‘Vibbed’ at the stalls

While a good number of people go shopping at the expo, some go to hunt or actually ‘shop’ for girlfriends. When you see a guy passing glances at you and moving behind or besides you at the expo, he could be wanting to ask you out or something close to that. Helga Keza (not real names),a 23-year-old student of Kigali Institute of Education (KIE), describes her experience of how two men she had never met before came asking her out and the other proposing marriage! While at the expo last weekend, Keza was enjoying her ice-cream and roast beef while sited alone on a table for three. She was waiting for her girlfriends who were supposed to join her in an hour’s time. A tall huge guy with cornrows, all dressed in baggy jeans, multicolored old school sneakers and bangles all over his wrists approaches her. He looked like one of those upcoming local musicians. He offers himself a seat on the same table as Helga. He claimed to have grown up in a neighbouring country since he apparently couldn’t speak Kinyarwanda. Luckily, Helga speaks fluent English so they communicated. Later on as they were both having refreshments, he guy starts pulling all those odd flattering lines from the movies. He first tells her how she looks like someone he knows and when she insists that he tells her who she is, he says that she is ‘Paris Hilton’. Helga laughs it off but she kind of wondered where this guy is heading to, then he throws one of those rather annoying lines and tells her how ‘God must have been showing off when he created her.’ He started telling her how she makes Halle Berry look ugly because she is eye-catchingly beautiful that she would turn necks stiff! At this point, she was bored stiff. Helga insists she wants to leave and this guy begs her to first beep him because he can’t find his phone: He simply wanted her phone number. She declined and he requested they meet again for a date so they can get to know each other. She moves to another table and another man clad in corporate attire joins her. It was just her bad or perhaps good day. He starts a conversation and tells her how he’s looking for a wife and that she looked like perfect wife material. He was so fast that he asked her when they could go and meet her parents. She was in stitches because this whole experience was too comical for her. For those who have desperately searched for a soul mate to no avail, why not visit the expo. m.kaitesi@yahoo.com