Courage helped me get the love of my life

Patrick Luwaga, 31, a social worker, and Flavia Nakinobe, 27, a nurse, live and work in Kyotera Town Council in Kyotera District. The two spent seven years in courtship before legalising their marriage in August 2022.

How it started
When Patrick first met Flavia, she was a student practicing at Kalisizo Hospital in Kyotera District. According to Patrick, a friend introduced him to Flavia, and the two immediately struck up a friendly conversation.

“It was in May 2015 when Emma took me to Kalisizo Hospital and introduced me to her. He, however, warned me that she was tough, especially towards men, but I persisted, and my courage paid off,” he says.

Patrick claims that after exchanging contact information, he would hardly go a day without calling and texting her. He says that they would also meet every two days in the places of worship, which strengthened their bond.

According to Patrick, his financial status was not that good, but he was overwhelmed by Flavia’s reception.
“I had just gotten a job when we met, and my little salary had a lot of expenses to meet, but she didn’t at any time stress me financially, which made me more confident,” he recalled.

“Flavia is also a prayerful woman, which exposed her good side. She always prayed for me, which made me realise she was wife material, and I made my decision in 2020,” he says.

Making it official
After dating for almost five years, the two lovebirds decided to legalise the relationship by organising the kukyaala to Flavia’s aunt in Kiwangala, Lwengo District, on April 19, 2022, and later an introduction on August 11, 2022, in the same area.

Two days later, a wedding party was organised and held in Byakabanda, Rakai District, at Patrick’s home after tying the knot at the Calidity Worship Centre led by Pastor Ronald Ssentamu. 

“We currently live in Kyotera Town, but I requested Flavia that we hold the wedding in my home village so that my parents and other village residents may celebrate the marriage of their son to a lifelong companion,” said Patrick.

Since Patrick had already decided to legalise their relationship way back, he had spent two years saving money for their introduction. He says he did not get bothered by the expenses because he had already saved.

“I had saved around Shs31m, which I used for the introduction, while the Shs45m, which I used to finance my wedding, was collected from my family, relatives, and friends. They truly did a great job”, he said.

Lessons learnt
Throughout their relationship, Patrick and Flavia learned that friends are very key in the life, and we ought to treasure them, especially after realising the genuine ones. Patrick also realised that, being a National Unity Platform (NUP) supporter, he can never organise his function on August 13 because it’s a day when heroes in his party are recognised and still a NUP convention week in the United States of America. 

“I so much love having the strongholds of the NUP party at my function, but many of them failed as they were attending our convention in the USA and our Heroes’ Day slated for every August 13 of the year”, he added.

The couple still says that at times bookings should be done a little bit later after realising the size of the function because they ended up hiring a public addresss system which turned out to be insufficient for the big number of people that turned up. By the time they noticed they needed a better one, it was already late.

2022
Wedding. The Couple held their wedding in Byakabanda, Rakai District. Peter intended to have the function at his village to invite locals and parents to the party.