The end of our schooling is drawing near and we are flogging the books to learn as much as we can. Today was cool and overcast, with a bit of rain in the afternoon (a torrent at one point, but we were inside!) In the morning, Yadira and I had an extensive discussion of how to ask questions of the artesans. I asked her if she thought I had a chance at communicating with them at the level of my Spanish, and she said yes. That was comforting. She took me this morning to a shop where the "Panama" hats are made from a long grass called pajatoquilla. They are not Panama hats--are and have always been Ecuadorean. However, when the Panama Canal was built, the engineers, who had previously been working in Ecuador, were wearing these hats and everyone wanted one of those "Panama" hats the canal engineers were wearing. They are to all intents and purposes nearly indestructible.
It was fun to go through the little museum and see how the hats are made, mostly in the homes of indigenous women hereabouts and then finished (ironed, trimmed, etc.) in the shop. As we were leaving the shop, we espied an indigenous woman sitting on a sofa in the anteroom weaving away on a small pajatoquilla basket. Yadira asked if we could watch, we asked a few questions about how she had started in this trade. She had been taught in a convento of priests 30 years ago when she was quite young. It seems to have been an effort of the church to provide work for poor indigenous people. At this point, her whole family including in-laws are making a living weaving the straw.
As we were starting to go, a businesswoman in suit and high heels came through the front door and the weaver said, "Buenas tardes," good afternoon. The woman did not reply, snapped at the weaver that she would not be paid today, even though she had delivered her finished work previously. The weaver protested, but the woman did not listen. The weaver had the last word though--all she said was, "Don't be mean," to the departing back of the employee. This whole exchange was very upsetting to Yadira and to me as well. I was glad I had resisted the impulse to buy anything in this shop.
The weaver seemed to take it in stride, though, with a philosophical shrug, but this kind of poor treatment is the reason fair trade was started 70 years ago, and the reason I continue with it today.
All the way back, Yadira and I continued our discussion of prejudice and injustice that we began on Monday and concluded, as before, that we must give respect to all people.
Vincent and I had a nice lunch in the place YuYú had brought us to on Saturday and then went with Carlos to the modern art museum. Carlos switches back and forth between English and Spanish so smoothly that I think he must have both sides of his brain working at once. We really enjoyed the paintings that were there--and there were three patios as well! The building had seen many uses in its long life, just prior to the installation of the museum, the last previous being as a sanatorium for alcoholics. As in all the former colonial countries with which I am familiar, alcoholism is a huge problem here, and the inmates were punished cruelly in many ways, including being dunked in a cold bath before dawn. We thought about this as we walked back--how universal is this story: powerful conquerors destroy the civilization of those they conquer, then are in turn destroyed by someone else.
We continue to do what little we can to change ourselves, change our thinking, change our actions so that we can contribute as much blessing to the world as we possibly can. Eventually we hope, small things will add up. We remembered Martin Luther King, Jr.'s saying--"the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."
Ora pro nobis in Latin is "pray for us." We welcome your kind thoughts and prayers as we prepare to visit and interview artisans about their struggle for the basic goods most of us have taken for granted all our lives. Carlos said about the indigenes struggling to live under Spanish rule, "We cannot imagine how much pain they dealt with--we have never worked so hard, nor felt so much pain." God bless us all and help us to change this tired old world which is nonetheless so beautiful and fresh in each morning, despite all the harm we can do.
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