Day 1: After They Leave

Today was my first day back in the prison since February and getting in was a breeze. No pleading with guards, no explaining myself over and over again- I had my golden ticket (my previously approved permission letter) and waltzed right in. It helped, too, that most of the guards on duty were people I knew. In fact, one guard giggled as she searched me, going through the motions of the pat down and line of questioning, knowing full well I didn’t have a cell phone, chip, or USB.

Entering the women’s area I surprised the women. Apparently my message that I was coming didn’t make it, so my entrance was a shocker. Today was a short day as I explained what we were doing this trip and very briefly recapped the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. What’s on the agenda?

Tomorrow I will kickoff this trip with a meeting with the women involved in the Santa Fe order. This meeting will recap the event, talk about the successes, some of the issues with the order, and begin discussing how we want to move forward with a production chain. One big thing we learned from Santa Fe is that the women need to be more organized in their production. Ultimately, we want to women to decide how this is going to happen, so tomorrow will be the first step in doing this.

Next I will teach a jewelry making class. I was pleased to hear that the women were excited about my plan for embroidered jewelry. In fact, they had some ideas of their own, which is good since I don’t know how to embroider. My hope is, since I cannot bring fully realized samples to the class, that this class will be a collaboration of skills- my knowledge of jewelry design and their knowledge of embroidery. To be honest, I’m not sure how this class will turn out, but their enthusiasm gave me hope that we can create beautiful art together. The last week we will have the very popular leather working class.

Catching up with the women today, I asked about two women who were released earlier this year. One, who had chronic health problems, is doing much better! One of the challenges to her health was the thin air in Ayacucho (we are 9,000 feet up) and she was in and out of the hospital with an oxygen mask. After her release she moved to Lima to be with her children and the lower elevation has drastically improved her health.

The other woman who was recently released is having a harder time. Her husband is still incarcerated so she visits the prison often. She told one of the women that she wishes she could come back to the prison because work is harder to find “in the street”. This is incredibly heartbreaking as she is an extremely talented seamstress who is a dedicated hard worker. I have her telephone number and I hope to meet with her and see how Ruraq Maki can help her with the transition.
The first day is always a reminder- some years of how much we have done and some years of how much we have left to do. Today was a mix of both, the joy of furthering our collaborative model with the women and the heartbreak of seeing where we need to provide more support.

Day 9: Photo Blog of the Prison

Yesterday, after I had given up all hope of taking pictures of the women, Dr. Castro arrived with the camera (a 9MB Kodak Easy Share- I didn’t even know those still existed!) and allowed me to photograph the women with their mantas as well as with their jewelry projects from the class!

Showing off a beautiful manta she embroidered

Showing off a beautiful manta she embroidered

Admiring her Rikchari necklace

Rikchari Close Up

Rikchari Close Up

 

Modeling the Paz y Amor group's bracelet

Modeling the Paz y Amor group’s bracelet

"In my heart there is peace and love. I love you."

“In my heart there is peace and love. I love you.”

Proudly showing off Ser Grande's final piece

Proudly showing off Ser Grande’s final piece

To Be Big, close up

To Be Big, close up

Day 8: The Thank Yous

Today was my last day in the prison and it oscillated between wonderful and chaotic. On Tuesday the prison agreed to let me take photos of the women with one caveat- I had to use their camera. Today when I arrived I went to Dr. Castro’s office to get the camera but he wasn’t there. After waiting for 30 minutes I decided it was more important to see the women before they headed to mandatory therapy.

When I arrived at the women’s area, we immediately launched into addressing issues with the order. Apparently the men no longer want to weave the thicker, more simple manta because the thinner materials fetches a better price. This was fine, but it meant having to redo the order on the spot, without a calculator on hand (long division anyone?).

Me with two of my students and my very own Rikchari necklace!

Me with two of my students and my very own Rikchari necklace!

Halfway through redoing the order the women from the jewelry class let me know that they had to go to therapy so frantically we exchanged money and jewelry pieces and hugs and goodbyes, not knowing if we would see each other again. It was all very hectic, with a group of 10 women surrounding me, 100 more trying to leave to go to therapy, pens flying, money dropping, the guard telling all of us to hurry! What a rush!

Of course, once most of the women went to therapy, the cells were quiet because only a handful remained (those who opted out of therapy). The good news was there was then plenty of time to go over the order and do the calculations properly. I also heard some of the stories of the women who will be embroidering manta.

