Sales and a Surprise

We had a last minute flurry trying to finish a number of samples of the new products for the 2^nd International Craft Fair, but ended up having too many products to display on our table.

We thought the flow of people was a little down on last years event, although we still made sales of over $100 over the 6 hr market, which was  a great improvement compared to the recent Independence Market in town.

I was able to meet with Nga Nguyen (a consultant from BESIK) who was in Dili to present the findings of a preliminary survey on women’s Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM). Last November Besik sent some staff out to 2 districts and interviewed some women.  The consultant wanted to meet with me and see Belekria’s products.  She also invited me to hear the report the following Monday at the Ministry of Health.

I also happened to have a stall next to me with a lady who is starting a small business doing dog training etc.  She had a chat with me about Belekria producing some “treat bags” for dog owners to hold treats while training.

Finally and perhaps most wonderfully, I was introduced to a lovely American woman who is leaving Timor in a few weeks.  She was explaining that she had $1200 which had been donated to support the commencement of a business, but the business in mind had not got off the ground, so she was hoping to find a worthwhile use for the money, and she asked if Belekria needed machines or some other infrastructure.  My eyes opened a little wider and I explained that as we had had so much work, our sweet home machines were being overworked and were starting to be unusable – over heating etc.  I also explained that I had been discussing the possibility of purchasing some industrial machines such as the tailors here use.

She was excited by the idea and encouraged me to find and buy some machines and she would hand over the donation! WOW!

So we are looking at purchasing 2-3 industrial machines and hopefully letting our sweet home style

machines take a break though we will still need them for fancy stitches like zig zag etc.

A windfall and some wild winds

Friday market day again!  The sewing room was buzzing in the morning as we all whipped up a few more balls and other new items to sell. (more on that later).  We were also excited that Samuel had driven off to the Rotary shipping container event!.  We were expecting a couple of  boxes from Northern NSW.  A combination of some items i had purchased earlier – lots of PUL and FOE elastic, as well as some sewing supplies collected by my parents, aunt, and friends.  Samuel had been gone a few hours and we were all heading out the door for a quick lunch before doing the big afternoon transporting/market scene.  But here comes the car!  How exciting!  The girls all say “Oh! there are lots of boxes!”   Sure enough  a total of 4 large boxes were emptied out of the car and shuffled into our cramped sewing room :)

Christmas!! Party! Presents! Open them lets have a look!
 


 We only had a short time, so we tore the tape away and had an amzing time seeing what what inside.  So much wonderful stuff!! laces, balls of wool, fabrics galore, books, sharp scissors, threads, threads and more threads!! And lots more!  What a blessing!
Thankyou so much to everyone who sent these things over.  The items are so valuable here, and the women know that this will help their sewing group to continue to move forward.  It is such an encouragement!!
God bless you abundantly!!

Friday is a long day, so this blog will be a long blog :)
So we dragged ourselves away from the boxes of goodies, and raced home for lunch.  Sweet Emmy had made lunch for us all which was wonderful as we had all been so busy.  After lunch we cleared the table, popped it on the roof of THE TRUCK! (Yes it is back in action – somewhat).
Then we drove around to the sewing room and loaded on a treadle machine, boxes and baskets of products  and chairs, etc etc
When we arrived at the market site there was a bit of a blustery wind stirring.  We started setting up the  table and chairs and clothing rack and putting our products on the table.  The first sign that things may get interesting was when our clothing rack fell over.  Hmm.  We tried putting heavy rocks on the base bu it fell again, so then we tied it to the metal frame.  However the canvas was flapping madly, and suddenly a metal bar from the centre of the top fell down and swung near our heads!  Aghhh!  Eeek!
We were getting a little disturbed.
Some market staff came and started wiring the metal frame at some places to make it a bit stronger.  However by this time we were all standing around the edge and slowly dashing in to get our gear away in case anything else should happen.  Our canvas roof was a particularly old damaged one, so the tears that had been taped up now started ripping with a frenzy.  So the market men came and took off the canvas, and we all agreed to move our bodies and our belongings to a safer location – a fixed timber shelter.  There we sat for around 2 hours.  Chatting, snacking, and ooohing and awing as the wind continued to blast the coast.  We finished off the hand sewing of the balls we had been making.
At one point a metal frame which had not yet had its canvas removed started swaying and then suddenly the legs were pulled out of the ground and the whole frame flew up and tumbled over!  There was a lot of screaming as you can imagine.  Thankfully no one was in the vicinity of the thrashing metal bars!  I tell you my heart was racing!
Other stalls were securing their belongings and settling down to wait out the wind.    We were all wondering if we should just reload the truck and head home, or just keep praying that the wind would stop.  By around 5:30 the gusts were getting less frequent and we decided to have another go at setting some our heavier products out, as a few customers were starting to arrive. 
We used lots of masking tape to hold coat hangers in place, and rocks to hold cloth books and cushions down. 
And you know what?  It was worth the hassle as we sold over $60 worth of products!!!!
YAY!!
Lots of balls sold, as well as 1 book, 3 school skirts,  and 2 dresses.
Sinta, Anna, Novi and Nona were so happy.

And as the sun set over the ocean, the full moon was rising behind us over the hill.
  
