despedidas

Being back home in Orlando, looking back on my eight months away, I can definitely say my time in Uruguay flew by. Looking through and organizing my pictures for this post was a real pleasure, since it took me back to my last couple weeks in Montevideo, including the CeRP in Atlantida, the Alianza, and my elementary school in Montevideo. Being back home is nice, but in many ways it was only once I returned home that I truly began to appreciate the opportunities and experiences I had in Uruguay.

In all honesty, I couldn’t be happier with the way my time in Uruguay ended. A couple weeks before my departure, I ran the Montevideo Nike 10K through downtown and along the beautiful shore with about 7500 other runners. Here we all are in our blue shirts, waiting at the start on the rambla (I borrowed this picture from Nike's website on the event):



Patricia and Magdalena, who actually run our Fulbright program in Montevideo, invited the teaching assistants to a great retreat in Minas, a state in eastern Uruguay. The site, called Salto Penitente, had all sorts of great activities including horseback riding, hiking, and a zip-line that ran about 200 feet above a ravine. They even served wild boar for lunch, which was great! Although you can't see it, in this picture we are standing in front of a beautiful little waterfall that feeds into a small pool where we enjoyed a swim:



My students at the private institution, the Alianza, invited me out for pizza after our final class. Here we are in our classroom, which was made to imitate an American Airlines office:



The students at the institution for future teachers in Atlantida threw a picnic with chop suey for me, James, and Liz, the other two Fulbrighters teaching there. Here we all are gathered outside on what was really a beautiful day:



And then there was the cherry on top of it all: my elementary school students in Montevideo really know how to throw a farewell celebration! On my last day at the school, I arrived to the sound of a large group of students running through the hallways chanting (loosely based on the rhythm of a frenetic soccer chant), “No se va, Dustin! No se va!” (“Don’t leave, Dustin, don’t leave!”).







Then, when one of my coworkers invited me into her classroom, the students were not only yelling their chant, but also lifting tables and chairs and pounding them into the ground in unison with the chant’s rhythm. It felt like I had just walked into the middle of a huge soccer game.



That display of affection ended when the teachers yelled at the students, but I was equally impressed by another display the students put together for me: they literally covered the chalkboards in chalk proclaiming farewells, thank you’s, and lots of drawings loosely related to our classroom activities.



Then they really impressed me when they put on two short plays about me leaving. One play was about how the main characters, which included a duck and an elephant, were sad I was leaving. Their solution was that they would accompany me to the airport.



It is truly a gift to be able to return home with all these wonderful memories. But they are only the icing on what was a truly amazing eight months.

Although my posts on this blog will most likely become less frequent now that I’m back home, I am planning to post occasional updates, especially so that my Uruguayan students can have an idea of what life in the United States is throwing at me. So while I hope that you all continue to visit my blog, my deeper hope is that you will not hesitate to keep in touch with me via email: dustin.saldarriaga@gmail.com. Thanks for visiting! I’m wishing you all the best!