What Language Barrier?

I was looking for someone today and couldn't find her. I asked one of the guys who works on the grounds if he had seen her. This guy is from Mozambique and speaks Portuguese. He doesn't speak English at all, and only a little Afrikaans. Me? No Portuguese, English and a little Afrikaanas.

I asked him, "Do you know where Asnat is?" His reply was a quizzical look. So I tried Afrikaans. "Waar is Asnat?" Again, a quizzical look. I tried a different tactic. "Samuel. Have you seen Samuel?" He said, "Ah, Samuel," and then waved his hand as if to say, "Over there somewhere." (But does "over there somewhere" mean close by or far away?)

Then I asked him, "Samuel's wife. Do you know where she is?" No understanding. Back to Afrikaans. "Samuel se vrou. Weet jy waar sy is?" He looked at me, then pointed at where a woman's breasts would be (on himself), and looked at me quizzically. "Yes!" I said. "Ja! Samuel se vrou!" He smiled a knowing look of understanding and then waved his hand the other direction - "somewhere over THERE."

I had to laugh. Five minutes of trying to communicate with the end result being that Samuel was somewhere over there, and Asnat was somewhere over in the opposite direction. I never did find Asnat, but I felt like somehow I had accomplished something. I had managed to communicate... sort of.