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The Federation of Basque Institutions in Uruguay (FIVU) held its annual Udaleku on September 26-28, with spring like weather with variations in temperature, wind and rain.  The camp was attended by 28 participants, leaders and adults that celebrated this event at the Municipal Camp in Kiyu, in the department of San Jose. 

Montevideo, Uruguay.  FIVU has been holding Udaleku since 2.000, maintaining the goal established at the beginning to share aspects of Basque culture with Basque children from member clubs.

Year after year the experience gets better and the results indicate that they are on the right track, members of FIVU explain to EuskalKultura.com

Every camp has a t-shirt that serves as the uniform.  This year the t-shirt design was created by one of the participants and was a cricket with a beret on an oak leaf, in a clear allusion to the Guarani word kiyu meaning cricket.

During camp workshops on Basque language, dance and Basque sports were held along with recreational activities appropriate for participants’ ages from 6-16.

Movies, a lot of movies and parties

Every camp has a theme, and this year the patron saint holidays in the cities of the Basque Country were chosen specifically, San Fermin from Iruña-Pamplona, the Virgen Blanca from Vitoria-Gasteiz and Danborrada from Donostia-San Sebastian taking advantage of three provinces this time, leaving the rest for a future camp.

After providing information about these events through a lecture with audiovisual support, the events became the basis for all other activities, with the appearance of characters from the holiday, a scavenger hunt, and other games in Basque and concluding with a Danborrada from San Sebastian by the group that won the Basque sports competition.

On Sunday morning, a sapling from the Tree of Gernika was presented to the owners of the camp to be planted in remembrance of the wonderful treatment that they provided. 

All of the evaluations were positive and next year’s camp is already in the works.  Next year’s camp will surely be better as contributions of past campers is taken into account and the culture of the Basque Country is once again introduced to the children and youth of their clubs, resumes FIVU.

More images at the blog of Udaleku 2014, Uruguaiko Udalekuak.