Our parents arranged our first meeting
Joshua and Faith Kibedi have been married for 19 years and have five children. PHOTO by EDGAR R. BATTE
What you need to know:
Joshua and Faith were spared the trouble of searching for love. Their parents did the hard work and all they had to do was meet and fall in love. Nineteen years and five children later, they are still grateful for their parents’ thoughtfulness.
In February 1999, Joshua Kibedi was posted to Katwe Martyrs Primary School to teach. After a year on the job, his mother, a nurse asked him whether he was seeing anyone.
“I was honest and told her that I had no one at that time. Little did I know that she had already identified a girl for me,” he recalls.
Unbeknownst to him, his parents had engaged the parents of a girl, Faith Abisagi. They thought she would be perfect for their son.
At the time, she was only 17-years-old and had just finished her O-Level education at Teefe Secondary School Nakivumbi, in Iganga District.
Love at first sight
In February 2000, he was invited to the village for a visit. His parents had arranged for him to finally meet his future wife and in-laws, if everything went according to plan.
He went to see Faith with his brothers and they were welcomed by what he says was a pretty young woman who he later found out was Faith, his wife-to-be.
Faith on the other hand had no idea what was going on.
“My parents knew about the meeting but I did not. That day after the visit, he gave me money and asked to take care of me,” she recounts.
She was in her Senior Four vacation and was unsure what to think or do about his ‘proposal’. What was to become of her pursuit of education?
Kibedi was smitten. For him, it was love at first sight. His only worry was when he would see her again.
“After that day, it was difficult for me to stop thinking about her, even for a second. However, even though her parents appreciated me, they gave me many conditions.”
Some of the conditions included paying for her education, being introduced officially, and wedding her.
“At that time, all those conditions were not achievable but I accepted,” he says.
On August 18, 2001, the duo tied the knot. And true to his word, Kibedi paid Faith’s school fees. She is now the headmistress of Buganda Road Kindergarten and is now in her second year at Ndejje University pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Development.
