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A chance encounter: On her first day exploring Benin, West Africa, Rachel Décoste asked a passerby, Honoré Orogbo, for directions.
Two weeks later, Rachel and Honoré got engaged.
See photos of their life together here.
(Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada) →
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A life-changing trip: Rachel, pictured here in the village of Ganvie Lake, was visiting Benin as part of a five-month trip through Africa.
Rachel arrived anticipating a major journey of self-discovery, but without predicting the extent to which the journey would change her life.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Open Conversations: Honoré offered to give Rachel a ride across the country and the two quickly got to know each other.
“We were very open and very frank, because we were strangers and we were never going to see each other again,” Rachel recalls.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Commitment: Rachel and Honoré, pictured here on a beach in Cotonou, realized that they both had feelings for each other.
They got engaged just before Rachel left Benin to return to her native Canada.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Fabric shopping: Honoré also took Rachel to a market to help her shop for fabric that her brother, a tailor, could make into a dress.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Full Circle: Here are Rachel and Honoré wearing clothes made from that fabric.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Following his heart: Honoré moved to Canada to be with Rachel.
Honoré considers meeting Rachel to be "destiny," but he sees traveling the world to be with her as proof of the importance of trusting your gut.
"You just have to follow your heart," he says.
"Follow your heart without reservation."
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Wedding Celebration: The couple got married in January 2019, in Benin.
This photo is from their 2020 celebration in Canada.
Credit: Timothy J Baklinski
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Family ties: Honoré's son also moved to Canada with his father.
Here is the family together in Ottawa.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Business Associates: Rachel and Honoré also run a business selling warm, winter-appropriate Canadian pajamas with African prints, called Woke Apparel.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Exploring Canada: Here's Honoré and Rachel at Niagara Falls.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
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Back in Benin: Here's the couple back in Benin earlier this year, at a swimming pool in the city of Allada.
Rachel and Honoré often wear matching fabrics, a Benin tradition.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
(CNN) --
Rachel Décoste landed in the West African Republic of Benin in August 2018, anticipating a major journey of self-discovery, but not predicting how much the trip would change her life.
On her first day exploring Benin, Rachel asked a passerby for directions.
Two weeks later, Rachel and the stranger got engaged.
Six months later, they were married.
Rachel grew up in Ottawa, Canada, the daughter of Haitian parents who immigrated to Canada in the late 1960s. As an adult, Rachel moved to Washington for college, later working for a bipartisan tech program associated with Congress. USA.
Rachel loved this job, she loved the diversity of Washington, and she loved working in public service.
When her US visa was about to be renewed, Rachel, then in her 40s, thought about working remotely for a few months before returning to Washington.
But instead of working from Canada, he devised a plan to set up his desk a little further afield.
Earlier that year, Rachel had submitted her DNA to an ancestors website.
Rachel had long known that she was descended from enslaved Africans, but until she got the results, she didn't know where her ancestors had lived.
She now had a list of countries where she had roots: Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana and Benin.
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"DNA testing for a descendant of enslaved Africans has a very deep meaning for us," Rachel tells CNN Travel.
"Although it's not rocket science, when you get the map of where your ancestors came from, it's an emotional journey."
Rachel arrived in Benin towards the end of her five-month telecommuting journey.
She had already visited the other countries on her list, and her trip through Africa was shaping up to be an extraordinary journey of self-discovery.
However, she Rachel did not know what to expect from Benin.
"Honestly, I don't know if I would have been able to locate the Republic of Benin on a map before this," he says.
He booked a room at an inn in the port city of Cotonou, and planned to stay there for two weeks, working from the hotel and exploring the country in his spare time.
After a couple of days of adjustment, Rachel ventured out for the first time.
She was scheduled to visit Ouidah, one of the busiest slave trading ports in Africa.
She hoped it would be a moving experience and that she would make him think.
"I'm sure one of my ancestors passed through there, just from my DNA test," says Rachel.
