Cultural Filters: What's Normal?

Every once in a while a traveling salesperson comes by with fragrant soaps or other products that you can't get in our area. They buy the stuff in town, spend the 4000/= to go out to the end of the bus line and then walk back, staying with relatives on the way to make the most of what must be very low profit margins. A while back, one came that was a departure from the usual: a woman. While she was showing off the merchandise in the teacher's lounge of my school, I noticed that she had burn scars on her hands and part of her face. She went on her way after showing of her products and I forgot about her.

A few weeks passed and I was visiting the teachers at the primary school. The first thing they asked me after greetings was "Did you see that woman?". I turned around and looked out the window to see which woman was "that woman", but no one was there. They laughed and said, "No, the one that was selling housewares a few weeks back." I thought about it and said "The one with the burn scars all over her face and hands?" The women discussed their recollections of that day for a while before answering "We think she had scars, but did you see she was wearing pants?". Durning slow news months, people still talk about the Sambaa woman who was dressed like a man.