...puppies and kittens...
...all the shoelaces you could ever want...
...piggy banks shaped like Homer Simpson?
I also tried a torta frita. It's deep fried dough with sugar, basically like American fried dough, but crispier. It's delicious and really cheap and definitely terrible for you.
But I've been doing actual work too. Up to now, a lot of it has been stuff I do on my own on the computer. My hostel has wifi, but it's not always super conducive to getting work done, so I started looking for someplace with free wifi that wouldn't mind me working for a while. There doesn't seem to be a library near me, and although you can get espresso and cappuccinos at a lot of restaurants here, there aren't many of the kind of coffee shops where you can just hang out. The solution, it turns out, is McDonald's. I'm kind of embarrassed by how much I like it here. They not only have the delicious hot chocolate and nice couches I wrote about before, but also free wifi, outlets, discarded newspapers for practicing my Spanish, and as far as I can tell, the only bagels in town. Believe it or not, it actually seems to be a community meeting area with a nice friendly vibe. I still don't understand why people would eat the burgers here! Now we have a semi-permanent office downtown, though, where I'll work from 9 to 1 each day.
Saturday, I went to a miniJAM. This is an event organized by CeibalJAM where a group of volunteers gather to discuss a few things that need to be done and then work on them. This meeting focused on organization and content for CeibalJAM's website. Most people were working on technical aspects, but others were working on communications-related stuff, and one guy was shooting video. The meeting space is a building that will eventually be a small art museum.
The miniJAM this Saturday will focus on applications for the XO that allow students to create art in various ways, as well as figuring out how CeibalJAM can incorporate artists and designers. So, one of my current jobs is to make artistic masterpieces like this:
I'm testing out a bunch of new art-related applications, figuring out which ones are buggy, and taking screenshots and writing descriptions of what you can do with each so we'll have a summary for Saturday afternoon. For example, this program (TuxPaint) still has English directions in a few places, which could confuse the kids, so I take note of issues like that while I get in touch with my inner six-year-old. On Saturday morning, I'm visiting a school for the first time to help out with a blogging workshop in Maldonado, a small city east of Montevideo near Punta del Este. My work with Flor de Ceibo is supposed to start on Monday. I'll be part of two of their groups--one working in rural areas, and another working in the city of Rivera on the Brazilian border--I'm excited to see some more of the country!
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