$44 Pants on sale for 5 cordobas! What a buy.

Before coming down to Nicaragua, we were encouraged to bring clothing donations with us. As I packed, I felt more secure in bringing a larger duffle bag, knowing that about half of its contents was donations. I was happy to be relieved of them when we arrived as well.

It wasn't until the very end of our time in Nicaragua that we saw these donations come to use. Manna Project International has a no donation policy- instead of straight up giving people handouts, instead MPI would rather teach someone the value of items and an honest days work.

One our group's biggest projects was to set up a 'venta' or store to be held on our final Friday working in La Chureca, the municipal city dump. The prices would be set low to attract people to come as well as to make the clothing more affordable for the patrons.

For a couple days leading up to the big sale, there were bags upon bags and a room full of boxes to search through and sort first.

At one point it seemed like a shipment of clothing from the 80's exploded in our house or that we had been transfered back in time. Some of the donations were quite fun to look through, including this cowboy boot vest (pictured below) and the 30 or so babies velvet onsies!

Eventually we got through all the piles and rebagged them to be taken into La Chureca. When we arrived at the school/community center we had to set it all up, which meant unpacking the bags, setting up the price lists, and figuring out an adequate system of getting people in and out in an orderly fashion.

The rhythm would be set to 10 people allowed in at a time, 15 items per person, 15 minutes. They flowed in one door and out the back door and people were allowed to get back in line as long as they would wait their turn. As the first group came in, our neat folded piles of clothing turned into disheveled heaps but soon enough the piles began to diminish and get smaller. The venta was turning out to be quite successful.

As an American consumer, who has paid a visit to the mall since returning to the states, it was amazing and awe inspiring to see a pair of American Eagle pants priced at $44 being purchased for 5 cordobas. With the current exchange rate, that amounts to a whopping $1! Now, that, is a steal!

Despite such amazing mark downs and the push to make these people feel a sense of worth in allowing them to be consumers, at times I could still hear people mutter under their breaths "No hay nada" (translation: "There is nothing").

This was shocking to me. There was clearly stuff. We had filled the bed of a pickup truck quite high with luggage of clothing. It's funny and sad that some of these Nicas, despite being given an opportunity to buy nice good clothing for cheap, still saw a need to complain.

Sure, it would be a whole lot easier to simply be given free stuff, but I remember feeling quite important and accomplished buying my first big purchase with my own money back in middle school. I hope that our donations, that old floral dress I used to wear, Michael's beloved striped polo, and even that oh so lovely cowboy-ish vest make it into appreciative hands and clothe the bodies of beautiful souls trapped in La Chureca.