We just made it home before midnight, exhausted but happy… and that is the end of the story…..

Cloth Pad set sponsoring

I mentioned a few weeks ago, about a lovely visitor from Melbourne – Celeste.  She returned home and started sharing about our vision here in Bellekria.  She produced a lovely PowerPoint presentation, and asked women to consider purchasing a cloth pad set for distributing to poor women in rural locations.
Well she has since emailed us with a list of lovely names – 6 women who also decided to assist this project.
The women who kindly gave were Margaret Devis, Cheryl Chaplain, Karen Young, Vanessa Clayton, Judy Cooper, and Deb Pledger
 
Thankyou so much for supporting this vision.  We plan to take some sets to a village about a 2 hr drive from Dili.  We hope to be able to take some photos of the women who receive the sets.  

Marketing and Packaging

 

Samuel has been trying to get a bit more involved in helping Bellekria out.  He has recently employed a Timorese guy part time to do some work for us.  One of his tasks will be taking Novi and Sinta around to various NGOs and Gov departments trying to promote our cloth pads.  So then we start thinking about packaging….how can we present these products attractively?  Perhaps a small cloth bag?  So i asked Sinta to whip up a couple of trial bags – one elasticised top and one drawstring.  But each of them would have to priced at $1 each which is just too much to add to our pricing.   Hmmmm more thinking.  Perhaps a paper bag?  The local Timor NGO “KOR TIMOR” makes paper and paper products.   Perhaps we could drop in and have a chat.   So on a shopping trip I plan to go there, however our time runs out, so we head home.  On the way home, Samuel runs into a hardware shop to buy some nails.   A few minutes later he is back at the car smiling smugly and asking me to go in with him.   I am thinking ok, maybe this place sells washing machines and one is on sale?  Or perhaps he wants my opinion on some product for one of his various building projects….but no!  He leads me to a dark shelf hidden away, and would you believe it?  Feminine packaging bags, complete with sealable ends and in bulk!  100 small ones for $6, large ones $10!  PERFECT!!!  Beautiful, attractive, protective and cheap!  In a hardware shop of all places….Only in Timor!??  

What  a blessing.  I couldnt wait to get hom to show Sinta and Novi.  They were delighted!  They couldnt believe how proffesional they made our product look.  Sinta got all excited and by the next afternoon had packaged up most of our products, complete with swing tags and displayed them on our bench top for customers to browse through…:)

Sweet Hope

Two of the women who visited these past weeks have been very encouraging!!  They listened to our desire to assist poor women with cloth pads.  They felt that they would like to help somehow, and came up with the idea of raising funds to purchase sets which then can be distributed to women in the mountains.  It was what my heart was desiring.  I have been able to give away a few packs myself to a few Timorese women, and I would love to be able to give more.  So they have both purchased some samples and taken a brochure with them to try and educate friends and acquaintances about the need here.
Yay!
And another visitor has requested a small order of bags to take with her to sell back home.  Very exciting!
Sinta, and Novi have been so busy with other orders that we haven't put time into  marketing the pads to relevant female/health NGOs.  Hopefully over the next few months we can move lots of pads into the communities.

The Crate arrived!

Well, it was a momentous occasion… I was finally well enough to walk next door, and Samuel rang me to say that the crate would be arriving!   He offered to help the Rotary guy sort and unload so off he drove around 9am.  3 hours later he arrived back here with the little Suzuki all loaded up.  Seven machines, a number of large and small boxes.  So exciting!! We quickly sorted out the small amount of school gear for Serenity and Israel, and then began to unpack the other boxes.
Patterns, 3 craft/embroidery books, notions such as threads, buttons, fabrics….
Heres a few pics.
One lovely lady from Tweed Heads donated a beautiful old style Bernina.  Sinta asked a few months ago about paying off a machine and starting her own small home mending business on weekends.  So when the shipment arrived we spent a few hours looking at all the machines and discussing their pros and cons.  She ended up asking to take the lovely Bernina.  I know that she will make good use of it. 

better books....

Well, we finally sent off the 50 bags to Darwin... All bagged and labeled.  The lovely folk from Palmerston stashed them in their bags for us yesterday afternoon as they headed home.  Sinta took today off, as she worked pretty hard last week getting them all ready.
So last night I was thinking...hmm, what shall she do now?  I dont really want to pay her wages just to potter, the uniform and bag sales to locals have slowed down, and Im not quite up to fully marketing/canvassing our cloth pads.... 
Anyway, im not sure i even offered it up as a verbal prayer, but God must have heard my sigh, cause this morning who should appear?

Sweet Beth from the library in Ermera...can she order 15 more cloth books for the library?  The people love them!  And while your at it another 2 for personal use....
Wow.  She even returned later this afternoon to pay a deposit, so we can source some fabric and get started ASAP!!!
She also asked if Sinta would be willing to run a workshop for a sewing group there.  teaching them how to make the books.  They will cover her wage for the day and any material costs.  It just seems to keep coming.  Im really not putting a lot of effort into it myself as i am just trying to cope at re-adjusting and focusing on educating the kids, and feeding us all.  Meals and school are about all i can cope with.  (Not that i am doing an exceptionally good job at either of them?)  So I am so grateful that God seems to be doing the legwork and finding work for Bellekria!