Gestures

Seeing as Portuguese is obviously not my first language, I have a new appreciation for any and all hand gestures.  And lucky for me, Mozambicans have some pretty sweet little moves they do!

- Lots of people here are fans of the double wave – which I love. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, refer to the scene in Love Actually where Hugh Grant (the Prime Minister) gets out of his car and waves to the public.  To do the double hand wave – you first need to stop walking, put on a biggg smile and frantically wave both hand. 

- We are also all about the double cheek kiss over here. I’m pretty sure I always have a big smile on my face when I do the cheek kiss.  It’s just so friendly, I can’t help it!

- The “left hand to right elbow” move  is a big one. Any time you accept something (like a gift) or shake someone’s hand, you put your left hand on your right elbow as you receive/shake with the right hand.  It’s a sign of respect.

- the “criança” (child) signal.  This is when you make a little cup with your hand and then use said hand to indicate height (and therefore age) of a child.  For example, “my little brother is coming to Africa” would necessitate a cupped hand at chest level – not so young (and if I was indicating the actual height of my little brother it would be wayyy above my head!). BUT. “When I was 4 I fell got this scar on my arm” would be a cupped hand below the hip. 

- the sun dial.  This and the criança move are my personal favorites.  Basically, this is a way of indicating time.  Maybe I want to know what time our basketball game is this Saturday and Crispen (one of my students) wants to tell me to be at school by 8 am. So he’ll make a squinty face (important) and look at the sky. Then he’ll make a blade with his hand and point at where the sun will be at that time. “Teacher, come to school at 8 (about a 25º angle) and we will go home at ummmmmm 12 (90º angle with arm straight up in the air). ”  Perhaps this is why we have trouble starting on time around here lol!