Ojo!

Ojo! (pronounced o-ho) is currently my favorite Uruguayan phrase/ gesture. Ojo literally means eye, but in Uruguay when accompanied by the gesture so beautifully demonstrated by Rhonda and Kelsey, means a wide variety of "look out."

My first introduction to ojo was at the Rama's house just before I left Texas. When Bev was telling me about people on the bus telling each other to watch out when a pickpocket was on the bus. Bev just did the gesture and I really didn't think much about it until I got here. So it can be a warning that you need to watch a person, they might try to steal your stuff.

When we got Uruguay, Rhonda kept saying to ojo and point to her eye, when talking about watching our surroundings and safety. So it can mean to be careful and watch your surroundings.

Then at church, someone was teasing one of the men and told him she was keeping her ojo on him. So it can mean I'm watching you.

I've learned in aerobics it can also just mean to watch or look. Our aerobics instructor is always yelling for us to ojo (complete with gesture) whenever he's going to show us a new set of moves. It is usually accompanied by him looking back at the other ACU girls and I with a look that we read as, "I can't believe I have people in here that don't speak Spanish... I hope you're watching." (Just for the record we understand pretty well in class... I think he thinks we are clueless, b/c I'm pretty sure he thinks I misunderstood the question when I said I was 32. People don't tend to believe I'm my age when my hair is in pig tails.) OK... so that was off-topic but aerobics is cracking me up these days.

Ojo also makes me think of the kids song "Oh be careful little eyes what you see.."

So remember to ojo and take care!