Last week...

Duh-duh-duh!! The end has finally come. And just in time-- I am almost exactly out of shampoo and shower gel.

I think I've mentioned before that I've been enjoying the work immensely. I still do, in general and in theory. But there have been frustrations lately as real life sets in....

Loans which were possible in theory are held up in bureaucracy because the church has never done this before... Communication has been far from adequate... Enthusiasm seems to be missing in anybody but the folks who've been a part of the program... and planning a time to distribute and explain the 'kit' that I'm leaving has not been easy or fun....

But-- in the lack of loans, I and the women in Malta have found quite a variety of creative ways to finance the start-up of new businesses. Rosinha needed a mixer for her ice cream business, and she could no longer borrow the mixer she had been borrowing from Claudia because Claudia was moving, so another woman from our class offered to buy it with her credit card and Rosinha could pay her back in installments. Very creative-- you go, girls! For Edinalva, I bought 30 salgados (tasty pastries) for our class party and paid her in advance, so she could buy the ingredients and still have the profit left over to buy more ingredients to sell more. Unfortunately, her child was sick that day and she used the money to buy the salgados from a shop, which left her nothing. But it would've worked. In São Sebastião, I made an order last night and paid in advance, allowing the group of youth to buy the equipment and materials they need to make my order and continue their business.

In São Sebastião, my teaching was a little haphazard-- I was working it out as I went along. But I presented them with the 'textbooks' last night for them to keep and refer to in the future. And I think each person did gain something. One group, aforementioned, were able to actually start their idea of a 'bijuteria' making jewelry. As I explained my proposition to them, they were clearly stunned and their eyes were starting to tear up. It was pretty great. They got to work choosing their name and starting their advertising campaign-- they've decided on "Só Biju" (Just Jewelry) and one girl came up with this slogan "Jesus é a joia, o resto é só biju" which is something akin to "Jesus is life, the rest is just details." Another group was planning out a sewing factory. Though this required a lot of capital (commercial sewing machines are expensive...), I think they had a good plan, and boy did they know their stuff. The group was 3 woman, of maybe 20, 35, and 50 years of age, the two adults were in the literacy class but were pretty good at math, and they knew sewing inside and out. I told them to keep working out the details of the plan-- they say that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. The final group was a group of boys wanting to do an internet cafe. Though that idea was the least possible, as it was almost purely capital and barely netted any profit, we had a really good discussion about using more labor and less capital (the internet cafe was not employing any people, only computers!), and other ideas that might be more appropriate. We even talked about how to tweak an old idea to make it viable. But still, it was a good idea, if they already had the computers. So maybe the next time an American team comes down, that's their chance.
I'm going to go back to São Sebastião Sunday to pick up my jewelry and to give out certificates in church. All the youth are very proud, and the rest of the church is very curious. Here are some pictures of my class, and then of me 'autographing' the coursebooks I made. (Someone mentioned I hadn't put my name on it, so I joked about I could autograph it for her, and when I did everyone was quite impressed with the beauty of my signature!, and all threw down their books for me to sign theirs too. So I made sure someone got a picture of this comical 'celebrity book-signing'.) Well, nevermind. I guess the pictures will come on the next post.