One woman (who is very young) was a street child and involved in drugs when she was younger. She is incarcerated with her husband and her daughter, who is now 3, lives in the North of Peru in a home. She really needs work and money, especially because she doesn’t have a family support system.

Another woman, also incarcerated with her husband, has 5 young children living with relatives. Both need as much work as possible to support their children. Fortunately, the woman’s husband is a weaver so the entire family will benefit from the order.

A delicious plate of pork and papas fritas

A delicious plate of pork and papas fritas

The woman who we have hired to arrange our order (she has been in our programs since before Ruraq Maki existed!) had a plate of food made for me and while I was eating told me, “I thank God for you every time you come. I’m always so worried about paying for my daughters’ university and what I am going to do to keep them in school. The market here is very low and there is so little work. Then you come and give us the work that we need. And I tell my daughters, she isn’t just helping me, she is helping you too.”

It brings tears to my eyes writing this because it is a testament to how a small non-profit like Ruraq Maki can have a big impact on individual lives. And the you isn’t me, it is the support network we have as an organization that creates this impact.

Tomorrow- part 2 of my last day in the prison- Dr. Castro arrives with the camera!! (and photos of the women with their final jewelry pieces).

Day 7: Launch

At this point, you have probably heard our big news- that we have been accepted to the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. The International Folk Art Market is a world renowned event celebrating traditional art from around the world. The event is highly competitive and even having been accepted speaks to the women’s incredible skills as artisans. Just to give you an idea, there were over 500 applicants from around the world for 130 booth spaces. Needless to say, this is a high compliment towards the women’s work!

Another reason that we are excited about this opportunity is that the profits from this event will be reinvested into our sales program, allowing us to expand our sales reach. One area of our sales program we plan to expand is our wholesale program, which is a wonderful way to keep a steady and consistent stream of work coming into the prison.

Although we are thrilled to be participating in this fair (and to give the women SO MUCH work), events like these cost money. As a small non-profit we do not have the start up money to participate in an event this size. Enter Indiegogo. Next week, we will be launching an Indiegogo campaign to help us raise money to cover the cost of the event.

Our campaign goal is $10,000 and 60% of that goes directly to the women through our order! 25% will go towards the cost of the event itself, including volunteer staff travel expenses and booth fees. 10% will go into shipping and customs, and 5% will be used to support the campaign fees.

Keep an eye out next week for our launch! And, if you have fallen in love with the metal stamped jewelry from our class this trip, you will have a chance to score one as a backer of our campaign!

Day 7: Soggy

Today can best be described as wet. It poured rain all day and, since the prison is open in most areas, it was a soggy day for all. Still, rain or shine we have the classes and today was no different, although there was more huddling as we all tried to keep dry.

Before the class started, I checked in on the manta order and the list of women who will be participating in the order. It was good to see many familiar names (we give preference to women who are in the program) as well as new names. The list is still open for participants, with lots of inquiries, and I imagine by Thursday we have a full list of women who will be working on the order. I also walked by a few women who are embroidering manta for our bags, which is wonderful to see the distribution of work in action!

Also, several of the women showed me they manta they are embroidering. I always laugh when they do this, they want me to review their work, but of course all the manta looks so beautiful! It helps that the women have known me for so long that there is a personal motivation to do well. The embroidery is incredible and the women’s color combos just keep getting better and better. I fell in love with a brilliant orange, red, yellow, blue bird. I cannot wait to open the boxes when they arrive!

Written in Quechua, this translates to "In my heart there is peace and love. I love you." For the women it means peaces and love are central to all!

Written in Quechua, this translates to “In my heart there is peace and love. I love you.” For the women it means peaces and love are central to all!

In the class the women nearly finished their 15 products. It was fun for everyone to see them come together with the assembly. At this point, all the groups have worked out each other’s roles so the assembly was seamless and consistent. We also worked on pricing as each group received a list of costs associated with their product. Then we worked out how much time each took to make, followed by the hourly wage each person wanted to be paid. In the end, the women agreed on the price that they would sell their products for.

One group agreed on a price and later came up to ask if they could raise it. The women realized that for all the work involved it was just too low. I was really proud of them for coming to this conclusion on their own and speaking up. Part of owning a business is critically thinking about these kinds of decisions and making changes where needed to improve the profitability of the business. Having the ability to speak up and notice when something isn’t work is an important skill!

Thursday will be our last day because the women have a big dance party on Friday for Carnaval. The remaining women will finish on Thursday and their product cards will be revealed (I’m printing them tomorrow). The final step will see the finished product in its packaging and giving out payments for their work.