Sunday Solo

Hey folks - So Sunday, I was largely on my own. ("Have been", I guess - it's still going on.) Natalia did come in and have lunch with me, though. We went off to look for a place that was serving "ñoquis", since eating them on the 29th of any month is a tradition. We found one:

It was a good deal - a whole meal, with soup, and dessert, and a drink. This was the soup:

And apparently I was too taken with the appearance of the ñoquis to take a picture of them. But I did do this:

Put the coin under the plate, and the coming month will be prosperous. Or something. This was dessert:

And, of course, since the Uruguayan Olympic soccer team was on at 1:00, this was how I ate my dessert:

The Senegalese got a titch lucky, and won, 2-0. That was a very quiet meal. Still, Natalia and I yukked it up.

I turned her loose to go explore the city on my own for the afternoon - I'll meet up with her tomorrow at her Institute. (Got to practice my presentation for the teachers tonight - it'll e an "in" evening for me.) But when I went off to explore, I found my way over to that same street fair we went to last Sunday, and took some pictures. Things were winding down - this truck was pulling out with some vendor's wares:

These horse-drawn carts belong to a class of garbage pickers called "hurgadores", or "rummagers". Much of the trash strewn in the street in the mornings immediately around the trash bins, appears to be an effect of these guys. They get anything they can sell out of the trash and dash off with it. Not sure who buys it all, but they're still at it. Perhaps remarkably, their horses appear to be universally well-treated, with no sores or anything. Despite their diet consisting largely of cast-off carrots and garlic.

Everybody was wrapping up their tents and stalls.

More Uruguayan vocabulary: Happy Meals are "cajitas felices". 

And this is a fusca.

And this is a dog wearing a sweater.

And this is a dog wearing a sweater being carried off by its owner.

I saw this fancy-pantsy, official building a little later on. Check out the graffiti on either side of the door:

A very clever play on public service announcements, I think: The hurgador as solution to environmental waste.

I stumbled on this church just as mass began, so I went. The sermon was about why certain gospels are chosen and when, which was very, very dull. But when they started praying with the respons "Lord, hear our prayer" ("Padre, escucha a tu iglesia"), one of the things they prayed for was "a more equal distribution of the world's resources among its people". I wonder if that's the whole Church, or just Uruguay. 

And then I found this place:

That, I did not expect.