It’s so peaceful here, far away from the office politics that spoils all the fun of working on exciting projects. I wish I could spend more time here but last week was simply impossible. Doña Filomena and I did some market research to sell Awá art on the famous Otavalo market that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world. We first met with a lovely Kishwa working for the Indigenous Artisans of the Centenario Market Union who gave us a good picture of the struggle for local artists to get a space there. The market is invaded by foreign goods mostly from Peru and Bolivia but also from China. It’s a bloody shame that indigenous people from all parts of Ecuador who struggle to sell their crafts like the Awá can’t even benefit from this notorious market. She told us that the municipality manages everything and despite the union’s demonstration a couple years ago, nothing has changed, and no foreigners were expelled yet even though they are working on a tourist visa.
Filomena decided to bring the matter directly to the mayor and we waited there for over an hour in a packed waiting room until they announced he was leaving for Quito. We managed to speak with the person in charge of the market in “la comisaria municipal” who was quite cold when she told us that she has never given a new space in the market since she started working at this position. She investigates the sellers but never sanctions anyone. It was a lost cause and the only way for the Awá to expose their crafts there is to negotiate directly with an owner of a spot who only uses it on Saturdays and Wednesdays, the two busiest days of the week.
We were luckier in the artist town of San Antonio de Ibarra where I had made a contact with a artisan who co-manages a store there. The Awá artisan group has the opportunity to expose there being charged a commission or become members and have to look after the store one week per month. The group will need to decide. February will certainly be extremely busy for the artisans as there are 4 important fairs taking place, mainly because of the carnival between the 20th and 24th. My parents will be visiting me so I won’t be of much help to them. That’s just too bad. While working in the office I was also asked to write up another project proposal benefiting the artisan group and I was fortunate that Filomena was there to develop the project idea and the methodology of its implementation. We managed to submit it right at the buzzer to the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, we’ll know where we stand in May.
The FCAE planning meeting was quite disorganized and we didn’t get much done, in fact we did no planning at all but only managed to record our advances in all the key projects in operation. Mauro had to work over the weekend to get some kind of planning done as he’s now the point person for project monitoring and planning. You could tell he’s feeling the pressure; he’s usually very relaxed with always a silly joke under his sleeve but lately he’s been acting like a control freak, not trusting anyone, interrupting, imposing and being quite rude. Le petit chef…hope this won’t last.
I finally managed to return to Lita on Friday night and went to Baboso the next day to give an environmental education class about “nature’s interconnections”. It went okay but for some reasons I cut the best part, I had a “dinámica” ready that I did not do. I am still wondering why I suddenly had cold feet. Before my session, one of the students who is one of the most talented Awá artisan gave a presentation of his work. He is not the most articulate person and struggles with both math and languages but he certainly knows how to carve beautiful pieces. I personally own two of his works. It’s awesome that he shares his knowledge with his classmates; the artisan group desperately needs more youth to get involved.
The superbowl was an awesome game. I couldn’t care less who won; I simply enjoyed a great football game. The large majority of volunteers from the northern cluster met up in Ibarra with many new faces from the latest group. It’s cool to be with gringos but a bit overwhelming so I wasn’t very social. Nevermind, I’m back in Lita, recovering from that stressful office week. Boy am I happy not to be stuck in that incubator no more!
