Luckily we have a generator and the small backup generator from the farm to use if the brown out goes on too long
The internet/telephone line had a short and has finally been fixed.
The "Livelihood" program held a seminar yesterday on making jewelry (Cheap stuff). Ruby gave me a beautiful pair of earrings with a tozaz plastic dangle.
The "livelihood" program is piecework for locals, mainly women, to do to earn extra income. We usually subcontract it from Manila merchants, and supervise/deliver materials. When we were doing Christmas balls, which sell for $5-10 each in the US, the livelihood worker got paid 50 cents each, we got ten cents each, the middlemen (ship to the US, warehouse, sellers) the rest. But since the average wage is $3 a day, and since they could make one Christmas ball an hour, you can see it was good money. Not as good as working in a Manila factory, but here the housing is cheap, and most people have fields nearby to grow their own rice and veggies to eat.
But our percentage was mainly eaten up by the increase in Gasoline/diesel to ship the stuff, and wages for the drivers, so we didn't make much. That's why Chano has designed the Capiz lamps and items and brought workers in from Pampanga (who know how to work in Capiz) to make them. If we can ge the business going, these workers can move here and supervise others from nearby. But it's a very small business so far.
LINK shows some of his designs
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