Yo Tengo Plata!

And now for my week. It took about 3 hours to write that last post, so we’ll see how far I get through this without crapping out.

Monday I slept as late as I could (7:00) and got up to start working. Lupe brought all my materials in with her, tools and all, so I needed to organize. I have 5 pairs of earrings, 20 each, and one necklace design, 10 each. One type of earrings matches the necklace (I don’t do it myself, nor do I quite see the point in it for some reason, but I know most people like to match.) Soooo, I bought the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of everything, trying to save money (it was still over $500) so I have to watch over these materials like they’re the crown jewels. I don’t have a single wire to spare. So to make sure I have enough of everything, and especially to control exactly how much of everything each individual uses, I separated the materials for each pair into its own small plastic bag (bolsita.) It’s not my idea-I totally was inspired by Kim’s genius here. There were a few unmade earrings from when she was here two years ago in these types of bags that I thought was just the best idea ever. Anyway, I’m counting these out one by one and realizing that I don’t exactly have enough of what I thought I did, bead wise. It was an interesting creative challenge, though, because I had Kim’s old beads, which were all really nice, and Lupe brought some pearls she bought for the store a long time ago. So I have some designs with classy lady pearls, some in a relaxed purple, iolite, and moonstone, some super bright ones with reds, amber, garnet… all kinds! And then I took all my silver wire (thank god Kim left some because I didn’t buy enough) and cut it into the lengths they’d need, threw those in the bags, and when it was all said and done, I’ve got basically no wire left. Well, what I have is lots of wires with heads on them for holding beads on one end with a loop on the other, and what I need is straight long wires for loops on both ends. The shorter ones with heads can work if you cut the head off, but they’re so short they’re hard to work with. So about 8 ours of that- my eyes hurt- and I was ready for this week.

Today I went to Cantel, so excited about bringing Dilma and Olga and Juana their plata (silver) that I forgot my keys, money, everything else (don’t worry, I didn’t need them.) This time, I brought a white sheet to cover the table with (what we work on is a plastic fold up table with olive green wreaths printed across it- straight from the 70’s) so that everything would be easier to see, and not roll. We practiced a bit, and I handed out their bolsitas! Every bolsita has a letter for the type of design, and a number corresponding to which particular earring it is including color written on it in Sharpie. Today, we got through pairs 1-10 of design D. So much more than I thought we would, plus the month of practice together with the threat that I would withhold the good stuff until they were ready, made them not only perfect, but perfectionists! Juana has some troubles still. When she concentrates she has good hands, and she wants to sooo baaad! But she’s rough with the materials, and she is absent minded. She broke one wire, so I had to dole out one of my precious spares, and then she made one or two closed loops without including the component that was supposed to be threaded onto it… Ooops.. The first time she did that, she frantically said “Caitie! Como se dice (how do you say)… error!” It made me laugh so hard I didn’t mind sacrificing another wire. She’s so amazing though, she tries so hard, and now that she’s getting it she’s so incredibly happy. No more sarcasm. And before when I told her something was good, one out of 5, she just kind of nodded and plodded along more.. Now when I tell her it’s right, she believes me, and she lights up. When I first came here 4 weeks ago, I thought Juana was around 40. She had that giant screaming baby, and all these kids running around, and she was kind of stressed about making things presentable for me and working with me.. Now I really feel like she’s at least 5 years younger than I thought. She’s literally brightened up in front of my eyes. This is good for her. The other thing is that when they’re finished, I write their names on the bolsitas, just in case I lose my paperwork, whatever. I gave her the Sharpie and she’s like “you’re going to have to do that because I don’t know how to write.” I don’t want to act surprised about things like that.. I know a lot of women around here either weren’t able to or weren’t allowed to go to school.. But it did kind of occur to me now that this woman, with her 5 crazy kids and her home life that never allows her outside interests, now has a skill, one that she does well, and can bring her some extra money to possibly get out of the house now and again. This is what AMA does which is so beautiful. It gives these women something to feel proud of as an individual. They already have a lot of pride in themselves, their community, their family, their culture, but things like what Hilda does with the women’s circles gives them individual strength, too. Also, with the younger girls like Dilma and Olga, they’re learning this now, the techniques and skills and eye for good quality, and also the organization, the opportunities. They can grow with this. Lupe says that she wants me to keep an eye on my students for a successor for me after I go back, and absolutely without a doubt I would choose Dilma. The girls in my class in Xela are more business savvy, and a little quicker with their fingers than Dilma, but Dilma is a teacher. It’s written all over her face. She’s so gentle and proud. Next I want to pick her brain for developing creativity. I think if someone was to do what I do as a job, they’d need to be able to do the things like utilizing the available materials, and making new designs when old ones don’t work, or teaching new designs if someone else sends them to her from the states. Once again, gotta see how it goes.

So we ended up making 10 pairs of earrings, at about 30 minutes per. I feel like we could sell these for $30 or more in the store, definitely. From what I understand, they are going to be paid hourly, depending on the number of earrings they make. So if they make 4 pairs of earrings, and the earrings average 30 minutes each, they get paid 2 hours of work. Part of my job is keeping track of how quickly the designs are made so that I know how much everyone gets paid in the end. As of right now, I don’t know how much it is they get an hour. I have a feeling it sounds pathetically low, but turns out to be a lot for them. I don’t know what normal Guatemalan wages are.

Lupe saw the earrings and was really happy with them. She’s going to take all the finished ones I have back to the States with her on Thursday to see how well the do. I hope I hope I hooooooope well! I want to continue with the wire working, if they sell quickly, maybe they’ll let us keep doing it. I understand so well the desire for fabric jewelry, I want it too, but the wire is working so well here, and the women have put so much time into just learning the techniques to be finished with the jewelry in only 2 or 3 weeks! It’s almost not worth their time, they don’t get paid for learning, only for earrings, so if I immediately go into teaching a new technique, once again that cuts their profit.

Argh, it’s complicated.

When I came back we ate lunch, Hugh went to school, I started writing my last post, then there was a trip at the school which I tagged along for. We went to Trama, which is a weaving cooperative based in Xela. There, they work with 5 communities of women, doing similar things as AMA, but solely with weavings. They provide the thread and the women decide what they want to make, what colors to use, and they sell them in the store in Xela as well as make them available to international markets. They also teach weaving lessons there, which is how they pay all their overheads.. Every Quetzale from the sales of their textiles goes right back to them. I like that idea much more than the hourly rates, but AMA/HSP doesn’t have the resources to be able to do it. Of course I bought a scarf and a wall hanging. I might as well go ahead and acknowledge that I have a scarf collection. It’s gone from an affinity to an enthusiasm. Oh well. They’re pretty and I use them and they all have a story!

That’s is well enough for now. I can’t believe how much I’ve written today. I need to get things together for my Xela class! The girls here are smart enough and catch on quickly enough that I’m going to give each girl the choice of what she wants to make and have a handout to instruct, rather than teaching one design to all the girls at one time. This way, there will possibly be more examples for Lupe to take to the store. Ok. It’s been good getting this out.