It was on a Friday night and as usual after a long tiring week we always have a boys night out, we just go out as boys on a friday, no women, yes we need that. Although this has been encouraging some guys to be naughty, this is our culture it can't stop anytime soon. This day we have been in town and one of the guys had to deliver some parcels for his granny who lives in Epworth thus we just decided to drive there and leave the goods and return to town again. However when we were done with the delivery we thought of having one or two drinks at one of the popular spots in Epworth, Overspill shops.
As we got there one of the things i noticed, the bars were full to the brim, one may be saying that people are struggling and don't have money, but people are drinking beer,, not just beer but a lot of it and I'm like where we getting this money, who knows they do. Thus we found a corner where we could just manage to stand avoiding much contact as these are times that thieves take advantage of and still wallets and phones, we couldn't afford that, our night would be ruined as such we made sure our things were safe. As i was sipping through my brown bottle, something just caught my eye, there were so many young girls in this bar and i was wondering, what were they doing at this hour in bars,, where are their parents, are they feeling safe to be around such places, will they go home, what if violence break out, will they not be harmed even the worst will they not get drunk and get abused.
All these questions i needed answers, i couldn't get out of the bar without these answers, yes i had to know, after all getting knowledge is not a problem as such i told my guys i needed to talk to these girls for a bit of time, not that i was soliciting for a "short time" as they call it, no i just needed some information about how they live. This therefore prompted me to approach one of the young girls who was seated in a corner all alone, guess she was sipping on a mineral which was almost finished. As i approached her i could see the smile on her face, i don't know what made her smile, maybe it was because of the suit i was putting on, yes i was smart guess she had seen a potential client.
I asked her how she been and how she had spent her day and she said she was fine but business was low, and i knew the business she was talking about, clients were few i guess. I told her i needed to talk to her and if she could tell me a bit of some information about herself, the way she lives, but however she declined, i convinced her that I'm a writer anything said between us would not include any names, i just needed to get some information and write an article on that. She however accepted on one condition first, i had to buy her a drink, who knows maybe she was thirsty,, i couldn't say i had no money on me, man i was too smart for that and i needed to get information, what could be the best way of getting what i want other than buying her a drink.
First thing i asked her was, what she was really doing in a bar like this and her response was that, she was doing prostitution, that didn't shock me and secondly i asked her how old she was. To my surprise she said she was fifteen and at this point in time the conversation got real, and I'm like for real fifteen and she said yes. I wanted to know why prostitution at such a tender age, she told me that she had lost her mom and since being left with her dad and her little siblings, the father remarried and was now used to come home once or twice a month.
Her being the oldest child she had to drop out of school since the fees was no longer paid, this just reminded me of the statement "soft like a mother's love, there is nowhere else you can get that kind of love, mothers have love for their children which when even how much we try as men, we can't reach that level. Back to my story, the girl said there was nothing else for her to do, only prostitution was the profession which required no qualifications, only your body will do the trick. Thus she has found herself at this point, which is a very tough life but has no choice since there is need to provide for the family back home.
However as young prostitutes she noted a few problems they are facing, one of the biggest issues associated with prostitution is that very young girls like her age can't negotiate for safe sex, most of them have found themselves having forced unprotected sex because the clients force themselves upon them as they will be drunk and too strong thus exposing them to the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and worse of all HIV. That's a bad one, she went on to tell me that as young girls, sometimes they are slept with for nothing at all, this usually takes place when the client tells you they will pay after the act which however they may deny to pay you and persisting to get paid may result in you getting beaten by such guys, which is sad indeed for someone seeking to erke a living out of that.
We talked a whole lot of other things, one of the challenges she told me was that as young prostitutes, if you get infected by an STI and you go to the clinic, yes you will receive help but the nurses will scorn you so bad, if you not strong you might commit suicide, this part was sad for me, how could they do that i asked myself, do they know the circumstances which lead to one contracting that, of cause there are other teenagers involved in unprotected sex for other reasons and getting affected but in the case of these young ladies, their situation is completely different and not a pleasant one. By this time her drink was almost empty i could see her watery eyes, yes she was telling me all these details but inside she was being eaten up, she was not enjoying this life.
I bought her another drink and we sat again thus she also went to tell me how she once became pregnant and had to terminate it, why? i asked her and she told me due to the number of clients she meet, how could she know the father, she didn't know. To make the conversation a bit lighter she told me, I'm here for money not for kids and we laughed and went on to tell me that if she had kept the pregnancy, financially that would be devastating, she was the one providing for for her two younger siblings and paying their school fees at local schools thus if she had fallen pregnant, that would not be possible anymore, she would not work and the family would starve. She also went on to tell me that there was an incident in which one these local girls was murdered by a client, this she said was scary since you never know the type of a person seeking services from you.
I was listening, i had to let her pour her heart out, seems like i was the only person she had opened up to in her life, she told me that due to the nature of her job, one of her greatest fears was contracting HIV, that would be a blow to her life, she just hoped most of her clients would understand the importance of using condoms in this time. We had spent close to two hours talking, this means i had used her time, who knew if i had scared away potential clients, thus it was time for me and my boys to live but since it was someone who had given me a lot of information i needed i had to part with a 20 dollar note just to thank her, of cause i also got her number, not to be her client, i know some of you are thinking that, it was because i meet a lot of people i, i could find her something better to do who knows and i left just thinks to myself lets get young girls out of prostitution.