Back to Alex

Doris and I took our second trip into Alexandra, famously one of the poorest townships in Johannesburg. Since it was first settled over 30 years ago it has been the place immigrants end up upon arriving. We left the car to explored the market:



"what's this?"
"It's a rock"
That was an obvious answer of course it was a rock, but why would anyone buy a rock? And that question begs the other: why would anyone sell a rock?
"But what do you do with it?"
"...eat it, some people eat it."
"...oh"
The boy behind the counter walked away at that point.
There was a table with rows and rows of these rocks. They were soft and chalky looking, they had a light brown coloring.
I moved on and wandered into a shop. There I bought a bag to carry all the crap I had purchased over my seven weeks here in South Africa. It was a small plaid bag, it made Doris laugh.
"It's a girls bag, it's a girls..." when Doris says something she finds funny she says it almost twice; it's endearing.
"well it's the only one I like. Plus it says South Africa on it... Besides some of the sexiest men are androgynous, look at Prince."
She shrugged.
I walked out of the store and past several more rock displays, I decided I would buy one. I asked the women behind the table how much one was, she looked at me like I was stupid then replied "1 rand"
"I'll take one"
She laughed.
"What? what are these things?"
"They are rocks."
yes, apparently "...What are they for"
"...some people eat them."
this was annoying "Well, who eats them? and why?"
she blushed at the question and turned to Patrick and started explaining in Zulu or Xhosa; Patrick understands neither.
Patrick looked at me and gave a small shrug.
"what?"
"it's for women."
I got the idea that maybe the rocks purpose was something that was embarrassing to say to a man that you didn't know "Can you tell her?" I pointed to Doris. She only continued to blush.
"well then I'll give it to a women."
She found that really funny and giggled. I handed her a rand and she put the rock in a bag while calling over to her friend in whatever language; they both laughed. The other women leaned over to get a better look at me, she looked at me, then my plaid bag and then back at me. I didn't feel as silly as I probably should have.