The jazz and the rooftop

Agot was a radio presenter in Juba with a voice that carried across the city and a heart that had been bruised too many times. When she matched with Marcus, a music producer from New York working on African projects, his first gift was a playlist titled "For the voice I have not met yet." She listened to it three times before replying.

Their first date was at a rooftop jazz night in Juba, where Marcus sat at a table by the railings and told her the story behind every song. He noticed when she got cold before she said a word and quietly passed her his jacket. Agot, who interviewed people for a living, found herself entirely out of questions.

Marcus came to Juba to record and stayed to build something with her — a karaoke lounge partnership came later, but the courtship came first: dinner at the Pyramid, late nights at the studio, weekend trips to the river where he learned to cook her mother's dishes under her instruction.

He proposed on the roof of the studio, at sunrise, after a song he had written for her debut. The wedding broadcast live on her radio station, with listeners from three countries sending blessings.

"I had been told only tough women survive this city and this industry," Agot says. "Marcus showed up loving the tough parts and calling them beautiful. He takes care of me, but he never once asked me to shrink to fit his life. He grew his around mine."