Un Trato por el Buentrato!

Update: Okay, so I've finally got a way that I think will reliably let me upload photos, but my first time using it for some reason it cropped the photos weird. I'm just going to leave them for now (I'm a bit busy!) and try to fix it in following posts. Thanks for your patience!

Alright, as I've been promising in the last post or two, I'm going to update you all on what I've actually been working on so far down here. I've been working with a group called CLAVES, a division of Juventud Para Cristo (Youth for Christ) that works for the prevention of mistreatment and abuse of kids & adolescents. My first few weeks there were spent preparing all sorts of materials for the campaign we had last week, which is essentially the culmination of their work each year.

Each Saturday and some weekdays leading up to the campaign CLAVES put on workshops training groups of teenagers about mistreatment & abuse, steps they can take in those situations, and how they could participate in the campaign. They also put on workshops and retreats for educators, lawyers, psychologists, and the like. These workshops take place all over the country, and they have also expanded the program internationally.

The week of the campaign involves a bunch of youth going out into their neighborhoods and joining us in downtown talking to adults and asking them to sign a certificate promising to listen to, believe, and protect children as well as denouncing situations of mistreatment and abuse (silence and believing nothing can be done is a widespread problem here). If they agreed, they were given a piece of candy as their "vaccination" against mistreatment, and then had the opportunity to talk with us in the tent for more information.

The crazy supply table staff....we had a lot of fun & attracted a lot of attention.

Look up...

...and see this giant hand that says "What do you feel with a hand raised above you?" Some of the kids in one of the workshops came up with this idea and so we added it to the tent.

This is Victoria hard at work keeping up the stock of certificates, vaccinations, and stickers. This volunteer supply table is where I spent most of the week.

"Peace begins at home"

Some of the groups of kids came and performed in the plaza outside the tent in order to promote the campaign. This was a step/dance type group.

The little kids corner of the tent! Lots of coloring and face-painting going on here.

One of our vaccinators hard at work. Before this campaign (the 7th annual) they had "vaccinated" something like 300,000 adults, and though I'm not sure of the exact numbers this year it must've been close to another 100,000 throughout the country. It's really cool how a one-room office of 5-6 paid staff (mostly part-time) plus random volunteers can put on something like this! Hopefully the ideas will begin to stick in the minds of politicians, parents, and others who were informed and the country will be a safer place for kids to live.

Un Trato por el Buentrato!

Update: So for reasons unbeknownst to me the photos I'm uploading seem to disappear and reappear at random. I'll have to figure out another way to upload them since the one I found is obviously not reliable.

Alright, as I've been promising in the last post or two, I'm going to update you all on what I've actually been working on so far down here. I've been working with a group called CLAVES, a division of Juventud Para Cristo (Youth for Christ) that works for the prevention of mistreatment and abuse of kids & adolescents. My first few weeks there were spent preparing all sorts of materials for the campaign we had last week, which is essentially the culmination of their work each year.

Each Saturday and some weekdays leading up to the campaign CLAVES put on workshops training groups of teenagers about mistreatment & abuse, steps they can take in those situations, and how they could participate in the campaign. They also put on workshops and retreats for educators, lawyers, psychologists, and the like. These workshops take place all over the country, and they have also expanded the program internationally.

The week of the campaign involves a bunch of youth going out into their neighborhoods and joining us in downtown talking to adults and asking them to sign a certificate promising to listen to, believe, and protect children as well as denouncing situations of mistreatment and abuse (silence and believing nothing can be done is a widespread problem here). If they agreed, they were given a piece of candy as their "vaccination" against mistreatment, and then had the opportunity to talk with us in the tent for more information.

The crazy supply table staff....we had a lot of fun & attracted a lot of attention.

Look up...

...and see this giant hand that says "What do you feel with a hand raised above you?" Some of the kids in one of the workshops came up with this idea and so we added it to the tent.

This is Victoria hard at work keeping up the stock of certificates, vaccinations, and stickers. This volunteer supply table is where I spent most of the week.

"Peace begins at home"

Some of the groups of kids came and performed in the plaza outside the tent in order to promote the campaign. This was a step/dance type group.

The little kids corner of the tent! Lots of coloring and face-painting going on here.

One of our vaccinators hard at work. Before this campaign (the 7th annual) they had "vaccinated" something like 300,000 adults, and though I'm not sure of the exact numbers this year it must've been close to another 100,000 throughout the country. It's really cool how a one-room office of 5-6 paid staff (mostly part-time) plus random volunteers can put on something like this! Hopefully the ideas will begin to stick in the minds of politicians, parents, and others who were informed and the country will be a safer place for kids to live.

Finally!

Updated Update: Woohoo!! All the pictures are finally loading and even are clickable to see bigger versions! Finally!!! It seems I have to upload during the day for best internet signal...now I'll work on starting the next photo blog to show you what I've actually been up to instead of just photos of all these random South American apartments!

Old Update: So, the problem isn't quite solved. I should have the issue fixed and the pictures to accompany the captions tomorrow, but until then let your imaginations go wild! :)

I finally discovered a workaround to upload pictures to Blogger with a shaky internet connection, so here's a photo blog of my new apartment which I've been in since the beginning of the month.

The view from my bedroom window. I could hear this guy playing the violin ~1/2 block away even with all the street noise! It was pretty cool.

The poorly lit living room.

Seems like I'm always drying clothes when I decide to take blog pictures. I was actually wanting a picture of the grill that's in the background -- a typical wood-burning parilla. Unfortunately, when we tried to use it for the first time Saturday night it was very windy and the fire wouldn't stay lit.

Looking from the balcony down the street to the port -- see the cranes in the distance?

Looking down the street in the other direction toward the boardwalk -- we essentially live on a peninsula part of Montevideo ~6 blocks from the water (but not beaches) either way.

I had a picture of this building in an earlier post -- I find it incredibly cool and am quite pleased I have this great view of it from the balcony. It was the tallest building in the Americas when constructed.

Looking straight down from our 5th floor abode.

See the Asian alphabet on this sign? The port area is the only place in Montevideo that I've found with an Asian influence. There are lots of Asian restaurants and even a Korean karaoke place nearby, none of which I've yet had a chance to try.

These convenient little key-copy stands are everywhere. They can even copy your remotes for your cars in those little booths!

These "carritos" (literally, little cars), are on just about ever corner downtown and serve pretty decent, fast meat sandwiches -- sausage, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.

That's it for now! I'll work on uploading some pictures from the anti-mistreatment/abuse campaign the organization I work with put on last week to have up in a few days!

Technological Difficulties

Hey everybody, sorry for my incredibly long silence. I was out of the country for a week and have had quite a bit going on, including moving into a new apartment. I've been trying for the last week to upload a bunch of pictures to the blog but the internet just hasn't been cooperating, and it's not any better today. It should be fixed by the end of the week so I'll hopefully get that posted soon! Thanks for your patience.