Leaving her room, Rachel sought out the inn manager for guidance on the best way to travel to Ouidah.
"I can't find her anywhere. And then I look for the security guard, and the security guard is on break."
Rachel figured her next best bet was to ask a passerby outside, so she opened the doors and looked around.
The first person he saw was a man about to get on a motorcycle, parked just outside.
Rachel greeted the stranger in French, as a French-Canadian, French is her first language and it is also the official language of Benin, and politely asked how to get to Ouidah.
"You have to go to an intersection downtown, where all the collective taxis are," the stranger explained.
"You find the taxi that goes to your destination, you pay for your seat and then you arrive."
He started to give directions to the intersection, but then, realizing they were a bit complicated, he changed his tone.
"If you want. I can take you there, it's about 10 minutes away," he suggested, pointing to his motorcycle.
It was around 9 in the morning.
Rachel wasn't sure about trusting someone she didn't know, but she decided they were unlikely to be harmed in broad daylight.
She accepted.
"I took a chance and got on the back of his bike, without a helmet," he recalls.
traveling together
Honoré and Rachel explored Benin together.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
The stranger driving the motorcycle was Honoré Orogbo, a single father and business owner in his thirties who had lived in Cotonou all his life and happened to be passing by that morning.
When Rachel opened the door to the inn, Honoré had just finished breakfast at a nearby kiosk.
From the outside, it wasn't obvious that Rachel's quarters were an inn.
Honoré says that he assumed that she was the mistress of the house.
Only when he asked for directions did he realize that Rachel was a tourist.
When Rachel and Honoré arrived at the taxi rank in central Cotonou, they noticed that the one headed for Ouidah was quite empty.
Honoré explained that it would be some time before he left, since the driver would not leave until the taxi was full.
Rachel lost heart.
She had no time to wait, she wanted to spend the whole day in Ouidah unhurriedly and return to Cotonou before sunset.
Sensing her disappointment, Honoré proposed something to her.
He had a friend in Ouidah whom he hoped to visit, and although he had not planned to go that day, he was able to, since he had the day off.
"I was like, 'Great. I'll pay for the gas. Let's go,'" Rachel recalls.
Just over an hour later, they arrived in Ouidah.
“He shows me how to get back, where the jeepneys are so I can get back that afternoon, and he shows me where the Slave Museum is.
But before they parted ways, Rachel asked Honoré if he wanted to go to lunch.
She wanted to eat something before starting her tour, and she thought that inviting Honoré was a very polite decision, after all, he had changed her plans to help her.
Honoré accepted, touched by the gesture.
The two sat down to eat.
Rachel was aware that she was a woman traveling alone, and although Honoré had been very polite and respectful, he was still a stranger, so she told him that she was married.
Nor did he tell him details of his work or his life in the United States.
But he did explain that he hoped to travel to Benin in the next few days.
She asked Honoré if she had any friends or contacts of hers who worked as a driver or tour guide and that he might be interested in accompanying her for the next few days.
She thought it would be easier than relying on taxis.
Honoré contacted a friend who worked as a tour guide, but his agenda was full.
"So I said, 'Well, how about you? Can you chaperone me? You helped me out this morning, can I pay you to do it for three days?'" Rachel recalls.
"No, I'm not a tour guide," Honoré said.
"I don't know the history of my country by heart, and that's not what I do."
Rachel backed up.
Actually, she didn't need a tour guide, there would be experts on all the historical places she planned to visit, she just needed a ride.
After much prodding, Honoré agreed to take Rachel.
"When she insisted, I said: 'Why not?'", Honoré remembers today.
He wanted to help Raquel, says Honoré.
She seemed like a "nice person" because of the way she had approached him, the way she had asked him questions, and the way she had invited him to lunch.
The two agreed that Honoré would take Rachel on tour over the next few days, starting that day in Ouidah, and that Rachel would pay him for his services.
closer and closer
Here is Rachel at Ganvie Lake Village, in Cotonou, Benin.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
For the rest of the week, Honoré took Rachel to the most important places in Benin.
Touring Benin was a powerful experience for Rachel.
She says that visiting the slave fort, inside the Ouidah History Museum, "is a pilgrimage that every Afro-descendant should visit to remember the cruelty our ancestors endured."
"I didn't know it before I went there in person, but if bets were placed in Las Vegas on the survival of enslaved Africans, the chances of me being alive today would have been slim," says Rachel.
"I'm a walking miracle. I'm the 'one percent.' I owe it to those who didn't make it to live my best life."
While traveling through Benin, Rachel and Honoré chatted.
Although Rachel still didn't reveal many details about her personal circumstances, she opened up to Honoré about her thoughts and feelings.
Honore did the same.
"The first conversations were to get to know myself, my family, my situation, who I am, who I really am," she says.
"We were very open and very frank, because we were strangers and we would never see each other again," recalls Raquel.
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Rachel remembers being emotional when Honoré explained that he didn't have a new model of motorcycle because he was spending all his money on his son's education.
"He told me, 'I'd rather my son have those opportunities than ride a fancy motorcycle.' And I thought, 'Wow, those are my parents' values.' Those values reflected me," says Rachel.
In one of their many conversations, Honoré mentioned that his brother was a tailor.
On their fourth day together, Honoré took Raquel to a market to help her buy fabric that her brother could make into a dress for her.
Rachel was overwhelmed by the choice, so much so that she asked Honoré to pick her favorites.
She opted for two pieces of brightly colored Ankara fabric.
The third option was a white and gray lace style, called lessi.
Rachel loved it, and she thought the resulting dress might be "appropriate for a christening or some kind of special occasion."
Honoré's brother made clothes for Rachel and Honoré with the fabric he chose for her at the market.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
In one of the many conversations they had as they drove to Benin's landmarks, Honoré mentioned to Rachel that he used to travel to Lomé, the capital of neighboring Togo, when he and his friends wanted to go out at night.
Rachel was intrigued.
"I can't guarantee that I will come back here. This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip where I get paid while working in a foreign country. I want to take every opportunity," she remembers thinking.
"So I told him, 'Well, I have to go back to work this week. But next weekend, if you're up for it, I could get two hotel rooms and we could go to Togo together.'
The following weekend, Honoré took Rachel to a poetry night in Lomé, followed by a bar with live music.
They were out all night.
"We dance. It's pure joy," says Rachel.
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It was at that moment that Rachel began to feel that things were changing.
She felt comfortable with Honoré in a way she had never felt before.
"We get along really well. He laughs at my jokes," he recalls.
"I had a couple of meltdowns, which I'm not proud of, where he wasn't scared, because normally angry black women scare people. But he took it all in stride."
Rachel even briefly met Honoré's son.
Rachel and Honoré, pictured on a Cotonou beach, grew closer and soon realized they had feelings for each other.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
Rachel described the situation in an email to one of her close friends in Ottawa.
"I think this person should be my husband. Am I crazy? I've known this guy for a week. Is he stupid? Tell me if I'm crazy," she wrote.
Her friend replied, "Rachel, you're not a stupid person. You have good judgment. You know how to judge character. If it's him, go for it."
For Honoré, the trip to Togo was also a turning point.
"I think it was that night that he struck like lightning," he says.
"It wasn't lightning, but a feeling of love. I think that's where the feeling of love started."
Rachel only had one more week in Benin before heading back to North America.
She decided that she had no time to lose.
"I told him I wasn't really married. And he was really happy to hear it. And we got together," she says.
"I was a bit surprised," Honoré says now.
"I thought that a woman like that would probably have a husband."
"The next day I saw her differently," he adds.
"Not as a tourist, but as my soulmate. That's how the relationship began. Step by step."
