The work with Flor de Ceibo (the group from the University of the Republic) is slow going, and I'm slow to understand what does happen. For the Uruguayan students, Flor de Ceibo is a much longer program, so they're not in a rush. A few trips have been cancelled, and I missed one last weekend because the leaders didn't call to tell me until the night before, and I stupidly didn't have my phone on me, or even check it until Sunday. There's supposed to be one this weekend and then again next week before I leave Montevideo.
With ceibalJAM!, I've spent the last few weeks trying to put together a larger project, and I'll focus on it for the rest of my time here. The idea, called "blog-pals" is a website that will link the blogs of Uruguayan classrooms to each other, and hopefully to classes in the U.S. as well. There will be a theme for the entries every week or two, and games that teach some related vocabulary in English and Spanish that they can then use in their blog entries. Various logistical and technical issues (for example, Flash doesn't work great on the XOs) have made this a longer project than I envisioned. At this point, my goal before leaving is to modify a geography game ceibalJAM! volunteers already wrote called Conozco Uruguay ("I know Uruguay") to teach vocabulary instead. The website probably won't get finished before I leave, especially with the Flor de Ceibo trips planned, but hopefully my summer term classes will not control my life and I can stay involved via the Internet. There is another blogging workshop next week too, in the town of Salinas.
I'll probably have a lot more to write about work-wise in a week or so. Until then, here are some more snapshots of life in Montevideo...
A few of many painted benches along my walk home from the centro.
Nils from the Netherlands eating a "hamburguesa completa." In order for a hamburger to be complete here, it needs cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, mayo...and ham, peppers, a fried egg, and peas (!).
Most famous Uruguayan dishes involve large amounts of meat, so I'm not exactly an expert on them. When I tell people I'm vegetarian, the most common response is "but you have to eat meat here, the meat here is really good!" followed inevitably by "do you eat chicken?" I'm still holding out. The guys who run the hostel tried to convince me that they take the blood for blood sausage without killing the pig and so therefore it's just like milk, but really they've gotten used to me and even started grilling peppers and onions along with the meat at the weekly barbecues. Plus, no one ever steals tofu from the hostel fridge. Luckily, there is a lot of Italian influence in Uruguay, which means you can get pizza and pasta everywhere. If you just ask for "pizza" it will come without cheese...you have to ask for a "muzzarella" to get cheese. All the pizza places also sell faina, a flatbread made from chickpeas. If you eat them together like this, it's called "pizza a caballo"--pizza on horseback.
People drink mate everywhere--at work, in meetings, at the park, in the supermarket. Often, signs that say "no eating or drinking" have to specifically add "and no drinking mate." It's a bitter tea that you drink out of a hollow gourd cup also called a mate. The tea goes in the top part and you pour hot water from your thermos over it, then sip from the metal straw, called a bombilla, that has a sort of strainer at the bottom. When you finish a cup, you pour more water in and pass it to a friend. It doesn't taste great (though it's not bad either), but I like the ritual of passing it around.
The warmth of the tea is also nice now that it's winter here and colder. It's more like October weather by Vermont standards, but everyone is shocked at me for still wearing flip-flops. Still, I'm looking forward to beach weather when I get back!
I was going to write about the desserts too, but I decided I didn't have any pictures that properly capture the amazing bakeries here. Next time!
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