My shorts

Today Edem took me for a walk in the community. We walked for 2 hours – I got to see how people actually live, what they do and how they interact with each other.

At a certain point we were going to a woman’s house to talk to her because she is participating in one of our projects. When we got there Edem asked for the woman to an old lady. The next thing I see is that she is speaking ewe and pointing at my legs with a very mad face. I could not understand what she was saying but I can tell I didn´t feel welcomed at all.

Edem told me afterwards that she was telling him to tell me that the next time I want to show up there I should wear pants and not shorts otherwise the children who are girls will want to use the same shorts. Edem explained me that usually old people still believe that if we don´t have our legs and harms covered then we are whores; it’s almost like I was naked for her.

As this happened a few minutes after we were talking to a younger woman (she should be on her thirties) and Edem told her about what had just happened. She started laughing. For this woman the old lady belief was already outdated.  

25/07/2012