Laura with jewelry

Laura registering women on Buying Day.
Laura modeling jewelry that Amalia made!

We had a Buying Day this Wednesday and Laura helped us out - register women and their products, select the best quality - and most importantly - she is taking it back to the U.S.! This week has been really crazy, lots of activity and Laura is in the heart of it all. She has been a big help and I think has gotten a deep, inside look into all the joys and frustrations of micro-credit.

Yesterday we tried a new activity where we gathered a group of women to all work on coin purses together and see how many we could make. It has been one of my longest activities (3 1/2 hrs.) and after all that time we had finished only 10 coin purses. We had a couple women stay and finish up, but Laura and I went home exhausted (before all 30 purse were finished). The coin purses that we finished are suppose to be U.S. bound, but our group lacks the "exportable" training to really make their products sell-able outside of the U.S. We think next time we need to have more sewing machines, bigger space, more examples of what is "exportable." DHF is trying all kinds of new things with our women and learning as we go - just like the women.