My mind strays sometimes...wonder if we could do glass here and sell
 it, photos, art, whatever. But the big difference is these folks have
  to do this, there is not an alternative way to live and would I be
  stealing from them?  Then I think, maybe  I can learn to sell myself
  and what I do with the glass, photos, etc. and I can do it at home. I
  have bought some material which looks a bit wild to me--big design. I
  can have a tailor make some stuff out of it for little $, and still
  have enough material for a wall hanging or whatever. The patterns I
  see are amazing and it has been making me think about stained glass
  again. Using the patterns as a model for stained glass would be wow.

I fell for all the purple and different colors in this material, every trip I buy something I may regret. This may be it, but I'll have a tailor make something or hang it on a wall. What do you think?

  And theirs are batik, paint, silk screens, dyes. cow horns carved or painted (got me, I guess cows here have horns or they don't distinguish female/male)
  carvings and wood carvings (a lot of the same everywhere but still
  beautiful). And they don't have all sorts of fancy tools or have to
  have workshops be "just so" like in those glass or woodworking
  magazines. And the sewing machines, those really old black ones we
  consider antiques. Important to remember-I don't need a lot to make
  lovely things, it's a distraction. 
   I tried drawing for the 1st time over the weekend
and the judging in my brain, wow, it is so limiting. What do the>crafts people
and artists think here? Does the need for $$ and food and and keep them from creating? Though there are similar patterns, there are a lot of choices, but do they do what white people will buy or just do for the creating?

Sometimes I have to wonder, if every booth has the same carved wood pieces, are they really made in China?  I was told China has factories here where they make the crap that we get that says "made in China" so is that what these are?

While we wandered the booths, Saundra started asking the sellers if they sell fans. no one did. I thought this would be a great idea, we both did. It gets very very hot, even if the locals don't use them the visitors would buy them as souvenirs  and to move air around, especially in those hot crowded together booths. Today I learned that a chef came here and started buying up the property around his restaurant, he build these warehouse kind of thing and rents all these tiny booths to people to sell things. It would take hours to wander through all of them, it is hot and close inside. And now there is a Doubletree hotel, another lovely hotel, shops, and restaurants on the bay and the owner made his fortune.

It's much like colonialism, white people from Europe, US, corporations come to make money, big money even from starting small. Quite a few artists seem to be represented by foreigners, others are interested in finding dealers who will sell their work. There is a rumor that George Bush has bought a ton of property to develop on the Indian Ocean shore, and that he owns some oil or mining companies, or perhaps water since he bought a big piece of land in South America (Peru?) that is over a large fresh water source. So, where can people go? How can values change or how can people learn?  Certainly the claims of faith don't fit the business or behaviors.  But, a good piece of news--Anna with whom I work, met some people who are developing in her family village, copper mines I think, she walked over to the owner and told him he needs more than geologists, he needs social workers to advise him how to help the people, e.g. hospitals, schools, etc.  He has hired her as a consultant for good $ that he wants to do better for the people. You just never know.