Funny Cultural Mishap

In Botswana, queues (or lines in American English), are a fact of life; especially at the bank and the post office. Actually, the fact is not so dissimilar in the states, banks, post office, DMVs.... it's just that queues in Botswana are to the extreme. Going to the post office at Christmas time is the same as going to the bank at the end of the month.

Anyways. I was in line at the Post Office. A common cultural practice is to not actually stand in line, but to tell the person in front of you, "hey, I'm in line behind you." In the states, we'd normally tell the person behind us to save us a spot, because the person behind is the one who loses out on the deal when someone comes into the line ahead of them.

So a lady parks behind me, lets me know that she is in line behind me, then sits on a bench to rest. A young man then came up behind me in line. To tell him that someone was behind me, I said "Mosadi ko morogo," which, I actually meant to say was, "mosadi ko morago" but "morogo" instead of "morago" came out. I must have been hungry.

What I meant to say, "mosadi ko morago" meaning "a woman is behind me."
Instead I said, "mosadi ko morogo" meaning "a woman is in the vegetables."

The young boy just laughed as I corrected myself. It was pretty funny.