Card Making in El Plan

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Last Friday I had the privilege of leading a little card making workshop for a few ladies that live in Plan Tres Mil, a settlement in Santa Cruz. Another MCC couple, Chris and Lindsey, work and live in that area of the city. The Plan is an interesting place because it was originally set aside to be a resettlement in the 80's for 3000 families after they were displaced because of flooding in a different part of Santa Cruz. Well, now there are about 10,000 families living there and there is widespread poverty.

Pedro drove Lizette and I, along with my suitcase of card making stuff to Chris and Lindsey's house. From there, the three of us ladies walked along a dirt road, pulling/pushing/carrying my suitcase. It must have looked a bit humourous to passerbys! There were a totally of 10 ladies in addition to the three of us. I realized as we entered onto the yard that I had forgotten to look up the word for card (tarjeta?) and didn't know what ink or stamp was in Spanish. Sigh, I guess I'll have to wing it.

I made three different cards for us to make. Lindsey had paper sent from the States and I provided all the ink and the stamps. The ladies were very excited about making Christmas cards and I was looking forward to sharing what I had. I figured that these ladies wouldn't ever have some of the things that I had in my suitcase, and I was humbled by the fact that for so long I've taken for granted my very expensive pile of stuff.

I showed them how to make the first card, and then we made it all together. It was fun to hear them talk about their families and I told them a bit about mine. There was even a lady there that spoke some English, and she was a very neat woman. After we had made another 2 cards, I told the ladies that if they wanted, they could stamp a bunch of images on to the paper to take home and make more cards. I told them that's what my friends and I always did.

After it was all said and done, the ladies asked how much it would cost and we told them it was free. They were very pleased. Then someone asked if maybe we could do this again, and without a blink, I said I'd love to. I told them that I would thrilled to be back and we could make birthday cards after Christmas.

So it was a learning experience for us all. I learned that ink in Spanish is entinte and stamp is estampe! The ladies learned how to make cards and I even told them about my friend Audrey who doesn't use stamps at all, but draws out the picture or word art that she wants. They were all fascinated with that (plus, they then wouldn't have to make or buy stamps). And I learned an important thing about stuff. I was reminded that your belongings should be things that you share with other people, that what you have may be something unattainable to someone else, someone living very close to you. I look at my stamp collection, then on to my other things, and hope that I can hold onto these loose enough that someone else might be blessed by them.