Jalia Muntu had Sekaiti at ‘hello’
What you need to know:
After marriage, most couples relax, ‘feel safe and secure’ and completely forget about how much attention was placed on their appearance during the dating period. For Huziri Sekaiti and Jalia Muntu, the trick of lighting up their marriage in feeling good as well as maintaining youthful looks for each other.
Huziri Sekaiti and Jalia Muntu met at an Islamic convention in Kampala in December 2017. Both were participants from western region but Muntu also had a paper on ‘The Role of a Muslim Woman in a Community’ to present.
As luck would have it, Sekaiti and Muntu shared the same table during a tea break, giving the two an opportunity to casually talk about life. After the convention they shared contacts.
Phone chats later translated into friendship and then marriage.
“He invited me for coffee at one of the hotels in Mbarara City and proposed. I was excited but also nervous,”Muntu says.
“Excited because I truly loved him and from the messages, chats and talks, this was the moment I had been waiting for. Nervous, because acceptance meant a new-life journey.”
To Sekaiti the proposal was timely.
“We had built love, trust and shared the strongest common pillar of loving Allah. Even as I planned to propose, I was confident the answer would be ‘yes’. There is nothing as sweet proposing to a person who is already a friend,” explains Sekaiti.
The two got married on April 22, 2018 at their home in Katete, Nyamitanga, Mbarara city south division in Mbarara city.
To Sekaiti, his love for Muntu ‘started’ first day he met her at the convention
“She was smart and the way she presented her paper at the convention exhibited a great sense of humility, knowledge and fear of God,” explains Mr Sekaiti.
Through their chat messages, Muntu says she realised Sekaiti was the marriage material she had been looking for.
“Sekaiti is disciplined, caring and God fearing, the exact traits I wanted,” she says.
Don’t get married for people
Sekaiti and Muntu had a simple but classy wedding.
The couple did not hold any meetings, the ceremony being financed by the couple with a few contributions from family members who even served as service providers. Only 150 guest were invited.
“Why bother people with contributions, wedding meetings that at times end in empty promises and leave you in debt? Have your own budget, relatives are very willing to light up your function and serve your guests. Most couples want to copy what colleagues did at their weddings, hype theirs and end in debts,” Muntu explains.
Supporting each other.
“Most people get married to impress others and prove a point by copying or wanting to prove to colleagues that they can do better wedding functions, and end up with huge loans to pay.”
He advises that a couple should atleast raise about 75 per cent of financial requirements for their function so that even if they do not get contributions, they are very certain they will hold a successful and colourful wedding,” advises Mr Sekaiti.
What is the couple’s formula?
“Marriage is not a bed of roses,” Muntu says. “It has no formula but maybe about being creative. One has to keep discovering new ideas and changes to make it attractive and long-lasting. As a woman, you have to keep yourself looking younger forever. This can be done through minding your body and beauty.
To Sekaiti, a relationship starts to crumble when you start losing that attractiveness.
“Some relationships suffer because couples believe that looks do not matter as they grow old, or others feel too busy to care because of family responsibilities,” he says.
The couple, who are blessed with a two-year-old attribute their success to being patient, effective communication, selflessness and supporting.