Born in a family of five as a last born, with all siblings happily married and with parents that have been together for more than half a decade, it’s only natural to have similar expectations of Joel Kafiire.
After congratulating him on his beautiful wedding, my first question to Joel was ‘how does it feel to be married?’ “It’s a good experience”, he says, seemingly beaming with a lot of joy in his voice on the other end of the phone.
Joel Kafiire, a Makerere Business School (MUBS) first class graduate and Human Resource Manager at Truenorth Consult Ltd (HR Firm) in charge of Uganda Breweries Ltd, recently wedded his long-time fiancée Julia Logose, formerly Shamim Logose.
After about seven or nine months of dating, Joel happily learned that he was going to be a dad sooner rather than later. Convinced from day one that she was the woman of his dreams, “tall, brown, intelligent, down to earth and more importantly a good cook”, the former Kiira College Butiki head prefect knew it was time to throw his love heart in the ring.
“I had already told her that she will be my wife. She is the woman that sets my soul on fire,” he glowingly spoke of his wife.
And on 21st August 2021, on a romantic evening, he proposed to Julia and she said ‘Yes’. A week later, on the 28th, in the company of his entourage, he made the long trip to Busia District where he was welcomed for their kukyala (pre-visit).
But before all this fell into place, Joel took us on a trip down memory lane on his life before and how he met his wife.
“I was single for close to a year before meeting her and during that time, I was doing some self-reflection, discovery and a bit of soul searching,” the former MUBS Guild Representative Councilor (GRC) recounted. Despite going on a few dates here and there, meeting some ladies observing intently how they relate and treat others like a waitress at a restaurant, nothing clicked for him until Shamim came along.
“I met Shamim (now Julia) through her cousin sister with who I was doing my MBA (Masters in Business Administration) at MUBS.”
“I saw Shamim on her WhatsApp status and I told her I want to marry that girl,” he added, recalling what he told the cousin sister that day.
To cut the long story short, Joel got her contact and the two started speaking, extensively and although it took some time, the two first casually met on a busy working day while he was “conducting some interviews at True North Consult”. “I was hungry and she brought me some plantain from CJ’s (Cafe Javas) and that was the first time we physically met.”
Julia and Joel later went on their first date at Skyz Hotel, Naguru and they never looked back. On 16th February 2022, the couple welcomed their firstborn Jayden and five months later, on the groom’s birthday, June 25th, Julia introduced her protector, lover and friend to her family and relatives at her parents’ home in Busia at a memorable customary wedding ceremony.
It’s often not easy when one person has to switch from one faith to another when two lovers from different religions decide to get married and like the groom acknowledges, it was no walk in the park. Julia’s parents wanted him to convert to Islam just as much as he wanted his then-wife-to-be to convert to Christianity. “I come from a strong Christian family,” he footnoted.
“Her parents wanted me to convert to Islam but my wife convinced them that love trumps religion and they allowed her to convert.”
With that hurdle successfully jumped, there was nothing to stop their ‘happily ever after dream’. And on 31st December 2022, Joel walked Julia down the aisle.
The two lovebirds exchanged their vows at St. Andrews Church, Bukoto and hosted a glamorous and fireworks-lit reception at Nsambya Gardens where Bebe Cool and B2C performed, bringing all the guests to their feet.
For couples planning to spend the rest of your lives together, Joel advises that “respect for one another and good communication” are integral to making it work.
He also adds that “staying with someone for some time before marrying them to know their behavior and reactions” will help or else you may be in for a rude awakening the shock of your life.
