Workin Life

Jill's counterpart Bai and his wife Rosita are absolutely wonderful.  They have helped out in so many ways, from helping Jill get moved from Foto to Tutu, to offering up their daughter's house for us to live in (she lives in Foto now), and making sure we get to try some of Rosie's amazing cooking evey once in awhile.


(Jill with Bai, her counterpart)

On the days that tourists come to town, at least 2 women (and usually Jill) go to the shop around 9:30 to get it set up.  They end up spending all morning there waiting for the tourists to arrive, whose schedule is less than defined.  Even though that takes a big chunk out of the women's day, it does provide a chance for a few of the women to meet informally, work on their crafts, gossip, talk about group related issues, etc.  At least the time isn't entirely wasted.


(Inside the shop with Magaly and Resida on duty. All money from sales go to the woman who made the product sold, with a small amount put into group savings for the coop)


(another view)


(Magaly tracing a pattern for another kousu)

Every two weeks, Jill has been meeting with the group as a whole.  Those meetings provide a better chance to discuss and resolve issues as a group, including sales, inventory, and future planning.  One of the first tasks that Jill has been trying to coordinate between the women's group and BFN is to get tags printed to attach to each piece of merchandise.  The women were intially relying on pieces of paper that could easily get detached, leading to confusion when that item was purchased.  It was great to see that those pieces of paper were already in use, that way Jill's suggestion to use a standard, more presentable tag is just a slight improvement on what they already do.  The new tags will have the cost as well as a bit of information about the women's group on them and the name of the woman who made that item.  It has taken some time to get the printing job approved, but hopefully the next time we are in the city we will be able to take back a stack of tags.


(A meeting of the coop at the shop with Jill, Rashida (back), Bai, Magaly, Marciano, Moetoe, and others not pictured)


(Jill going over December sales with Clea)