Bizarre Bazaars

Well, usernames and passwords are forgotten never to be retrieved. Here I go again at another try at blogging...

Another bazaar is done and over with again. It's hard to believe that this is my third one. I must admit that this one is by far the best experience yet. I was very close to abandoning this event, but felt obliged to continue on with it. I did not give it my best and became extremely worried before the event itself that I would be letting the parish and the bazaar vendors down. With help from various people, we managed to get enough vendors and got the word out as best as we could. When the doors opened at 9:00am I felt a rush of panic. The gym felt empty and the bare tables were haunting me. I've always had to add tables and packed in as many vendors as I could. This was going to be a disaster. Fortunately, my vendors were hopeful and all very friendly. As the day went on, a steady stream of customers would walk by. Plenty of parishioners were on hand to patronize my vendors (yes, they become part of me during this weekend). I found myself enjoying the day immensely. Friends dropped by to talk, I would chat with vendors, or just stand at my consignment area to sell items entrusted with me.

We had several repeat vendors such as the Monastery Mustard produced by the Benedictine Sisters at Mt. Angel. This is always such a big hit. Sr. Alicia has been participating since our first bazaar and our customers return every year to buy their stock of mustards. My Gyspy Mouse vendor, Jana, seems to enjoy coming to St. Mary's considering she lives in Eugene. Marlene Turner's Reigning Roses is always a delight to see because of her beautiful, live roses that she dries and makes into ornaments. If I were to give out awards to my vendors, she would receive the Best Booth Display award. It takes her and her husband at least two hours to set up her booth and it is worth every minute. My favorite item from her booth was her Amulet of Faith. Inside this tiny bottle (about an inch and a half tall) is the smallest rose in the world (called the Si Rose) with a mustard seed inside -- all it takes is faith the size of a mustard seed. Of course, whether by choice or out of obligation, my sister, Katrina G. Yuen, was there with her MNL Style products. This booth was quite the success! Every customer had to have her juice pouch bags. They also enjoyed the stories that came with each product -- a lot of her products are made out of natural fibers from the Philippines and she also has items made of recycled materials. I was happy to also have Father Matt and his paintings. He is quite the trooper to come out and join us again even in his weakened state. His beautiful artwork attracted plenty of shoppers and he even sold a couple of paintings. One of my happiest return vendors was Pat Fink with her beaded ornaments. She did not do very well last year, but decided to give us another try. She almost sold out of some of her ornaments and was even thinking that she might be able to close shop early because her items were selling quickly.

One difference this year was the participation of our Hispanic community. This was such a blessing! We had food ranging from empanadas made by one of our high school youth, Sebastian Letelier. There was also flan, tamales, tiramisu, scones prepared by other Hispanic ladies. All tummy fillers that could not be resisted! Alexander Contreras, a coffee farmer and excellent guitarist who was selling rosaries made out of coffee beans, played his guitar to which vendors and customers alike would applaud from time to time. This truly added a festive feel to the gym. Lillian Velasquez displayed her antique linens that she restores herself. Noemi Bennett was back again with her cross-stitch cards, ornaments and bookmarks. Azucena Gutierrez had jewelry that she designed herself and beautiful silver jewelry from Mexico.

To add to the character of our bazaar, ,my Turkish-Italian vendor, Lilliana Egri, would bang on her pan to encourage people to buy her delicious and widely-popular baklava. It was so delicious that one of our parishioners, Eric Sandoval, gave her roses and a card the next day thanking her for selling baklavas at the bazaar. This made her day and she beamed the whole time. The added bonus for her was that this lonely, elder lady had made a new friend. Where as last year she pretty much kept to herself, this time around she stayed on after she had sold out of baklava to chat with the other vendors.

There was just a festive, joyous feel to the gym that I could not explain. People I never had the opportunity to really get to know before stopped to talk and say how much they were enjoying themselves. Children took the time to take care of other children, much to the delight of mothers! Vendors became friends with each other because they would go to each others' booths and talk about their wares. Best of all... Vendors who hardly sold anything the year before were amazed at how much more they were selling this year.

This time around we also had to put away all tables and chairs, which we did not have to do the previous years. With no effort on my end at all, we had a clean up crew busily putting tables and chairs away and even mopping the floor afterwards. We truly left the gym cleaner than we started. Thanks to Francis (our volunteer extraordinaire from Portland), Katrina (a star vendor!), Eric (who just seemed to enjoy hanging out at the bazaar the whole day on Sunday), Cindy (whose chocolates were a new addition to our bazaar), and the husband of another vendor, we got the gym cleaned up in no time.

Yes, this is my yearly party and this year it was a blast! What made it memorable was that everyone was happy. I can't begin to explain how important prayer was in all this for me. As I mentioned earlier, I truly felt that I was letting everybody down this year. The only way this could have turned out to be a such a pleasant experience was through prayer. I did not have the number of vendors that I had wanted. I did not place ads in the same places I had the years before. I just did not put in the same amount of effort at all this year. I just prayed that all would turn out well and that it wouldn't be disastrous. My prayers were answered and more! The smiles that I saw on my vendors faces at the end of both days took away all the worries and anxiety that I had and replaced it with gratitude to the Lord. He works through so many different people in my life and this weekend he sent a few hundred people my way.

I invite all of you to join us next year! The Filipinos are now planning on serving food next year. Vendors are already planning on joining again and people have come up to me telling me how they would like to participate next year. Until then, I think I'm going to get some rest now.