It all began on the trip out to Uganda from Dublin.

We had seen a couple of light-skinned Africans at the airport ‘check-in’ for our flights out to Entebbe. They were in the queue ahead of us and we saw them a while later at the departure gate. As our flight was delayed out to Cairo, we knew we would miss the connection there for Entebbe. We had been told to see the airline personnel at the “transfer desk” upon arrival in Egypt.

Who was in that queue ahead of us? The same couple we had noticed in Dublin. By now we had begun to make friends, but it was when our flight was re-routed to Addis Ababa out of Cairo, and when one of the couple was sitting on the seat right beside us, I knew the LORD was ‘up to something’. A little conversation with my neighbour and I discovered they too were headed to Kampala and that they were from Eritrea.

In Addis, with an almost five hour layover on the ground, I felt prompted to see if they would like to join us as our permitted (one each) guests in an airport lounge there. They were delighted, and, although the lounge was of a basic nature, it still afforded us a quiet place away from the madding crowd in the main airport. The Eritreans thanked us like we had passed them a million dollars.

Next, as they were helping themselves to free Ethiopian food and drinks just like it is prepared in their homeland (next door to Ethiopia), one of them told us they were heading to Uganda to attend a brother’s wedding. And … would we like to come too?

We were pretty stunned, but with the date and time of the wedding fitting our Ugandan schedule, and with an offer of a special Eritrean costume for my wife, how could we refuse?

And so, on Sunday evening past, we were privileged to attend the wedding as just about the only non-Eritreans present for this remarkable and fascinating cultural event.

Here are a selection of photographs and a video clip of their music and dance celebration.