Dec. 7 This month so far has been taken up mostly with carving and going to festivals, or getting ready for festivals. At the beginning of the month was tha festival of the trobadors in Quebradillas, the town where we live. We had arranged with Isaac to have a booth at the fair, although he must have forgot to tell those in charge since when we arrived we were not signed up. We managed to comandeer a spot where someone else failed to show up. We set up next to a guy and his wife from Quebradillas, and on the other side a lady from Añasco, both selling jewelry. It seemed like a nice spot. There was a row of tents set up to hold the artesans; however, unless you set up a tarp behind your area you got wet when it rained due to the wind. We set up for three days - long days from about 8 or 9 in the morning until 9 - 10 in the evening. Per hour our earnings were way less than minimum wage, but at least we made something. On Sunday, we took about four hours off as we participated in the live carving competition. I selected a nice piece of wood, as did Freyda, but they both turned out to be quite hard for cedro. I don't know if the others got softer pieces or not. This competition I placed fourth, and got an honorable mention. I followed the drawing and did not change the orientation, add anything unlike the competition in Aguada where I lost apparently for not being true to the figure given. Well this time those who added became the winners. Go figure. Here is an image showing all entries, and here are the winners and mine.
I worked on the competition piece for the town of Manatí while freyda sold and talked with customers. I did hands and arms one day and began work on the face and the rest afterwards. We took the figure in on the 6th, the last day to do so. I was number 10. Not many had entered as of yet. However, we saw another entry from Quebradillas that was excellent, although I am not sure that he followed the instructions of identifying the piece somehow with the town of manatí. That would be the only way that I could win against that carving. Here is my finished piece. Notice the manatee on the base to identify it with the town of Manatí. A close up of the main attraction. Zulma, the lady from San Juan, who had invited us to compete, was there when we turned it in and all of the workers liked the manatee as well as the rest. This carving was quite something to accomplish since I only had about two to three weeks to do it in, and the start was delayed a bit due to a bandsaw breakage that kept me from carving the virgen herself right away. Here I am standing beside my carving instructor, Isaac Laboy, when I took it over to show him the finished product before delivering it to Manatí.

The event in Manatí turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. We showed up early in order to get a spot. We had been told to be there at 9:30 am to be assigned a table. no one showed up till well after 9:30. I can't tell the exact time since I don't carry a watch. While we waited we made friends with a guy who went by the name of Taino, who set up a table in an empty spot with an empty table next to him. as time went by, it seemed as no one was going to use the tableso Freyda put her jewelry out just for exposure. Apparently some guy from the "Cultural Fomento" police came by and wanted to buy one of her quills. She only had three with her and they were taped to the board to show as examples. She told him that she could bring one for him the next day. Off he went and not more than a few minutes afterwards a lady came over and without even looking at her stuff told her that she could not have that jewelry at the show since it was not native or something like that. She checked Freyda's artisan ID and found only certification in carving so she said she would have to remove her jewelry. This got the day off to a bad start. I decided that I would not even put out my carvings after that, but when they started getting ready to give lunches to the participants, I gathered up four pieces that I thought I could sell at a reasonable amount and put them out on the empty table. A spartan display at best. The Fomento policeman who encountered Freyda earlier came by with his part bald head and most likely toupe' hair piece and asked something about who the invited artisan was. Freyda said we both were, and he made some comment about not having much to show and sell. I thought he was looking to see some Fomento ID so I took mine off and shoved it in his view but he did ot even look. Freyda said, "he is just an being an asshole" and by that time he gave us two plates. As he began to move away, the gaze of one of the other two guys helping him out met mine and I think he gave a rolling eye movement as I did and I am convinced that he knew that guy was a jerk too. Later on they went around giving out extras that they had and I thought he was surely an asshole after that. He did not stop to offer us a dish, but one of the other ladies working for the town of Manatí came and gave us one. After lunch I moved my four pieces to the next table where Taino had his stuff thereby exhibiting and empty table just to spite anyone involved in the incident earlier.

Finally the time for awards of the carving competition arrived. Only two hours after the time printed in the original entry form, and one half hour at least after the time printed in the schedule of events given that day at the event. There were twenty one individual entries in the contest, and they had published the categories that the prizes would fall under. Just like Puerto Ricans, the categories that they gave prizes out in the end did not match the categories published. I also noticed that the rule for having a carving between eight and twelve inches tall ment nothing either as one of the honorable mentions was at least fifteen inches tall and towered over mine which was exactly twelve inches. The prizes for honorable mention were given first and I did not recieve a mention. I thought that was a good sign since mine were much better than those two in my opinion. Technical excelence went to another guy form Quebradillas and it was easy to see why he received that award. After prizes for two other categories were given with no mention of my name, and only the total exellence remained, I began to get excited because I thought the only one I really had to worry about was the one that received technical excellence. When the winner was finally announced, I thought "what a crock" as I was not mentioned at all. I should have known I did not receive anything when earlier one of the head guys of the competition came by and said he really thought mine was beautiful. I've heard that before and also did not win that competition. Here are the winners. So we packed up everything and headed home. We ran into a huge traffic tie up of about five miles length on the autopista (interstate) all due to the merging of two lanes down to one. Puerto Ricans need to learn how to drive! We nearly got into a few fender benders as we tried ot stop some people from passing along the shoulder as puerto ricans do in such situations. After that we found out that a friend of ours had just had a heart attack and was undergoing open heart surgery in Ohio. Not a good day all 'round. I did see an interesting rotary engine Mazda whose owner claimed that there were only four of them on the island - a '74 Mazda truck.