The obstacles

The intention was to simply make some pastelitos and encourage a couple of the girls in selling them to buy yet another baby crib. I sat down with Belen and Flor, explaining the various initial costs of the materials needed, the time factor, etc. I then explained how important it is to have an idea of how much you want to sell them for, perhaps marking a discount if customers want to buy half a dozen or a dozen.

I told them to fix a day each week, find their donor, y ta. (I must apologize, but even as I type this, I can't help thinking there are phrases in Spanish that cut to the point so much better than if I were to write them in English).

The girls learned how easy it is to make these sweets, and were animadas.. umm.. excited to start selling right away. I asked permission from the director, but was clear that this was not my intention. She gave us permission, and within an hour and within one square block, we sold 4 dozen.

84 pesos - 25 pesos in materials = 59 pesos

Not bad. Not amazing, but a great start. I got a text this morning from Ale asking where I bought the materials because they wanted to try again today.

Another phone call later in the day, and I hear that someone has stolen 200 pesos from Ale (from the 800 earned for selling 130 bracelets recently). "I don't understand why these things keep happening to me," she says. (She had been robbed of 100 pesos in May.)

She adds that they tried to sell 5 dozen pastelitos today, but they couldn't sell all of them. "But at least we tried."

I am reminded of The Alchemist. When we first have a dream, everything seems to push us forward. But after awhile comes the testing to see if we are willing to persevere to achieve our goal. I told Ale this--that while she is becoming a better person, everything will try to push her back. I said that I was sorry it happened, but I am sure they would be able to recover the money.

Then I said that people can be pretty flaky. One day, they want membrillo, and the next they want batata. Unpredictable, but you keep going. In the end, if you earn even just a little more than you spent, you're on the right track. After all, we are already almost a third of the way to buying the crib for Flor's baby (boy! we found out it's a boy on Friday!).

Chau, and sorry for the bad English.