Meat without flies

One of my staff members was to ask a cook (local) for some shopping. He prepared his wish-list (pictured) and came to my Admin Officer (local female), who I share the room with, to translate. She speaks good English but asked what was “flies”. This paid my attention… What flies have to do with a shopping list?! Meat without flies was what the colleague of mine asked for! Both of us started laughing and he couldn’t understand why.

The other funny aspect of this story is that the guy has been here for four months already –enough to know that “mean without flies” is an oxymoron here.