The crocodile

In South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, said that the World Cup had created 130,000 jobs. I'm not sure if that figure includes new sex workers, but the influx of mostly male foreign tourists usually means increased demand for prostitutes.

Across the border in Lesotho, however, ladies of the night seem more desperate for work than usual. One crocodile, as they're locally nicknamed, pulled some hard marketing on me the other night when I passed her corner.

Even though I was driving my cheap KIA Picanto rental car, all three of the crocodiles began to hoot as I pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection of Kingsway and Pioneer roads in Maseru. Then the one ran up to my window. That there is a real hooker, I thought as she waved at me. And then, just as I looked down to notice that the door was unlocked, she opened it. She proceeded to sit down in the passenger seat, close the door and look ahead – ready to go.

It was only 7:30 in the evening, but Maseru is a ghost town after dark. And there were no other cars on the road at that moment.

I looked at the hooker and said, “No.”

She smiled at me and replied, “Yes.”

“No,” I said. “I don't want.”

She smiled. She looked about 20 years old, and she was wearing black jeans and a green jacket. It was cold enough to see your breath that night. There was a scar on her right cheek.

“Get out,” I said.

She said, “Talking?”

I don't know what that meant, but I pointed to the door and repeated slowly, “Get out.”

Her colleagues were looking in on us, assessing the negotiations and giggling. How am I going to get this hooker out of my car?

We both sat silent for a little while until a pair of headlights approached from behind and I said to her, “The police are coming! Watch out!” But she wasn't fooled. Or she hadn't understood what I said, because she only casually turned around, and then she turned back at me and smiled again.

But she at last acknowledged that I wasn't moving the car with her in it, and the car behind us was going to lose patience soon. She opened the door and got out. I drove away to the sound of three young women laughing in the night.