To start to know a country, see how its past bleeds into public space. Last weekend, Uruguay celebrated Días del Patrimonio, two days in which museums and cultural centers in Montevideo and the rest of the country threw open their doors and Ministries housed in historical buildings gave guided tour[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Flora Lindsay-Herrera’
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[...]
Community Project Guidelines
At WorldTeach we encouraged volunteers to undertake community projects. These could range from raising funds for a bookshelf to installing a floor in a classroom, to establishing a scholarship fund that would continue long after the volunteer’s departure. Whether you are undertaking a voluntee[...]
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 [...]
The Multiple Personalities of You
I suspect I wasn’t the only grade school Spanish language learner for whom the vosotros form had a sort of rogue ninja presence. Easily avoidable in classroom skits, it would spring out of the shadows at the most inopportune moments (usually, a pop quiz) to remind us that no, we didn’t h[...]
