Plan Ceibal: More Interesting than My Underwear

...But not by much.

There are a lot of details around just how it was I got from Asunción to Montevideo, but I'm going to skip most of them. Suffice it to say that around 7:30 AM, they called us back onto the plane, and that I was in Montevideo, sans checked luggage but at the hotel, around 12:30 PM. I talked to the ovely Patricia, the woman from the Fulbright commission who is in charge of our stay in Montevideo until our hosts come get us, and she said  I should come have lunch with them. I said I'd rather shower, and that I would meet them at the US Embassy for their 2:00 PM appointment.

Which I did. But I had to get there, which I did by walking / running - the guy at the desk pointed to a spot and said "The Embassy is here, it's a 15-minute walk." He was right about one thing: That spot is a fifteen-minute walk away. But the Embassy is not in that spot. To get to the Embassy, you have  another twenty-minute walk yet to do down the Rambla, the huge, miles-long avenue that fronts the river/ocean front. So I ran the rest of the way and got there on time.

Our tour of the Embassy was informative, if not mind-altering, and we all met for drinks at the apartment of the President (I think) of the Fulbright Commission in Uruguay afterward. Had some finger food, some nice drinks, and a tango demonstration. Then off to the hotel, where I had some laughs with my new friends, the fellow Fulbright Exchangees, up in one of our hotel rooms. And off to bed.

So that was our arrival. Since then, boy - a lot of sight-seeing in Montevideo, guided by Patricia and Magdalena; and a lot of worrying about my luggage, made easier by everybody's sympathy. One funny thing that happened was that I really, really needed to buy some underwear. So I went to the only place I knew about, the mall up the street, and started hunting for some. But the only place I could find was this place  called "Sí Sí", which sells women's underwear - and in one tiny, tiny section, way at the back, Calvin Klein underwear for men. The price said $799 per pair, which I took to mean seven US dollars and 99 cents. What the heck - this was an upscale mall; maybe all their prices were in dollars. After all, the ATM had offered to let me withdraw actual US dollars if I preferred - and everyone talked on and on about how dollarized the economy was.

Nope. Those were pesos. There are 22 pesos in a dollar. For those of you keeping score at home: Those were some $36 dollar underwear. I told the lady at the store that at this price, I wasn't going to wear any pants. They'd be the most expensive item anywhere on my body, and the people should get to see the good stuff. She smiled politely.

You should read the tag on these things. "50% cotton; 10% white wine; 10% extract of unicorn horn; 30% mithril. Washing instructions: Should the garment become soiled, then you are clearly unworthy. But you may ask the garment politely to become clean. If you are forgiven, it will so do."

That's my rough translation; it's actually written in Elvish.

I did not hide the fact of my indulgent briefs from mey new friends. In fact, I kind of lived it up. Stressed it, as it were, to make for a better story. They were receptive  - I mean, who deosn't love a guy who goes on and on about his own underpants? Right? Am I right?

So we did a day-long English immersion camp the other day - a great experience, where 40-some English teachers from Uruguay came to spend the day interacting with and learning teaching tips from the 15 of us. While they were all very attentive and enthusiastic about our presentations, I think we could easily have learned just as much from them. And I also think the simple fact of hanging around with us for the day, speaking and hearing English, through all our breaks and meals and fun mingling activities (facilitated by a couple of excellent MC-type young fellows), was the most valuable thing about it for them. It certainly made me feel very warm inside - the first indication I had, the first real, bone-level indication, that this was going to be a great and worthwhile experience, that the Fulbright mission was worth every penny.

Another of our events was a trip to visit Plan Ceibal, the initiative in Uruguay that's providing every single kid in all its public schools with a laptop computer. We heard about their planning, their next steps, the innovative ways they're using the laptops to assist in their equipment-starved classrooms, the way in which the infrastructure required around the initiative has led to so much more nationwide networking and communication than they had originally planned. Just a fabulous, inspiring time was had by all. Here are some pics:

This is one of my favorites - Lots of kids ride their horses to school in Uruguay, and this little fellow has his trusty XO (the name for the laptops) at the ready for the jaunt home. It's one of a number of enormous photos that line the walls at Plan Ceibal. 

This is our guide, Mariana Montaldo. She works on classroom instruction, curricular development, and teaching materials for Plan Ceibal. I hope to be in touch with her in the future about a program they do where English teachers, actual native speakers, plan curriculum and teleconference in once a week to a specific classroom. They only do it for schools that do not have an English teacher of their own. I would slice off a couple of lesser digits to participate. 

This is one of the laptops up close. The green ones are for the youngest students; they then graduate to the blue ones, which have about triple the computing power. (If you know anything about computers, I know enough to know that the previous sentence probably made you laugh and shake your head disdainfully at my complete ignorance of computers and their ways. At least I know enough to know that.)

A poster advertising the number kids should call if their XO breaks. 

They're really very sturdy and compact. This is how you open them:

Unfold the little WiFi "ears"...

...both of them.

Then pull up the bottom edge, which lifts the screen.

There! On the left, there's a little hole that's the microphone; and on the right, another that's the camera.

 

It's purposely designed to have a small keyboard, to match the finger size of the students.

The "on" button is on the bottom right. And that's it!

This is the conference room where our talk took place. And behind our presenter is the type of TV with a fiber optic cable hookup that they're going to be using soon in their pilot program to get English teachers into remote classrooms via teleconference.

OK, folks -there is MUCH more to say, but it'll have to wait until next time, because I am exhausted. Big day tomorrow - we move into the hotel where we'll be staying for the rest of our time here. Stay tuned...