GIddy Applause and Reflective Solemnity

Look...I'm going to be blunt: I'm really tired. So I'm going to be lazy here, and just write captions. Is that cool with everybody? Are we good...?

I took this picture for eventual use in teaching how to do "voseo". It's the particular way they have in Uruguay and Argentina (and Paraguay (and Costa Rica)) of doing "you". It says "Refresh yourself, and keep going." In voseo.

This is IECO, the English institute where Natalia works. This was our first stop today, to talk to one of the groups of students taught by a colleague of hers. I gave my usual speech, and answered questions. They were very, very good - the most proficient speakers of English I've yet encountered in the schools.

The sign outside of her institute.

The fridge in the break area in her institute. I liked the sign on it:

Essentially, "No more whining - We can do anything!"

A poster showing the British slant of the place.

Me, Natalia, and Ela, the owner of the institute - and the wife of the Ingeniero who showed us around the university the other day.

Still another fusca.

This was our second stop of the day - the weekly coordination meeting at Liceo #9, where Natalia introduced me very eloquently, and where I gave a talk to the whole faculty. I have to say, it was very well received. I talked about how the US is so diverse, as far as educational philosophy - every state hast its standards, every district sets its curriculum, every teacher department decides which texts to use, etc. They paid strict attention, had tons of great questions, and gave me a big round of applause at the end. Some time over a beer I'll tell you more about it. 

(OK...Maybe "giddy" was a little over the top.)

Natalia then took me to the "Museo de la memoria", where the dictatorship, from beginning to end, is chronicled in some fascinating displays. The above picture is the sign in front of this machine:

It's the mimeograph that was used to secretly publish the newspaper of the Communist Party of Uruguay during the dictatorship. The Communists are now a very healthy party in Uruguay, in allegiance with Frente Amplio, the party of the current president.

This was a display case titled something like "The People's Defenses", and shows a lot of the tools they would use to fight back against the police during crackdowns on marches. 

The three big round things are tar bombs; the little round ones are ball bearings they would throw in the street to make the policemen's horses' hooves slip; and the spikes - Dang! I forgot what they're called - would always land with the points up, and were for puncturing tires. (Though I suspect they were also used against the horses, which I think is awful.)

These are pots and pans from back in the day. They would secretly circulate word that at such-and-such a time (usually from, say 8:00 PM to 8:15 PM) there would be a caserolazo, where they would all charge into the street and bang pots and pans as a sign of resistance and rejection of the dictatorship. And these were the real deal, too - old pots and pans with dents all over them from the banging.

A note circulated around a vote on a referendum that would have legitimized the dictatorship by changing the constitution. The hammer and sickle are of particular interest to me for my "Right vs Left" class.

Prison uniforms from the dictatorship's detention of political prisoners. The actual uniforms, hanging there where anyone can touch them. I did. 

On the floor under each is the name of the prisoner who wore it. 

This one was of particular interest. Check out who it belonged to:

José Pepe Mujica.

Currently the President of Uruguay.

A picture of a tribunal.

Metal from the prison bars at Punta Carretas, the downtown prison where Mujica was held. It's now a shopping mall. They sell some mighty fine underwear there.

Signs of photos of disappeared victims of the regime. Again, good for use in my left-vs-right class. 

"Silence makes you an accomplice."

"Door of the sectional office #20 of the Communist Party."

Blown off and bent in a bomb attack by the government.

The grounds of the museum. It used to be the home of a former president. Natalia remembers it from her youth, before it was the museum. You could go there and visit it just to tour the mansion.

"Truth". Painted on the ground just inside the gates.

An old campaign poster for Mujica, still up several years after he won.

Bus ride home: The guarda, or bus helper (the guy who takes payment and makes change so the bus driver can concentrate on driving the bus), was a guy of about 55 years of age, tubby, gray mustache...with the most glorious, luxuriant mullet I had ever seen. 

Natalia then took me out for "té para dos" - tea for two. You tell them what kind of coffee-type drink you want (I had hot chocolate), and they bring you all this glorious food. It's to tide you over until supper, and they usually have it at about 5:00.

It tided me over all the way to bedtime.

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.