Dancing in the clouds

Aluel was a teacher in Juba who dreamed in song lyrics. When she matched with Juma, a Tanzanian businessman from Dar es Salaam, his profile picture was him on a rooftop at sunset. Her first message was: "Anyone can stand on a rooftop. Can you dance?" He replied the next morning with a video of himself doing exactly that, alone, taking it entirely seriously.

Their first date was at the rooftop lounge at Grand Hotel, where the whole city glitters below. Juma had reserved a table by the edge, ordered grilled fish with a side of chapati, and asked questions about her students until she realized she had talked about herself for two hours.

Every visit to Juba meant another date — rooftop dinners, the pool, weekend lunches by the river, always somewhere with a view, because Juma insisted she deserved a good view every single day. He bought her a small notebook and told her to list the places they would visit together. She filled twelve pages.

He proposed on that same rooftop, at sunset, surrounded by lanterns and both their families on a video call. The wedding was in Dar es Salaam, then a celebration in Juba, then a honeymoon she had written on page one of her notebook.

"People said he was rich and I was lucky," Aluel says. "But he told me the luck was his. He takes care of me — but only after he convinced me to be happy with myself first."