Episode 48: The New Competition & A Strip Club

Like I mentioned before competition in our industry is becoming stiff as a result of uneven distribution and the alcohol laws.You know how many of the cheap downtown bar cum brothels have been turned into exhibition halls, and how the bars are not open during the day. Until recently the competition has been with prostitutes proper; yeah the stereotype of a downtown or street prostitute;not very well educated, with a kid or two, 'tired', rough and all those other things. As much as these brought competition it was nothing disruptive. Maybe the biggest consequence of their flooding was accelerating the fall of the Street from the place men find girls with panache at a fair price to just any other place.

But now there is new competition coming in; the one which may actually be disruptive. There are more of the educated girls coming in, yet its not only about their education but their attitude, style and well their aura. And they are not exactly young, certainly not in college. They act and look like they are done with college and have probably hit more than a year out of school. They have the maturity, freshness and that other unexplainable thing that especially the older and more loaded men look for.

The new girls are coming in everyday; its as if they are being mobilized. My guess is an upmarket brothel was closed and they girls decided to come this way to 'liberate' themselves. And they hate us as much as we hate them . Us the veterans and old school girls. They know each other and will cluster together talking in their Nairobi-girl English and laughing out loud . They are very confident, quite street smart thus it has become impossible for us to intimidate them into following the ground rules. So they are getting the men as we are left frustrated,letting it out in  insults. I know I should probably be on their side, what with my education and all but no my heart and loyalty is with Cheupe and all the roughies.

We the veterans are angry because we feel these girls should not be on the Street; they should be in classy brothels, clubs or in lanes in Westlands, Hurligham and those mtaas. That is if they are not  trading on Facebook and the many other local hook up sites. Why they chose to come here is beyond reason. It's as if they want to irritate and frustrate us. But this state of things won't last for every long; not here. Something will have to give in a big way.

On a different note I have made a strippers club to be my local bar; where I will dash for a drink in the evening when I am not working . I go there to have a taste of a different version of our work. The club is the Super Mambo. This must be the lowest of the strip clubs in this city. It looks like a bad version of one of those nude club scenes in old Van Damme movies. The girls look tired and disturbed. Last week when I was there only one of the girls seemed to enjoy herself. The others didn't even pretend to be having fun. And when it came to baring their all one of them could not even look straight at the audience. These are no like the strippers I saw in some brothel. A reader recently asked me why I should not be a stripper which according to him is  more respectable.

Really?Is stripping a more honorable version of our trade? I don't think so. But then it depends on a personal definition of self dignity. To the strippers showing what you got in public is better than giving your all. But to us showing almost all of what you got and then going all the way in private is more dignified. The debate can go forever.

I will be writing more about the new competition, strippers  & some other recent experiences later. For now I have to read. I enrolled for a short course to improve my skills here and elsewhere and now its exam time.