Well, here comes the interesting part. Enough with the history and back to the present. Education plays a very important role in this country. There are many schools, high schools, and universities. There already are 4 Jewish schools and 3 high schools. Basically we teenagers live a normal life. During the school year , which begins around March 10th and ends on the last day of November, we study, just as any other teenager around the world, except for the difference in the language, since the official language is Spanish. As you may have noticed before we have a much longer summer vacation than most kids around the world; it's a little bit more than 3 months long. Kids here are very open to new ideas, although there rarely are any important changes.
In terms of Jewish life, there is a kosher pizzeria which is great and there are two kosher supermarkets. There are quite a lot of activities for Jewish teenagers in Uruguay. At the Lubavitch center there is a girls choir and dance group which began this year. In Montevideo there are 7 "tnuot"; they are awesome. It's groups of Jewish kids that get together every Saturday afternoon. We do all kinds of stuff there and we're divided in groups by age because kids from 3 to 19 go there, although after you're 17 most kids become madrijim or madrijot. the names of these tnuot are: ISRAEL HATZEIRA (which is the one I belong to) , Bnei Akiva, Dror, Jazit, Betar and Macabi. Each year, around september, we hold a competition called NOARIA. It lasts only a day but it includes soccer, majanaim, volleyball, and handball championships, obstacle races and normal races, but in my opinion the best part is the question quiz. Last year the theme was Israel's history from 1948 to the present. The year before that it was blessings and this year it was Nobel peace prize winners' biographies. Also each tnua has to put on a theater show, a singing contest and a good idea contest. During the summer each tnua has various camps and there is a day camp at the Lubavitch Center. One of the synagogues in Montevideo has classes of Jewish general laws and dance classes for both girls and boys. At the Lubavitch center there are Tania classes too. There is a Jewish club called Hebraica-Macabi; it is wonderful!! That same club also has a country club.
Some groups of teens are starting to visit elder people from both of the Jewish elder people houses and that's very nice. Some of the oldest see you and think you are one of their grandchildren, that makes them so happy!!! There also is a group of boys that visit jewish crippled kids and a group of boys and girls that go once a week to visit different persons at different hospitals.
Besides that there isn't anything else, but what there is, is great. I really don't know what exactly you're interested in knowing (about any subject that concerns Uruguay) so I'm asking you please to send your questions to me. I'll be glad to answer all your questions and I'll try to respond as soon as possible. I hope you find this article interesting and I'm looking forward to recieving your questions.
Your e-pal, born in Israel and living in Uruguay
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