Queensland in my heart

Achai was a university administrator in Juba with a laugh that filled rooms and a heart carefully fenced off after two serious disappointments. Liam, a structural engineer from Brisbane, Australia, working on regional projects, matched with her and made her laugh within one message. Do not ask what he said. She never tells anyone, and she says that is exactly why she kept him.

Their first date was at the Pyramid Hotel, where the pool sparkles after dark and the fine dining hall turns into the most romantic room in the city. Liam had asked the staff to set a table by the water. Achai had asked her friends how to leave gracefully. Neither used their plan.

He visited Juba every few months, and every visit was a recreation of their first date plus a new adventure — karaoke, river lunches, rooftop dinners, once a whole weekend teaching him every song she knew, which took the entire weekend.

Liam proposed by the pool at the Pyramid, the site of their first date, with her favorite song queued and her whole family hidden behind a hedge. The wedding was in Juba, with half of Brisbane flying in, and the honeymoon was Queensland coastline with a detour to visit his parents, who had already started calling her daughter.

"Some people said Australians are too easygoing to be serious," Achai says. "They have never met Liam. He courts like an engineer — thorough plans, strong foundations, and no shortcuts. He takes care of me the way he builds things: to last."