Would you be my girlfriend?

When I first arrived in Sierra Leone almost two years ago, I couldn’t get into a cab without being asked for my phone number or having a note slipped into my hand by an eager Sierra Leonean man. I even had a motorcycle taxi driver suggest to me that he was a good lover. I started giving out my housemate Stephen’s phone number and felt incredibly guilty every time he got an unwanted call.

As my Krio got better, the male attention stopped and I began getting offers from women wanting to be my girlfriend. I was flattered. I attributed it to the fact that they no longer found me threatening. For the men, I was no longer new and interesting.

Then last year everything stopped altogether. No more ‘I love you’ or ‘I want you’ or even a ‘Good friend good friend.’ No one hassles me in taxis anymore or offers to carry my bags (which I miss to be honest!). The money changers on the kerbs even stopped offering me change. Worst off all, instead of ‘white girl, they started calling me Ma and Mommy.’ Even the women stopped asking to be my friend. Maybe I’d blended in to the point of becoming invisible.

Then yesterday, as I was walking to my favourite café Bliss from home, a young girl of about 16 came up to me and said she wanted me for her girlfriend. “I’ll keep a look out for you,” she said. Yeah, I still got it baby!