Here are a few of the other samples of Amizmiz pottery. Again, this is about the extent of the pottery designs. There's one potter, Mohamed Boumlik, who is fairly innovative, but that's only 0.001% of the potters at my site.

As you may have read earlier, I was planning to take a few of my potters to this Imichil Festival that I have been talking about since last January. Unfortunately, I was not authorized to go. I was not authorized to go because I didn't really have a reason to go as it turned out. After discussing with my potters, the Imichil Festival and the task on their part to come up with 3 new designs based on my 30 conceptual design sketches, they failed on their commitment to me. So, after providing them with 3 weeks to simply come up with concepts that we could later tweak, they didn't even come up with anything!

I was fairly disappointed and niave in my automatic assumptions that they would simply produce the new designs I set out for them. On time, and without fuss. So, now my disappointment has turned into a new optimism, because I now see this as just another part of the process of Peace Corps. It's a challenge, and if overcome, it's a success story. So, I took a step back and a deep breathe in order to organize my approach. I returned to meet with these potters again, and they explained to me that the time they take away for new R&D (research and development) is time taken away from their staple income. That's a no brainer that I didn't even consider. But, I assumed with the Delegation meeting with them and my explaination about the benefits of moving into new marketplaces, that they would immediate pick up on the idea and run with it without hesitation.

But, when I began to think more about it, it's my belief that these potters have a nightly pressure placed on them to sell their work. They desprately need to sell their work in order to provide for themselves and their family. At the moment, they don't see the value in coming up with new designs. They are, for all sense and purpose, just labors that manufacture products dictated to them by their current market. They aren't "artisans" per say, with the freedom for creation. They are subjected to these designs for economic reasons. So, when I come to them and say, "Okay, we're going to do new designs". The first thing they think of is "time versus money". In retrospect, I wish they would have just told me earlier so I could deal with it headon, since I had to cancel reservations made to place them at the Imichil Festival. But, then again, it's their culture to just say, "Yes, okay, this is good". They're not like most Americans, in forwarding their opinions.

So, at the moment, the work with the potters is on hold. I need to reflect about what I will do next. This isn't the Peace Corps way to use your own pocket change, but I'm contemplating the action of just paying for the new design concepts (materials and labor) with my own funds. Then, hopefully these new designs will pay for themselves in the future with the retail price placed on them. Just like when I was selling software at Oracle and Unisys, the potential customer that you're trying to persuade with your product is somewhat wearing on investing in an unproven product. I need to make some small successes, which is why I'm willing to place my own funds into R&D.

Another challenge that I'll quickly talk about it, is the skill level of the collective potter community, the availability of funds/tools, and finally the quality of the clay veins found in Amizmiz. Each category of this challenge is sub-par. I need to develop a design(s) that aren't too much of a stretch for my potters, while still creating a product that can be sold in the outer markets of Amizmiz. So, just like in basketball, if you're the coach of a team, then you need to do the best with the players that you have. I need to not so much enforce my designs, as to work with them to come up with a reasonable product that will accomplish our collective goals.

It's all a learning process, but I find that I can draw upon other expiences to guide me in my decisions. ;)