Crafts Fair 2013
We had another US Embassy sponsored crafts fair yesterday and of course I went because, face it, there isn’t much else to do and when something like that comes along, you at least take advantage of it. I went into work for a few hours in the morning and got out a bit before lunch time.I’d been thinking about whether I really wanted to buy anything (pretty much, it’s the same kind of stuff I’ve seen and bought before . . .) so as I was walking through the security checkpoint I thought, “I’ll just walk around till I find somebody, offer to buy them a beer and just hang out.” Well that’s exactly what happened!
Earlier this week I met Kevin Whitlock, a forest economist advisor for the GEMS project, brought here to evaluate the forestry concessions sector - a nice guy, someone I didn’t know too well, and someone that would be new and interesting to talk to - so I walked on over to him, chatted a bit about what he’d been looking at, then offered to buy him a beer. Now there was, of course, the Club stand that, if you remember, only sells in quantity - $5 for 5 beers so . . . I bought 5 beers. This year Club raised its game and not only did you get a slip to hand in for a prize from the crafts fair (Kevin later won a tooth pick holder), I got to reach in, pull out a number and win a prize. While it wasn’t a t-shirt, it was definitely something practical for a bald guy like me!
About half way through our first beers we moved the topic of conversation away from his work here and I asked him about home - where it is, what he does at home, etc. Interestingly, he’s a forester for a couple of properties owned by the Nature Conservancy in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe and he started telling me about them. After a while I pretty much invited Ann and me to come down there to get a tour and he said, “Sure, I’d love it!”
We kept talking and right as we started beer two another friend, Andrew Triscutt, a geo-spatial data guy for the MCC threshold land project and a riot of a fellow, stopped by and I offered him a beer. Andrew is my inside man for all things mapping and I’ve tapped his knowledge a couple of times - each ending with, “If you can get this/find this out for me/figure this out I’ll buy you a beer.” I now owe Andrew a couple of beers, but assured him yesterday that the beer didn’t count for the ones I owe him.
Long story short, we chatted through our beers, Kevin and I took off to at least look around, and we agreed to meet back in a while. That’s what we did - Kevin was looking at a couple of nice paintings and photographing them, e-mailing them to his wife, and deciding how much they were worth to him to see how far down he had to haggle on the prices. I went and found a stand run by a refugee Liberian women and asked them to make me something for Pen. Then, as we were walking back to the food tent, I saw Andrew on the far side of the fair and used the universal sign language of lifting a bottle to my mouth and pointing to the beer tent, which he confirmed with a thumbs up. A few minutes later, we were sitting around with 6 beers (someone handed Andrew a beer as he was walking up to our table), chatting away about pretty much everything. What a way to spend a crafts fair!
After three full hours and way too many beers, Kevin said he had to go haggle over a painting or two then write a report (for me, well actually for GEMS who would then give it to me) and I said I wanted to go home to chat with Ann, get something in my stomach and some fluid in me other than coffee or beer before I had to play volleyball at 5.
On my way out I stopped by Uzman’s stand - he owns a shop between here and the Embassy where I’ve bought stuff for Ann and the guys and who waves to me every afternoon on my way home - I had to find something to buy from him. As it was, he had a pair of nice small masks that were a good price so . . .
All in all, a very good crafts fair. And since Kevin noted a couple of times that afternoon that Ann and I really do need to get down his way, and that he’d show us some great sights, I know the offer to visit is sincere. Which made it an excellent afternoon!