This post is in honor of Blog Action Day today. Latin America contains 26% of the world’s water resources and hosts 6% of the world’s population. This means a lot; this means little. Unequal water distribution is not just spatial. It is temporal, through cycles of drought and flood. It [...]
Archive for the ‘Uruguay’ Category
The Grass is Greener Syndrome, Once Again
“Uruguayans are pessimists,” Cao said, as a group of us lounged by the hospital garden, all dirty hands and sunburnt faces. “They don’t take opportunity…this is a developing country. In the U.S. and Germany, people are more positive.” The German girl next to me nearly choked in d[...]
Sowing the Seeds of Good Intentions
Back in July, I signed on to participate in a volunteer project through Montevideo’s Universidad de la Católica. Their extension office has a well-run program for their students in which the they identify local opportunities, match volunteers into groups, and guide them throughout the semeste[...]
Dreaming of Rainbow Sheep
In May, I attended Uruguay’s first gay marriage. It was an accident: we overshot a restaurant on the Calle Sarandí and found ourselves amidst unfurling pride flags and a loudspeaker declaring “los mismos derechos para los mismos nombres.” It was, admittedly, also a publicity stunt. Urugua[...]
It Isn’t What It Isn’t (So What Is It?)
One of the common questions I get asked here in Uruguay is, “Is it what you expected?” A while ago I met a German student who had elected to volunteer here in her gap year. Yes, she liked it, but no, it wasn’t what she expected: she had assumed all of Latin America was warm [...][...]
A Side of Books With My Carrots, Please
Uruguay and neighbor Argentina routinely boast the highest adult literacy rates in Latin America, around 98%. Behind the statistic lie the tables after tables of books at Montevideo’s Sunday market, itself on a street lined with antique shops and used bookstores; behind the statistic wait the [...]
