a love story
Louise & Aimable
August 22nd, 2026
The Biscuit
It is the day after his birthday. He is at his computer, working on something academic, half-listening to a sermon. He is a teaching assistant. He is the president of the worship team. He is twenty-something and, by his own description, single and satisfied.
A young woman from the new cohort walks over. She is smiling. She has just joined the worship team. She is not on his radar yet.
She wishes him a happy birthday. She hands him a small chocolate biscuit.
She had not planned this.
The biscuit was left over from her niece's birthday and had been sitting in her bag. The Holy Spirit, she would later say, asked her to bless her teacher and Mr. President. So she did.
He has never forgotten.
The Quiet Years
From the worship team, a friendship grew. In her thank-you letter before she left for South Korea, she called him her "stress killer": the one she could go to with her worries and walk away comforted.
In January 2022, he reached out. She did not say yes. She did not say no.
He tried to move on. He looked elsewhere. None of it took. He says the Holy Spirit would not let him confess his love to anyone else.
Then came a Saturday in October 2022. He was in Butaro. She was in South Korea. They started a video call at 9 in the morning, just to check in.
They were still talking when night fell on her side of the world.
9hours
When the call finally ended, he stared at the screen for a moment.
“What's this?”
A whole year passed. He kept hiking with the Mugenzi crew, going on adventures, living his life. They kept checking in.
Then, in November 2023, she told him she was coming back to Rwanda for her master's thesis research.
"I'll tell you in person," he said.
January 2024. The first reunion, after two and a half years.
Murefu
murefu — the steep one
They went to hike Bisoke with Les Mugenzi.
The hike turned brutal. The rangers were rough. The weather opened up. She was a slow hiker.
He stayed with her the entire way.
When it began to pour, he gave her his rain coat. He carried her sweater. He held her hand through the whole forest so she would not fall. She did not fall.
Back at Wa Mukecuru, around the bonfire, he held her hands and rubbed them warm.
At La Paillotte for dinner, when they brought him tea, he managed to pour the entire cup all over his side of the table. She was sitting right next to him.
“I was embarrassed,” he says. “And I realized I was in love and didn't even know how to handle myself.”
Sera sera. Whatever. He was in love.
Poor Les Mugenzi noticed nothing.
The Bisoke crew, somewhere in the rainforest.
The Switch
She sent him a thank-you message that night, after the hike. Touched by all of it. The rain coat. The hand. The fire.
"That's not the Aimable I know," she wrote.
He sent her back a song.
February 10, 2024 · the song he sent
Have I Told You Lately
Gaither Vocal Band
Then he wrote: I love you.
She wrote: I love you too.
When the song reached her, she texted back: "What's this?"
He said: Let's meet before you go back to South Korea.
They met two weeks later at a place called SWITCH.
Yes. There had to be a SWITCH. A SHIFT.
He poured out his heart. He told her he loved her. He asked her to be his.
“It was mutual feeling.”
February 26, 2024. The first date as an official couple. Before she flew back.
Her Name
He never called her Boo or Bae. She deserved something better. Something with weight. Something rooted.
He called her —
Nyambo
Their daughters will carry the name.
Holding the Weight
Somewhere in there, they walked through something hard together.
Her aunt was sick with an illness that would not turn around. The hospital sent her home for palliative care. As the person nearby, Aimable kept pushing for the family to gather, to visit, to be present in time.
It felt strange. Almost like he was not hoping for her recovery, but for her family to be ready.
In the end, the family was there. Nobody felt they had been robbed of the chance to say goodbye.
Rest, dear Aunt.
This chapter doesn't have a photograph. Some things are held more gently in words.
Cherished Heroes
In April 2025, Nyambo came back to Rwanda to start at UGHE.
One of the first things they did together was take their mothers — his and hers, separately — on dates at M Hotel. They ordered whatever the mothers wanted. They sat and talked and ate.
"These cherished heroes in our lives had to be honored."
Bisoke, Together
In September 2025, they went back to Bisoke. Same volcano. Same trail. With Les Mugenzi again. Some hikers knew about them. Some did not.
As usual, Aimable stayed back with the slow hikers. Which now meant his Nyambo.
She made it to the peak.
3,711 metres
This Is So Us
If you asked him for the small rituals — the "this is SO us" rituals — he would tell you:
- i. She is his prayer partner.
- ii. Kanyinya knows them. Kigali's hills know them.
- iii. Eggs. Especially boiled. They have a name for them: Imisuzi.
The big things are usually the small things, repeated.
And in November 2025, they dressed up for Man Enough Graduation.
The Ring & the Date
The honeymoon of their love ended in August 2024. That was when he told her, plainly, that he was dating her for marriage. He asked her if she would marry him.
She said yes.
It was a quiet yes. No ring yet. Just the two of them deciding that this was the rest of their lives. They gave themselves two years to plan.
The ring came from Dubai. It did not fit. He ordered another.
On Saturday, May 16, 2026, he gave her the ring. The same day they announced their Save the Date.
“I got her the ring, and we laughed and celebrated the ring moment.”
August 22
They had wanted August 1. Or August 15. Both were booked.
August 22 it is.
Mez Park. Serene. Green. The kind of place Les Mugenzi belongs.
When asked what he is most excited about — not the wedding, but the marriage — he says:
“Get ready for her to graduate the five volcanoes of Rwanda as Mrs. Mugenzi.”
And: he cannot wait for her to be his back-up driver when he is mountain biking cross-country. Whether they are newlyweds. Or whether they have their boys and girls by then.
— the five ahead —
- Karisimbi4,507 m
- Bisoke3,711 m done
- Muhabura4,127 m
- Gahinga3,474 m
- Sabyinyo3,669 m
Mrs. Mugenzi has four more to go.