Feria! (urgh)

Javi and I have put some long hours in lately at the Escuela Taller, helping the kids get ready for their product and service exhibition at Comayagua's annual feria (fair). There was lots of coordinating to do, logistics, inventory tags, fliers to make, etc, so it has been pretty hectic. To add to the stress, there is the "Honduran way" of doing things that always makes things a bit more complicated and last minute.

For example, take this picture to the left. See the variety of products displayed? This is not what we had planned for at all. Javi and I had planned for the students to have 3 - 4 weeks of shop time to make more feria like products (small, cheaper things) but because of the hectic and random way things go down at the school, 4 weeks turned into 3 days. We pulled out projects they had worked on in previous shop lessons, cleaned em up and shipped out to the feria. We added some products from the artisan group and then even pulled some stuff out from around the office from years past, dusted it off and set it out. It's not ideal, but we got it together.

The idea more than anything is to show Comayagua what the student's can do and inform the area who they are, so that people know in the future where to go if they would like custom made furniture, doors, etc. I think we accomplished that at least.

Friday we were supposed to have everything over to the fair grounds before 5 pm, after which no more vendors/exhibitors were to be allowed in. We were ready at 3 pm, but the guy who arranged our transport didn't get our truck to us until 4:30, at which time we were sweating bullets. No worry on the Honduran side, though....this is how it works here, they said.

Sales have been slow to put it delicately - we have actually sold about 120 lempiras worth of stuff ($6) in 2 days, not counting the 60 lempiras we took out to feed some hungry Escuela Taller kids on Friday night! But the kids are getting experience talking to customers about their products, probably the first time they've ever had a professional experience in their lives, so that is good. They seem to be enjoying it too.

We have another week in the exhibition, so we might just sell some stuff yet. However, the stuff is expensive for Honduran standards. All being made by hand makes it more expensive then the Chinese-imported goods that many prefer to buy on their limited budget. This has been a learning experience for us as well - how things are here in Honduras and the deep seeded problems start to reveal themselves to us. But there is hope and these guys are leaning, and that's all we can ask for I guess.