Friday’s training was specifically for the 15 or so artisans who had traveled from outside Lima to attend: Ayacucho, Huancayo, Huancavelica, Cuzco and Puno, hours away by bus. However, since Sam was giving a special presentation on the qualities of best-selling items, Yannina had invited the Lima artisans to drop in for his presentation. We were curious to see how many would attend.
When we walked in, everyone was running around. While this isn’t unusual – we thought it was weird when we first started at Manos Amigas, but now we have been known to run too – it felt more frantic. The buzzer was constantly ringing its 30-second song as people arrived. Yannina had mentioned that we’d have 30 minutes to mingle with the out-of-town artisans and chat with them, then after the Lima artisans arrived at 9:30, she’d begin with her presentation. Sam would follow with his.
All the artisans were sitting in chairs, waiting for the trainings to begin. Sam loaded his presentation onto the laptop and got the projector hooked up. While he was finishing that, Yannina motioned to me to come up to the front to be introduced. I was wearing Simon in the sling and he stared, wide-eyed, at the 20 or so people who were gathered at that point. They stared back. Yannina began by introducing us and then asked each of the artisans to say their name, where they were from, and what type of artesanía they produced. I was trying to scribble all that information down but was having a hard time understanding much between my level of non-fluency in Spanish and how quietly the artisans were speaking. Yannina thanked them, then said, “OK, Alison and Sam, feel free to start!” She went to the back of the room.
But wait, I thought. Aren’t we supposed to be waiting for the Lima artisans to arrive by 9:30? And wasn’t Yannina going to present first? And where is Sam? Aaaack! This isn’t going according to plan!
Yannina realized we were jumping the gun by about 15 minutes. “Go ahead and chat while we wait for more artisans to come!”
I stared at the artisans. They stared back. I started to have a freak-out moment. She had said that we’d all be chatting during that time; I envisioned us standing around meeting individual people and talking. Instead, I was trapped at the front of the room with no prepared presentation and any idea of how to speak correctly in Spanish vanished completely. My Spanish isn’t great enough to spontaneously banter in front of a group of strangers!
I tried to express how grateful we were for the opportunity to be working with Manos Amigas and learning from the artisans that were here for the training. As I was speaking, Simon sneezed and two huge rivers of snot exited his nose and hung there while I groped around for a tissue. Why couldn’t he have sneezed when everyone was distracted or looking at someone else, I thought. I wiped his nose while I tried to make a joke about it. Time slowed down to an infinitesimal crawl.
So, in desperation, I mentioned that I hadn’t been able to write down everyone’s names when they introduced themselves earlier; could we go around the room again?
Everyone graciously repeated themselves while I took better notes and prayed that when they were finished, we’d be able to start. After an excruciating 15 minutes or so, time resumed its normal pace.
Sam gave an excellent presentation to about 35 artisans; I was so proud of him! He introduced himself in Spanish and then turned translation duties over to Christina, who was also impressive. He talked about Global Gifts and how it is related to Manos Amigas (he buys their products via SERRV or Ten Thousand Villages), and described several qualities of best-selling products, with examples of each.
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| Sam, introducing himself in Spanish; Christina is to the right, waiting to begin translating |
For instance, he showed a picture of beautiful stationery with elephant designs on it. “This is a best-selling product because it has a surprise associated with it. It’s nice stationery. But once customers learn that this paper is made from elephant dung, they have to purchase it!” Christina paused, unsure of how to say “elephant dung” nicely in front of 40 people. “This paper is made of excrement of elephants.” An audible shock wave traveled around the room. People scribbled notes.
During the Q&A, artisans had a lot of questions about price points. “How much should I be selling my ceramics for?” “What is a good price for jewelry?” The answer, always: “It depends.”
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| question & answer time! |
Sam gave some examples of items at various price points that sell well at Global Gifts. Yannina intervened, making sure that the artisans realized that the prices Sam mentioned did not equal the sale prices of the artisans, since the price gets adjusted along the fair trade chain. The artisan sells to Manos Amigas, who sells to Ten Thousand Villages (for example), who sells to Global Gifts, who sells it to the customer. Each group marks the product up by varying amounts.
Yannina then presented the research about Katie and Mary and challenged the artisans to envision their products in the homes pictured. What would fit in each of the rooms? What colors would look best? What designs would best fit each of these women’s personalities?
Afterwards, we broke into small groups by product lines. I was matched with the mate burilado (carved gourd) group. Sam was with the ceramicists. Other small groups included jewelry, retablos, and weavers. While this was a cool exercise, it was also slightly tortuous and time stopped once again. All these artisans were looking at me expectantly. What were my ideas? I tried to facilitate the conversation a bit, as I don’t have answers. I had about three brilliant ideas before the workshop, when Sam and I were brainstorming new products, and when I mentioned them, they said, “Oh yeah. We’ve tried that. Any other ideas?” Great! 45 minutes to go!
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| Small groups by product line; I am quietly panicking on the left. |
The first shopping center, Inca Market, is a series of outdoor malls with little stalls crammed full of various items: shirts, jewelry, gourds, hats, musical instruments, etc. Before entering some of the buildings, Yannina gave the artisans some instructions of what to look for as we browsed.
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| Instructions on the street |
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| Comparing window displays |
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| Inside Inca Market |
One of the artisans I was walking with was shocked at how much higher the prices were in these markets than in Cuzco, where she sells her items in a similar set-up.
The second, LarcoMar, is a high-end shopping center built into the side of the cliffs and overlooks the ocean. You can walk on the park on top of it and never know it is there!
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| LarcoMar from above |
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| Dramatic ocean views... and dramatically high prices too |
The shops that sold artesanía tended to look more like art galleries, with elegant interiors and sparse selections, or were comfortable shops with their products beautifully and artistically arranged.
We closed the day with dinner together at a restaurant near Manos Amigas and the artisans’ hotel. I was amazed to learn that for about a third of the artisans who traveled here for the workshop, this was their first time in Lima! Ever!
I was also impressed to hear, over and over again, how important fair trade is to their businesses and to their families. Sam posted recently about this too. Fair trade pays on time. Fair trade gives us respect. Fair trade gives us opportunities. Fair trade provides these trainings for us.
Of course, there are always exceptions. Several of the artisans talked about groups that called themselves fair trade but didn’t act accordingly. But for the most part, they were able to trust in better treatment and wages from fair trade groups.
With experiences like this, fair trade is beginning to be less of an abstract concept and more of a concrete reality.
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| With the Hurtado family: three brothers, each with his own mate burilado workshop |
Wonderful post. My, you guys are tall!!!
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