A loving family and rising living standards are standouts for Ugandan national in China. Yan Dongjie reports from Beijing, with Shi Baoyin in Luoyang, Henan.

Nabuliya, a Ugandan national (right), her husband, Xie Xiaowei, and one of their two sons pick peppercorns from a tree in a village in Luoyang, Henan province. (YAN DONGJIE / CHINA DAILY)

August is the peppercorn harvest season in China.

In a vast field covered by the plant at a village in the central province of Henan, where foreigners are a rarity, a woman from Uganda was picking the crop, leaving passersby wondering why she was working there.

Speaking in fluent Henan dialect, Nabuliya shared anecdotes of her eight years in Luoyang city's Mengjin district with her two sons and her husband.

"Our eldest son is named Xie Buwei, a combination of my husband's name and mine. Our second son is named Xie Yafei, which combines the Mandarin words for Asia and Africa," the 30-year-old said.

"Although my mother was very sad, worried that no one would take care of her and that she would miss me, the day I arrived in Henan was the happiest day of my life," Nabuliya said, adding that it gave her hope for the future.

Nabuliya and Xie Xiaowei's love story and marriage have gained fame in the local community. They often share their daily life on Douyin, a popular social media platform, and have received blessings and attention from tens of thousands of netizens.

The couple's activities have enabled a growing number of Ugandans to understand China, while more Chinese netizens have learned about, and grown fond of, this woman from a completely different culture.

Unlike heavily edited, professionally produced short videos, Nabuliya's posts are usually shot by her husband on his smartphone. The quality is not high, the shots are not stable and there is no carefully applied makeup or an elaborate set.

Nabuliya can be seen either cooking Henan cuisine, such as noodles, for her children, working happily in the fields or taking a leisurely stroll and chatting with friends in the village of Yangzhuang in Mengjin's Chengguan township.

The couple's most recent videos were related to the peppercorn harvest, which was their main concern at the time. Since 2017, they have been contracted to cultivate peppercorns on nearly 8 hectares of farmland. Before that, they were registered as an impoverished household in the isolated village.

The village is located in a hilly area, and the local farmers used to mainly plant crops such as corn and wheat. However, it was difficult to achieve large-scale cultivation and yields were low as a result of the lack of rainfall and also because of poor irrigation.

The geographic and climatic conditions are highly suitable for the cultivation of peppercorns, so Yangzhuang's residents started learning related growing techniques together. "In the years of poverty alleviation efforts in 2016 and later, we introduced better varieties of peppercorns and distributed the seeds to impoverished households free of charge. Now, we have built a relatively large peppercorn garden. In the past few years, when peppercorn prices were high, even in a small garden, some farmers could sell their crop for more than 10,000 yuan ($1,370)," said Yang Xiaofeng, deputy secretary of the Yangzhuang community's Party committee.

Nabuliya and her husband, Xie Xiaowei, relax in their courtyard. (YAN DONGJIE / CHINA DAILY)

Poverty alleviation

Since arriving in China in 2015, Nabuliya has witnessed the progress of the poverty alleviation program in Yangzhuang. She said that in the past eight years, she has personally experienced the rise in living standards.

"When Xie Xiaowei is working away from the village, I help him by cooking and doing household chores. During the day, I take care of the peppercorn fields," Nabuliya said.

Peppercorns are not grown in Uganda, so sometimes she video calls her mother to say she is picking the crop, which has led her mother to become curious about the plant.

Nabuliya uses pinyin for Chinese characters to spell out her name, but Xie Xiaowei has also given her a Chinese name, Yongmei, which means "to praise plum blossoms" and is also the title of a famous Chinese poem.

The line, "A few plum blossoms at the corner of a wall, blooming alone in the cold," is a good description of Nabuliya's situation when the couple first met.

In Uganda, Nabuliya originally lived with her parents. However, her father and brother-in-law died of illness, so her widowed sister took her three children, 15-year-old Nabuliya and their mother to live with their grandfather. As there was no male breadwinner and her sister was taking care of the children, Nabuliya started working to support the family.

"I mainly worked as a server, helping in the kitchen and washing clothes. I earned about 200 Ugandan shillings a day (approximately half a yuan according to the exchange rate in 2010). Then in 2013, a friend asked me if I wanted to cook at a Chinese construction site, where the income would be five times higher — so I went along," she recalled.

There, she met Xie Xiaowei, who impressed her because he was reliable and capable. At the time, China Communications Construction was helping to build a highway in Uganda, and Xie Xiaowei was operating a pile driver with the construction team.

Despite the language barrier, he showed that he cared about whether Nabuliya had eaten and if her family had any difficulties. He also helped her through some tough times. Gradually, the two developed a romantic relationship and expressed their love for each other.

"One time, my mother got sick, and I told him about it. He immediately gave me his salary to have her treated. I was deeply moved. Later, I started making local delicacies for him as a way of showing my gratitude," Nabuliya said.

In 2014, they were married in Uganda, and their eldest son was born later. In 2015, when Xie Xiaowei's term of work ended, they bid farewell to Nabuliya's hometown and headed for Henan.

In addition to learning how to cook local dishes, such as various types of noodles, grow peppercorns and raise chickens and ducks, Nabuliya has integrated well into the community.

Sometimes, she and her female friends in the village discussed online shopping for clothes. She also learned Mandarin so she could discuss their children's education with them.

Nabuliya (center) chats with her best friend, Xie Yiping, who teaches her Chinese when they are together. (YAN DONGJIE / CHINA DAILY)

'Best friends'

Xie Yiping, a resident of a neighboring village, is of a similar age to Nabuliya, so they quickly became guimi, which means "best friends."

Villager Jia Qin said that after school, the children did their homework together. Because Nabuliya couldn't understand the Chinese textbooks, the children helped her learn the language so she could help them study.

In 2019, by chance, Nabuliya learned how to use Douyin and started sharing her daily life, showing the audience how to cook Henan cuisine, recording her experiences of growing peppercorns and many more topics.

Xie Xiaowei said: "We were very happy, so we decided to share things casually. We didn't expect to gain in excess of 100,000 fans."

What surprised Nabuliya even more was that she met a number of compatriots via Douyin: some were studying in China, while others had also started families in the country. They often communicate online, and that contact has helped Nabuliya overcome her occasional bouts of homesickness.

As for the future, Nabuliya and Xie Xiaowei don't have grand dreams. They said they wanted to find an opportunity to visit Nabuliya's family and see her elderly relatives. They hope to continue improving their lives through hard work, and to watch their two sons grow up healthy and happy.

Contact the writers at yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn