It is completely natural. We sweat to cool off.
Living in the sauna that is Arenillas in the rainy season, one sweats a lot. Sometimes, it feels as if you are living with a permanent layer of sweat over your body - even when taking a cold shower.
It seems completely natural to try to wipe the sweat off your forehead.
It builds up. You get uncomfortable, and you don't want the sweat to just sit there. So you wipe it off. (In the world sauna championships, competitors are allowed to wipe sweat off their face)
But, down here, they don't just wipe the sweat off their forehead. The forehead-wipe is also accompanied by a wrist flick in an apparent effort to get the sweat off your (already-sweaty) hand.
This first came to my attention a few weeks ago during a balmy meeting at city hall. The fan was broken, and even though the window was open, air wasn't really flowing through.
Every few seconds, the leader of the meeting would wipe the sweat off his forehead. But it wasn't the wiping that caught my attention. It was the accompanying flick that made me notice.
He would flick his wrist with such intensity to get the sweat off his hand that you could tell he was really focusing on this. But sweat never flew off his hand. He kept sweating and kept flicking, but nothing came off.
He must have flicked his wrist hundreds off times during the meeting (he was definitely sweating profusely), but he couldn't wipe enough sweat onto his hand to launch a measurable quantity of perspiration into the air.
Obviously, I found this hilarious.
I quickly found myself explaining this situation to my friends, imitating his exact moves. It started in jest. I was flicking my wrist with the same energy that one with throw a curveball.
I wondered whether it was possible to brush the sweat off my forehead and then flick it into the air in any quantity.
I tried this for a few days but, as expected, couldn't didn't see any sweat flying. I figured it would take me until the end of my service to accomplish this feat.
Then, one steamy evening about a week after the meeting, I was sitting on my couch. I put the back of my index and middle fingers above my eyebrows, wiped the sweat off, and flicked. Like I always did.
But this time was different. I noticed a drop hit the ground.
At first, I didn't believe it. But when I realized that it had to be sweat, I immediately went for my camera.
Here's a step-by-step:
First: Gather sweat with first two fingers.
Flick
Hold position, as if you are shooting a three-pointer.
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