I don't think we had been in Kanye more than a couple of days. Talk about being naive about everything! We were bravely walking up from the school compound to the closest "shop" to buy something to eat – or whatever. Outside the shop were these ladies making and selling fat cakes. I bought a bag of however many. In terms of price (my Setswana being nil) I thought the seller said "five cents."
(Well, pick a number, but I thought it meant five cents per, so I gave her five cents times however many cakes I bought.) We were walking back to our house and the same lady came running up behind us shouting, "Mma! Mma!" Guess what. It was five cents per bag, not five cents per fat cake – and she wanted to return the extra money I had paid her. Seriously? That was my introduction to the residents of Kanye. And, as you can imagine, the honesty of what she did blew me away (given that the annual income was like, what, a hundred rand?) and I insisted she keep what I had paid her. I am sure she had good laughs with her friends about that...
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April 2021
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