Last time I gave you a one-on-one with a professional commercial sex worker (CSW), Shakira, who gave us an insight into what happens in the streets at night.
This time I held a mini-talk show with four commercial sex workers of different ages and backgrounds, but who share a common interest, men. Mai Ngaa (47), Memory (38), Jackie (26) and Twatasha (23) shared the following views in a conference room at the town office, with Beaullah T Mbirimi (BTM).
BTM: Good morning ladies. Please feel free in our first episode as we discuss the life you are experiencing on the streets. Today’s discussion is on what led or drove you to the streets. Mai Ngaa, you are the eldest, let’s have your story. MAI NGAA (MN): I was once happily married and stayed in the suburbs with my husband till he committed suicide in 1998. I didn’t know he was promiscuous and when I started coughing and was diagnosed with TB, that’s when he panicked, went alone to be tested and came out positive. Within two weeks he was dead, leaving only a note indicating he was positive and confessing he had a mistress who stayed in Glen View. I stay in Mbare. Was I supposed to feed seven children and four grandchildren in a two-roomed wooden cabin with that suicide note he left? I had no choice, but to go to local beerhalls and it’s now my life.
BTM: Thank you Mai Ngaa. Memo let’s hear your story. MEMO: Madam, it’s cold out there and this is not just a saying from a drama. I have no children and never married, but my stepmother doesn’t want my father to buy food or clothes for us. I left school when I was in Grade Seven when my mother died and father married this w***h! I have to go into the streets so that I can feed and clothe my young twin brother and sister who are now in town. If I get a gun . . .
BTM: Do not cry Memo. I’ll come back to you. Jackie. JACKIE: My mother was a prostitute, vice maera whatever that means. She would bring her boyfriends home any time and when I was 15, she introduced me to beer and men. One day two men visited her together and she lied to the richer one that I was dating the other man. So that’s how I lost my virginity and since then I have never stopped. I can’t go to sleep before I make some man happy.
BTM: Miss Twatasha, please tell us how you became involved in CSW. TWATASHA: Same, same with Jackie, but I don’t go to beerhalls. My mother pitched up a wooden cabin behind our house for short-time jobs, so since I was given the job to collect money and to tell people it’s time up, I became interested. I only go out with big fish because they are old and tire quickly so I can cash $40 to $50 per day, even $100 on a good day.
BTM: What lesson can people learn from today’s discussion? MN: As you have heard, our stories differ, but the common thing is money. If there’s something better, I might try it but so far this is our ATM (any time money). At least today I won’t go to the beerhall because of the money you gave me, my children will eat meat today. As I speak my 17-year-old daughter gave birth last night to fatherless twins. Men should tell their wives their status so that both can go on to use anti-retrovirals.
BTM: Ladies’ thank you very much. Our next discussion will be problems encountered in your business, so till we meet again, have a pleasant week and holidays.
