La Gente

Ecuadorians have a number of gestures which I find amusing and useful. Here is an explanation of a few of the ones I´ve figured out.

The first of which is a hand shake as if you slammed your fingers in a door, arm is bent at the elbow, hand is shaken up and down between the collar bone and the navel. This gesture indicates "what pain" or "what trouble," and is usually done by the listener in a conversation as an act of agreement or empathy with the speaker.

Another hand motion also starts with arm bent at the elbow, forearm parallel to the ground at waist height, and hand in a Barbie type position with thumb pointed up and index fingers extended. The gesture is made by rotating the wrist back and forth from left to right, right to left. This indicates a negative response. For example when I asked my brother if it was still raining, I got this gesture to indicate that it wasn´t. When I was looking for my lost wallet and came home empty handed, my brother gave me this gesture to confirm that the wallet wasn´t found. When I asked to use the printer at an internet cafe, I was given this gesture to indicate that the printer wasn´t working.

To indicate a thief or the potential of being robbed, the arm is again bent at the elbow, forearm parallel to the ground at waist height, fingers are curled one at a time as if grabbing the handle bar of a bike and then the wrist is turned away from the body and the arm pulled toward to you to indicate something being taken. I´ve seen this used in conversation to indicate that they thought people from a particular town were thieves, and also when I was being warned to be careful when running an errand in a certain Quito neighborhood.

My favorite gesture is pointing with the lips. This is done by puckering up in the direction you wish to point without turning your head. Learning to use this one has been fun.

I heard recently that amongst the people in my community I am referred to as the Grandota. Which means big, twice. -ota is used on the end of words to make things bigger like -ita is used to make things smaller. Gran already means big, thus Grandota sorta being big squared. This amuses me because at 5´8" I don´t consider myself exceptionally tall, but perhaps my perception is bit warped having played basketball for so many years. Here I am definitely tall and the term is used affectionately, both to distinguish me from the two other volunteers I am working with and because many people find my name hard to pronounce. Someone once said it sounds like "reina" but with a "d." Reina means queen. I am often just called Queen and I don´t mind a bit.

Lovingly,

The Reigning Grandota

A recent soccer tournament in town

My little sister Catrina. Her dad walked up behind me right before I took this and her face lit up.