And it's Over!

Success! We are done with the second volunteer-artisan network expo in Dakar. We had 12 artisans come from all over Senegal most with a volunteer and we ended up selling about 1,600,000cfa of product – which is over $3000! We printed a beautiful catalogue, which I spent hours and hours on… that may have been the most stressed out I have been in Senegal. Originally, I wanted all the volunteers bringing artisans to help. Seems simple enough, since I would send them a blank document with all the settings saved, they would edit, in French and English a biography of their artisan along with some pictures, and send it back to me. I would then compile all the bios and made 2 versions of the catalogue. Well, life isn’t that easy in Senegal. My first problem was that everyone doesn’t have Publisher. I ended up having to write, translate, upload pictures and edit the 20 page catalogue. This took some time. But it felt great to be finished 2 days before I was even in Dakar. The next problem became that the printers in Dakar were out of toner on Thursday. (Saturday was the expo) So I came back first thing on Friday ready to print but realized I needed to compile and edit stuff, have others proof my French, and put the document in PDF rather than publisher. So finally, around 1pm we were ready to print the English version, but then the office were the only functioning color printer was locked, and since it’s Friday, the employees were done for the weekend at noon. We ended up breaking in to this office by climbing in through the window. We finished stapling the 8 English and 15 French catalogues at around 6pm. Long day. I was so happy to crawl into bed Friday, already anxious for the weekend to be over.

Saturday, I was the “coordonatrice” for the weekend, starting before 9. More or less, I was the go-to girl for any question anyone could possibly have. I rarely got a chance to sit but we had a really good turn out Saturday morning and great chebu jen for lunch. At 4, we had a meeting to discuss the possibility of creating an organized group among the artisans so they become more in charge. Trying to work myself out of a job… At 5 we had a reception with some good food and a few VIPs or buyers came to meet our artisans and even the US ambassador and president of USAID. At 6, our SED trainer, Bamba Fall, led a training on costing that the artisans seemed to really enjoy. Funny when Bamba mentioned it’s not always a good investment to marry a second wife when profits are up. I got home a bit after 7, skipped dinner and was sleeping by 8:30. Much needed

Sunday was easier. It was a chilly day in Dakar that kept quite a few people away from the pool and the club but sales were still alright. We had good cheb (rice) and attaaya (tea) and the artisans started moving out around 3. We were excited to celebrate a bit with a tasty beer and the 3 or 4 of us who stuck around to clean up ended up scoring a free round from an RPCV. After that, we went out for a great dinner, spent more money that I can really afford, but the 4 of us ordered 2 good bottles of red wine and I had shrimp and pineapple pizza. I deserved it. The weekend was a complete success. Artisans are happy, we have a possibility to form an organized group to network together and new opportunities for personal orders.

Now I am on vacation. Alhumdulilaye. Happy Thanksgiving!