him fidgeting with his pocket, and it smacked me like a ton of bricks. Oh my God, could this be it!? OMG, am I ready!? What do I do? How do I stand? How do I look?

Before I could elaborate on that thought any more, my boyfriend got down on his knee and said all the lovely things every girl wants to hear. Most of it is blurry but I remember, “I want to spent the rest of my life with you – I never want to be away from you again. During this trip, I didn’t like introducing you as my girlfriend – I wanted it to be more.” Before I knew it, I think he said, “I am asking you to marry me”, which I wasn’t able to reply too, right away, because it wasn’t in interrogative form… but then I realized he was waiting and exclaimed, “Yes, Yes, YES!” and wrapped my arms around him and kissed him. I think then I said, “Are you sure!? This is forever!” to which he exclaimed, “Of course I am sure! I’ve thought about this for a long time, and I want you to marry me!”

So that’s our engagement story! Kind of perfect, given we met as a result of our travels in Africa. I was given a beautiful , classy silver band with three small diamonds engraved in it, that will forever be my travel ring. As soon as I get back to the states, he and I will pick out the real ring together – how fun is that!? It’s going to be the best shopping trip EVER.

Needless to say, planning a wedding from Africa is a little difficult. I will be here in Mali a few more months and then hope to fly to Chicago for a few weeks to plan and look at venues together with my fiance. In the meantime, I will do as much as I can through the wonderful world wide web.

There are some back-stories too – a month ago, he had gone to my father’s office and asked him for his blessing. How sweet is that? and HOW IN THE WORLD did my mother keep this a secret, from me, but especially from my sister OHmommy! Also, my fiance told me that originally he wanted to propose on the bridge near his village – the bridge over the Niger River connecting the country of Benin to the country of Niger. However, go figure with my luck, I had visa problems with Niger and Benin and was kind of staying in Benin not too legally, so we couldn’t risk going near the bridge ;(