Let's eat tacos!... er... um... I mean burritos!

This past Saturday evening we had a birthday party for Keenan at our house. We invited all of the others missionaries we know as well as several of our Tanzanian friends with children. Carrie decided to make tacos and Mexican rice to serve at the party. Because there was so much to make - in addition to the cakes and cupcakes and cinnamon rolls she made - she enlisted the help of a few mamas to cook the taco meat, make the tortillas, cook and make the Mexican rice, prepare the toppings, etc.

Well, the mamas that were helping us didn't finish until just after the party officially began and people had arrived. Carrie invited them to stay and enjoy the food before they went home - after all, they made half of it. The problem is that Carrie forgot about one little cultural/translation snag when referring to this particular Mexican dish. In fact our friends in Nairobi had just told us about this very thing, but it must have slipped her mind.

So... she invited the mamas to stay and eat "tacos". Well, Swahili is pronounced identical to Spanish. So the Swahili word "tako" sounds identical to the word "taco" that we are accustomed to. Unfortunately, the Swahili word "tako" is the word for the part of your body that you sit on. That's right. Carrie invited the mamas to stay and eat "rear ends" with us!

One of the mamas that speaks a bit of English and is a little more familiar with us Wazungu (Westerners), retranslated what Carrie said to "chakula", which is the Swahili word for "food". But the looks on the faces of the other two mamas were absolutely priceless!

Live and learn.