#lasvecinas

Here are pictures of Kiara to distract you from recent lack of posts.

Monday is Day of Internships at the CRC.  Meaning, each student travels courtesy public transportation to his or her place of employment for hours of interning fun.  I have the privilege of working with Las Vecinas, a group of women who live in a small impoverished community located on the outskirts of campus.  They have developed a card making business, what is officially called a micro-enterprise, from which they reap what they sow, i.e. make individual profits based on their works sold.  So if you buy a card made by Rosa, Rosa will be the one earning the 2000 colones price paid (colones being Costa Rican currency, like this). 

The cards themselves are naturally sourced and reasonably priced.  Also pretty. We use dried flowers to recreate original designs provided by our lovely teacher Elena, a Costa Rican woman with a knack for giving constructive criticism and working with Mod Podge.  Rosa (pictured below, to the left) and I will be meeting Thursday morning bright and early to stroll around the beautiful CRC campus and collect flowers to be dried for future use.  It's rough, this internship life.    

I'm thrilled to be working with these women, to explore who they are and why they live as they do.  I also see the effort put behind each card, and I am all about it.  If you have any interest in supporting these women as they attempt to supplement their family income, holler at me for info on available products, pricing, and the like.   

We make a mean Christmas card, folks. (See below). 

  Photos courtesy Whitworth CRC facebook page.