Buying Lenca

The Lenca pottery is very popular in Honduras.  It is made by the Lenca Indians, an indigenous group of people in Honduras.  Most of the pottery is black and white, but some is green and black or red and black.  We started selling a few pieces on Lenca in the Casa store 4 years ago.  Since 2008, we have added a few more pieces every year.  This year we found a new source for our Lenca pottery.  It is near the border of El Salvador and Honduras.

In April, Nicole and I went there and placed an order.  We ordered some of our good ol' standbys and then we ordered some brand new pieces.

Talking to the lady was very interesting.  We learned that her family had been making this pottery for four generations.  She had pottery every where and in various stages of production.  This pottery is white and turns black when fired.  There is an ashy-like substance that is put on the pottery.  Any place this substance is on the pottery, it prevents the pottery from turning black.  She showed Nicole and I how it was put on.  She took a little bag of this stuff and did a quick design.  Some of the designs are very intricate.  With my think-in-the-box mind, I could not even begin to comprehend how long some of the designs would take.  And she picked up and did it in a few seconds. 

My order was to be ready on May 28.  The lady called Marc and said it would not be ready on the 28th, but on the June 4.  Marc thought she said it would be ready on the 28th and I drove down for it, only to find I would need to return.  She had most of my pottery done, in some form or another, but not ready to take home.  Again, I talked to her some more and found out she has 3-5 employees, depending on demand at the moment.  Also some of her family helps, but she doesn't count them as employees.

Today was the day to return south for my order.  Marc did not want me to go by myself and I always hate to ask someone to miss a work day to do something like this.  We decided we would ask for a volunteer to ride with me.  I had two volunteers, Erin Eberhart and one of the interns, Christina.

We left here around 8:30 or 9:00.  On the highway from Tegucigalpa to Choluteca, the turn to Santa Ana is just about at the top of the mountain.  I go up all the way from Tegucigalpa and shortly passed our turn we start to descend rapidly.  Descending towards the Pacific Ocean means as we descend the temperature rises.  Very rapidly.  We all noticed the rapid rise in temperature.

I could hear the click-click of cameras as Erin and Christina snapped away.  My kind of girls.

We stopped once for much needed cold drinks.  When we arrived, I had never seen the number of people at this place.  My product began to be hauled out of the house and onto the massive front porch.  We counted every piece.  I had a notebook I had written my order in, using black ink.  Today, I had a pink pen so that I could circle the number I received.  Sweat was pouring off of me and onto my notebook making my notebook a big pink mess. We may not have worked as hard as the house crew, but quite possibly we were sweating as much as the house crew.  Then when everything had been counted,  everyone began to wrap every piece, including Christina, Erin and me.  I soon found out why all those people were there.  They had come to get this order out.

I sat down with my calculator and began to figure what I owed.  I had it all calculated and in a neat little column and Maria had it calculated in her head long before I finished.  Nice, an artist and a mathematician.

I wanted Erin and Christina to see the shop.  Maria proudly took us back there and showed us and explained even more.  She quickly did a design to show us.  There was a lady scraping the black off of the fired pieces.  She was using what looked like a business card.  She got all the black pieces off and polished it with a rag and it was then ready to be sold.  Her fingertips were blackened from the burnt  material.  I had never seen this stage before.  We all stood fascinated by this process.

We then loaded the car.  Wisely, I only brought two people with me.  I knew my order was big, but I didn't know it would take every inch of space in the trooper.  There is no telling what that car weighed.  After a few more pictures and hugs, we left for Santa Ana.

We stopped at the same place for something else to drink.  I have had a lot of tea today.  We all bought chips, too.  We were all craving something salty.

The trooper is workhorse kind of car, but I am not sure it has ever worked so hard as we slowly climbed back up the mountain.  And we welcomed the cooler temperatures.

I have a lot of new product for the Casa de Esperanza store and I think Christina and Erin had a good day, too.

Terri