Sean and I are standing at a gas station waiting to continue our journey back to our site. It’s been an exhausting day and we’re not saying much. A man comes up and starts to speak in Luganda. I don’t understand as he and Sean conversed in Luganda. However, when Sean switched back to English, I hear him say, “she’s my sister.”
Cool.
I continue to tune out until the man gets closer to me. I can’t see Sean’s face because this man is blocking my view, but he says, “I give you a big coke” as he looks at me.
I’m not thirsty. I just look at him.
And, that was it.
Sean, on the other hand, did not have the same reaction. He said, “you are rude.”
Not wanting to overstep, I don’t say anything. I mean, it’s not my business if Sean doesn’t want a coke.
We travel farther down the road and I’m thinking about what Sean said.
It hits me. In the Uganda-British accent, I hear coke when it's actually cock.
I laugh to myself. Coke. Cock. Coke. Cock. Coke. Cock.
I’ve never been offered a big cock before.
When Sean and I get to site, he brings it up.
“If it makes you feel any better, he was talking to me,” he blurts out as we hike up the big hill to our houses.
What? I don’t understand.
“I don’t get it.”
“In Uganda, they call chickens cocks.”
I laugh out loud this time.
The man at the gas station was offering Sean a large chicken for me.
I’m grinning as sweat is pouring down my face, my shirt is sticking to my back, and my legs ache.
I went from, No I don’t want a drink to I was just offered a large penis. That’s never happened before to being worth a chicken.
In other words: Ummm I’m not thirsty…..what the hell?....Oh, not even a cow?