So I am almost ready to move into my house, God willing, and
I decided to go over to the house and give it a good cleaning. Since the generator has not arrived and
therefore there is no electricity I knew that I could not wear long pants or a
skirt so I decided to wear my shorts to clean.
Now I know that here they consider legs very sexual and
the thighs really should only be seen by a woman’s husband but I was only going
to my house and I was not going to see anyone.
I put on my shorts which by American standards were on the longer side,
they came about 2” from my knee and I only wore them from my hotel room, to my
car and then to my house.
The looks that I received by the other guests at the hotel
were shocking. You would have thought that I had walked through the hotel naked
based off the looks that the men were giving me. When I talked to one of the men I was working
with he said that based on what I was wearing, I was harassing the men and that
they were upset. I asked him what about
what the women in Juba were wearing and he said that was different; women in
the villages have to dress differently even Western women. He said that there is no difference between
the weekends and the weekday; you always have to dress properly. I explained to him that when I was in my
house I was going as I chose and if someone came to visit then they could not
get upset.
I now know that I won’t be wearing my long shorts to the
market like I used to in Ghana while I am here in South Sudan.
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