Coming up to the weekend--today was a very busy day as a consequence. Although we didn't get home until one a.m., we nonetheless rose at 8:15 and off to work. Just can't keep an old firehorse in the station, I guess.
Right after breakfast, we met downstairs in the hotel with José and Anita Farinango. If that name doesn't sound Spanish, that's because it's not. José and Anita are clearly full-blood Inca descendants. They didn't remember us from 2011, but we showed them the pictures we took of them and their children, and they were delighted. Such a beautiful couple. Today they came without their children, bringing some lovely samples of their tagua jewelry. I was on a bit of a roll today (I love doing this), so I came up with two new catchy names for the products they brought, and Chris came up with a third. How do you like "Rain Dance" and "Moonglow" and "Picasso" (first two are mine) for names for really cool neckwear?
Chris showed Anita and José how to find the "colors of the year" on the Pantone website, and encouraged them to incorporate them in their designs so that people could coordinate their clothing and their jewelry purchases. They caught on to the idea fairly quickly after an initial hesitation--I'm sure they were wondering what the "colors of the year" could possibly have to do with them, here far away from the fashion world.
Carlos came in before we were done and we had a math session, determining volumes of shipping boxes and how they would stack hats in such a way as to receive no harm from the violent shakings of ships, planes, trains and trucks with all their attendant handlers. Interesting exercise! Vincent of course had the smarts to look up on the internet how people normally do these things. That Google just blows my mind, still! The advantages of having a young husband never end.
After a brief discussion of how the negotiation with the Farinangos and Carlos had gone, we trekked off to Lucila Lema's shop to check out a new shipment of gloves getting ready to go. They were all men's gloves, so there was no point in my trying them on. Lucila had some great new hat samples, one a rainbow hat with a tiny crown on top and a scarf attached that allows you to close your coat OVER the scarf rather than under it, another a Rasta hat complete with dreds. Chris told me that when he was just starting his business, Lucila and another store owner had helped him get going with the loan of several big shipping boxes of product. How kind she was--and is. Her daughter was there to model the hats and help us communicate with her mom, who is now partially deaf. Lucila was very warm and kind, smiling broadly as we left.
We went for lunch at an organic restaurant owned by a young man named William, who has worked several years in the U.S. and was very comfortable speaking to us in English. That felt strange to me. I am getting used to English being the foreign language here, not Spanish.
We next stopped at a tie-dye store owned by a young man and his wife. Chris and Romel had a very hard time understanding how to unravel an inconsistent size issue, but eventually communication triumphed and everyone was satisfied.
Returning to the hotel, we just missed Christián, but when Chris called him, he returned with his leather wallet samples. They are very, very nice and we hope our customers will like them. Christián had fixed all the issues with the samples that we discussed with him earlier in the week, so that negotiation went very quickly.
Another couple came in with questions about the colors for their order, and Chris worked on that with them until they understood how the communication with the U.S. office works.
At the end, Hector Guevara came back with his improved samples, we had a few suggestions to make. I could see Chris getting very, very tired, so we left Romel to finish the price negotiations with Hector.
The message today is that the little nitpicky details that frustrate so many of us are where life is. Minga's commitment to quality means that many measurements must be made, before and after, many corrections must be made to samples with the artisan in person or by e-mail, over and over, until it's right. Without this, you have dissatisfied customers who won't return, artisans with no orders and no income. Patient slogging through the storm of glitches is what's required. It's tiring, but s-o-c-k-s, as Chris says, "That's what it is" in Spanish or any other language.
Vincent and I spent a couple of hours writing up the past two days and then went to dinner at Quino's next door with good food and good prices. The best part? It is next door to the hotel!
Hmm--the hotel front door bell just rang. I see it's 11:00 p.m. That must be Chris coming back from a late dinner with friends.
Time for me to sleep, too. I sometimes wonder what my efforts to help are accomplishing, but then I remember that my only important job is to love. Love you all--sleep well, wake refreshed. Soon the world will change, if only we continue faithful.
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