My friend Katie is moving back to Canada tomorrow. She is sad, as are we. Tonight we were celebrating her stay here, a going away party at an Indian restaurant in Osu.
Earlier this month, Katie and one of my dearest Ghanaian friends Musah (or Justice) have started dating. They were always ambiguously close to each other, but a month ago Musah came out and openly declared that they were dating. I am happy for them, but sad for her leaving
when the relationship is in such a new and budding place.
So at the dinner tonight, Justice made me sit at the head of the table, and told me I would have the honour of giving a speech in honour of Katie. I was happy to do it. Actually, earlier that day I had had a conversation with Katie about her leaving. She started to cry and I told her the same thing I told Veronica when she moved away: "It is amazing to have loved others and to have been loved enough to shed tears when you leave a place. It shows that your time there was meaningful." I really mean that advice - speaking from my heart.
So I stood up and said just that. Then Josephine came up to me and told me Justice had a surprise for Katie. I announced that there was a surprise, but Justice came running over to me telling me he couldn't do it because she was already teary eyed. I have never seen him nervous even for one moment before and now he was hiding from something he had planned to do. I didn't know what he planned on doing, but I just looked at him, and in a tone that is more assertive than I would expect from myself, I told him to go back to his seat and give her the surprise.
Everyone at the table could feel that something big was about to happen.
He went over to her, gave a short and funny speech about data analysis (an inside joke we have) and then turned to her, pulled out a ring, and proposed. I was awe-struck. We all were. We all asked if it was going to happen in the moments before, but to actually see the proposal caught us all off guard. It was so raw, so unexpected.
I am so happy for them, and hopeful that their emotional closeness overcomes their geographical distance.
It made me start thinking about Wesley's wedding. And about Michael's. And about the fact that I am entering the part of my life where my friends and I will start getting married. This was the first proposal I have seen, but there are a lot more coming up. One day I might even be the one proposing! Tonight was a beautiful and romantic reality check.
Here is a photo of the happy couple, a few minutes before the proposal:
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