Market Meri

I love the last Saturday of each month becuase it's Ela Beach market time - I go every month and every month I walk away with beautiful things - necklaces, paintings, dukduks, shells...

Well this Ela Beach was even better because this time, we had our own stall - the Marianville calendar stall.

We got there at 6.30am to get our space in the shade (just near Neil's usual corner) and set up with our table draped in the PNG flag the Purples gave me last weekend, and our displays of calendars open to the Hiri Motu and the Simbu pages (chosen specifically to target our anticpated audience!)

Pia and I had picked up our Kathleen(11P) on the way, and she'd brought her orange and white, as requested - the uniform multiplies our sales by at least 500% I reckon - and we were joined by Pauline (a grade 9) early in the day. I started off sitting with them, and as the market opened it was me at first who was drawing in the people to come and look because the girls were too shy. I'd encourage them to target the next white women who walked by, and they tried, but with their tiny little voices I could barely hear them. I was also trying to get them to change their sales pitch - rather than the whispery little "calendars on sale" , I was coaching them to say "support women's education in PNG!" - how do you walk away from that??? But as long as I was there, it just wasn't going to work.

So, I said I'd go for a spin and let them do the sales, and when I came back I wanted them to tell me they'd sold at least 5. And I toddled off for a look around the stalls, coming back 20 minutes later to see a happy customer being sent on his way with a loud "thank you for your support", and 2 proud girls with big beams telling me they'd sold 14 since I'd gone!

I left them to it - they were obviously doing much better without me - and wandered to my heart's content. Those two girls didn't stop all morning - they refused chances for a break and a spin themselves, only stopping 15 minutes before the market closed.

We (they) sold 80 calendars that morning, leaving us with a boxful of money to take to the bank and a huge boost in the self-confidence of our two students - I was so proud of them!

Way to go, girls - that's empowerment in itself.