It was just before Christmas when my friends and I were shopping. At that time I was 16 and I wore a size 9* (that’s a male size in Africa). We got into different shops buying clothes and make-up mostly—well it was Christmas.

When it was time for buying shoes I excused myself from the activity but my friends persuaded me to come along. They thought I was lying when I said there are no female shoes of my shoe size. So I tagged along unwillingly, I knew what was going to happen because I had been through it many times before. We got into a shoe store, they told the sales man that they wanted shoes of my size. He asked me what size I wore and I told him 9. He kept quiet for a while and then he said, they had no shoes of that size and he went on to say that he was sure no shop had such a large shoe size for women. My friends gave him a good telling off and we all left. Now they understand.

C

1.8.06

*note:  men’s size 9 is roughly equivalent to women’s size 10.5 – 11.