The Urban Poncho

My job has changed quite a bit in the last few days...While I´m still playing around with numbers in spreadsheets on occasion, the majority of my day is spent realizing my true potential. Basically I´m the Peterman of Peru. (Seinfeld reference) Keep an eye out for me in the latest Vogue, Vanity Fair or Cosmo...I´m pretty sure I´m going to be a pretty big deal in my new career as a designer. I´m working with a group of woman knitters to design modern shawls, gloves, hats, scarves - and anything that can be made out of Alpaca. My first piece is called the urban poncho. The whole idea behind this is to create designs that have a bit of Peruvian style, but that will sell abroard. A few days ago I found myself under a tin shelter in the pouring rain explaining to a group of 8 woman why someone may actually want to buy a skirt that only covers their ass. It took awhile, but I think they see the point now - I, however, can not remember said point. Regardless the skirts will be short and alpaca, which I can only hope is the perfect combination of Peruvian and slutty that I was going for.

While I spend most of my days in the office I also venture out into the markets to look for internesting buttons, fabrics, lace etc. This may seem a lot more ´libral arts´ than my usual work, but today during my latest market adventure my finance skills came in very handy. Here´s how the scene went down:
Me: Excuse me, can you tell me how much for these buttons?
Lady: 5 for $.50
Me: Hmm, would you give a discount if I bought a large quantity?
Lady: 12?
Me: sure
Lady 12 for $1.50
...this is where she lost me. So I asked again to reconfirm, and she did in fact mean what she said.---I opted for 5 buttons and told her I´d be back for more tomorrow. So my years of finance have come in handy bargaining in third world countries. Also studying geometry for the GRE has come in handy as I´m sketching designs with measurements and needing to recall the area of a triangle. It´s all coming full circle.

In all seriousness this is a very cool project which brings together artesan woman to help organize production and keep costs low. The company is going to be a spin off of FINCAPeru called FINCAPeru exports...which we hope to get finalized in the next few months. Everything is still very new and there are just me and 2 other volunteers running the show and figuring out the whole export business. It´s always different and getting to work so closely with the local woman is a real treat. If anyone knows of local stores in the US that might be interested in carrying Alpaca products, or custom orders for individuals - let me know and i´ll send off some more information about the project Perhaps things could be ready in time for christmas or perhaps not. Deadlines aren´t really our strong point yet. By next week I should have some pictures that I can send off if anyone is interested!

Ok, well there´s a pair of fingerless gloves that are dying to be sketched out, so off I go.

comments: amandajudge@yahoo.com

Around town

Here´s a few pictures of the town plaza and one of the main streets, which is only for pedestrians. They were having some sort of parade to promote a candidate for county president this morning when i took these. All very peaceful, but all the same, very loud.

I´ve spend the last week and a half working, finding my way around and trying to figure out what I´m eating that is causing me stomach pains. They seem to have subsided, although the source I wasn´t able to distinguish. It´s just to difficult to be extremely careful about what you eat, so I´ve decided that I´m just going to have to get acustomed to it rather than be nuerotic about it. Civiche is a very popular dish here, which is delicious. However, eating raw fish I try to do only in the nicest of restaurants. I think the nicest restaurant in town may be equivalent to TGIFridays...or maybe a step up, but not too much higher. Most of the restaurants are small rooms in the front of peoples houses where you can eat for a couple dollars or less, but since i´ve been working so much i often make my own food or have the 86 year old lady that i live with make me a meal for $1.70.

Work is going well. Starting a new job is always challenging, and starting a new job speaking a new language is not any easier. But this week my communcation skills have started to pick up and I think I´m figuring out what projects they want me to do. It´s a great place to learn about microfinance and the people who work there are so sweet. It´s a bit exausting because you kiss everyone on the cheek hello AND goodbye - Even if you just had a 30 second conversation. I get a kick out of imaging that sort of interaction at a company in the US.

I had my first day of visiting clients on Friday, which was very eye-opening. The day started by riding off on the back of a motorcycle to the outskirts of town. Once you get out of the town center all of the streets are dirt and you are constanting dodging pigs, cows, sheep, goats, small children and what I can only assume are rabid dogs. We were visiting clients who were requesting large loans (over $500) or clients who were requesting individual loans (from $100-500), in order to make sure that they lived where they said, and ask questions about how the were planning to pay the loan back and what collateral they could put up for the individual loans. It´s was amazing to see how some people lived...houses built right into the hillside, dirt floors, children of 5 left home alone when the parents go off to work. All the while we were surrounded by very dramatic mountains, cliffs and valleys - next time I´ll take my camera.