Now, this is not a strange occurrence as this area is a 'man-district' of sorts, with car dealerships and garages littering the place. But as I walked past a car wash -opposite Hot Pot- manned by two Zimbabwean youth, the man called out to me, "Exee, baby! Ema hoo ke go poshe!" Mildly irritated, I obviously ignored him and walked on only to have to wait by the side of the road while the afternoon post-work traffic sludged by. The man caught up with me, and started berating me for ignoring him when he tried to talk to me, and threatening to push me into the road at that very moment, and that I was probably ignoring him only to go on and consent to a sexual relationship with somebody who was going to kill me.
Another time, walking towards Maru a Pula school one evening, two young men walked towards me, talking and in high spirits. When they saw me, one of them stood right in front of me, blocking my way, and said to me, "Ao, mmaabo." As I made moves to walk around him, he clutched at my arm, and said, " Come on, let's talk." I told him that I was in a hurry, and didn't have time to talk. "At least give me that chocolate," he said, and as people milled past us towards the combi stop, and as his friend stood by waiting for him, he twisted my arm so that the piece of chocolate I had in my hand dropped neatly into his other hand. He then went on his way, continuing his conversation with his friend, and munching my chocolate, as if nothing had happened. A few days after this incident, I was chatting online to an American friend, and happened to mention the incident. He was very upset, more upset than I was at that point, as that incident had become, for me, just another little challenge that women are faced with on an everyday basis.