During the rest of their stay in Benin, Rachel and Honoré spent as much time together as possible.
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distance engagement
Honoré and Rachel often wear matching fabric clothes, a Benin tradition.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
The night of Rachel's departure, Honoré remembers sitting with her on a beach.
He was enjoying the moment, but also considering Rachel's imminent return to Canada, and what it meant for her budding romance.
"We were in front of the sea. In my head, I was thinking: 'I don't regret the last two weeks I've spent with you. We had a great time together. I was so glad to meet you.'"
The two discussed the future, and if and how they could make a long-distance relationship work.
They realized that they were both equally willing, so they decided to get engaged and for Honoré to move to America.
It was a great decision.
They had only known each other for two weeks.
And for Honoré, emigration had never been a goal.
It would be a big change for his son.
But Honoré says that he decided to "follow my instincts, follow my heart."
Meanwhile, Rachel left her life in Washington and returned to Canada.
Rachel says her friends were surprised at her, but supportive and happy for her when she told them about her whirlwind romance.
Her parents were more skeptical, she says.
But they came to their senses when they met Honoré and saw how in love he was with her daughter.
Rachel returned to Benin six months later, in January 2019, for her wedding to Honoré.
She wore the dress made of the white lace fabric that Honoré had picked out for her at the market the previous summer.
She felt as if he was predestined.
Here is the couple at the Canadian wedding celebrations.
Credit: Two Trees Photography by Timothy J Baklinski
In the meantime, the couple planned their wedding in Canada for the following year, while dealing with Honoré and his son's immigration journey.
"I took the time during the time we were apart to start preparing myself mentally and psychologically for a big move," Honoré recalls.
"I had to think about the huge life change that awaited me, about the cultural differences. I know people who went to the Americas and it wasn't necessarily easy."
Honoré also prepared his son for the move.
"I explained to him that, 'My son, we will go to a different country and start over together. In time, you will have new friends, you will have new cousins. You will have everything you want. Everything you have here you will have there, with the weather".
Reunion in Canada
Today, Honoré and Rachel live together in Canada.
Here they are seen at Niagara Falls.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
Honoré and his son arrived in Canada in the dead of winter.
"It was very, very cold," he remembers.
"I didn't understand how cold it could be outside. Because the cold in Africa is very different from Canada."
However, once Honoré outfitted himself with Canadian-appropriate boots, coat and gloves, he began to adjust to life in a new country.
Rachel and Honoré say they are delighted to be together.
The months of waiting for Honoré's visa approval had been long.
Honoré's son adapted very quickly, and Rachel adapted to becoming his stepmother, a role she says she loves.
"I am embracing the challenge and the joys of motherhood," she says now.
"It's not easy when you've been single forever adjusting to having to share your life. But he's a good guy."
Today, Honoré and Rachel live in Ottawa.
Rachel works as a diversity and inclusion expert, while Honoré studies.
Rachel also recounted her experiences traveling in Africa in 2018, including meeting Honoré, in an audiobook called "Year of Return: a Black Woman's African Homecoming."
Here Honoré, Rachel and their son are together in Ottawa.
Credit: Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada
Rachel and Honoré are also raising their son together, and they run a business selling warm, winter-appropriate Canadian pajamas with African prints, called Woke Apparel.
The pandemic put a stop to their plans to have a big wedding in Canada, but they enjoyed a small ceremony in the summer of 2020.
Reflecting on their journey together, Honoré says their story makes him realize that "sometimes you don't have to force fate."
He considers meeting Rachel "destiny," but considers crossing the world to be with her proof of the importance of trusting your gut.
"Just follow your heart," he says.
"Follow your heart without reservation."
As for Rachel, she says their love story reminds her that "it's never too late."
"You are not too old to travel alone, in a country you don't know, where you don't know anyone. You are never too old to find love. You are never too old to be a mother. There is no expiration date for opportunities. Take life with both hands. If I can do it, you can."
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