A student has told how she tied the knot with a professor from her university despite their 27 year age gap.
When Mariam Trela, 26, first locked eyes with her 53-year-old husband Grzegorz Trela, he was a professor of philosophy at the same university in Morogoro, Tanzania where Mariam was studying an education degree.
Starry eyed Grzegorz, who is originally from Poland, said it was 'love at first sight' when he took Mariam out for their first date in May of 2017.
In July 2018, the loved-up couple married and later the same year welcomed their son Ignacy, three, who is often mistaken for Grzegorz grandson.
Mariam, who is currently living in Bielsko-Biała, Poland with her husband and son said: “Quite often people say to my husband, about our son: ‘what a beautiful grandson’.
“Probably because of my husband's grey hair, this kind of situation happens to my husband quite often. So probably when people see our whole family, they think it's a mother with a son and a grandfather.
“And when they find out that I am his wife, on the one hand – especially men – envy him his young, attractive wife, and suspect that I'm just going after his money."
"It is funny, as my husband is not even rich," she continues.
“As a student, I saw Grzegorz – a lecturer, when he moved between the buildings. He was one of the few Europeans at the university, so he stood out due to his skin colour.
“At first, I thought he was a clergyman because other Europeans were missionary lecturers.
“We found each other on Facebook and wrote to each other, he didn't know that I was studying at the same university where he worked.
“He thought I was on the other side of Tanzania, when he found out that I was in Morogoro, he offered to meet in person where he introduced himself."
The couple have opened up about stereotypes they have faced due to their 27-year age gap, as well as misconceptions about their interracial relationship.
Primary school teacher Mariam said: "In Tanzania, there are some who believe the stereotype 'white is rich'.
"In Poland, we can sometimes face prejudices because there are not many people of colour who live here.
"There are quite a few differences between us, such as gender, age, religion, culture, politics and life experiences.
"But as the years go by, we learn from each other, and this perhaps is the most fascinating thing about our relationship. We keep discovering each other."
After sharing their relationship with family and friends, who the couple say were all very accepting, they took to Instagram and YouTube to document their lives for their son.
She said: “I opened the YouTube channel mainly with our son in my mind. Memory is unreliable, children grow up fast, so we wanted to save as much as possible of our everyday life for our son.
“Almost all comments we get are positive reactions from people to our channel.
"I love him, he loves me and cares for me and we both care a lot about our son.
"Our love encounters difficulties – mostly cultural differences – but we overcome them by patiently learning from each other."
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