As I started to leave the pastor’s home in the little mountain town outside Managua, he grabbed my hand and asked me if I would pray for his family. I was happy to pray over him, his wife, and their three brown-eyed beauties. And then as I started to leave he asked if he could take my picture. Of course! But something seems incongruous about a man who lives in a house with a dirt floor and no doors having a cell phone with a camera.

He snapped his picture. So I took out my cell phone and began to take pictures, too. I should have kept on walking.

I took pictures of each daughter, coaxed them to smile, and captured and image I’ll keep forever. And that’s when it happened. I turned to take a photo of his wife and as I did I said “Mamacita.”

Freddy, my translator jumped to my side and adamantly said “Madrecita.” (Dear Little Mother.)

What? Had a I done something wrong? Yes! But what did it mean? Freddy whisked me away saying “I’ll tell you later.”

Apparently “mamacita” means “baby, you are a hot, sexy chick.”

So, somewhere in Nicaragua there is the simply-dressed, barefooted wife of a Nicaraguan pastor who is feeling pretty good about herself, now that her true babe-aliciousness has been recognized.

Apparently, when it comes to Spanish, my reach has exceeded my grasp. Habla mas lento, por favor.