IWA Christmas Expo or Bazaar

We had a long night Friday into Saturday.  Marty has been involved with the (International Women's Association) since we were residents here.  Even though we are no longer full-time residents she still participates with the IWA and their huge Christmas fundraising event.  Over the past few days she has put the participants Into a computer generated sortable list.  Every day since she got the list it has changed and on Friday night when it came time to do the actual setup with the tables it changed yet again.   Beginning to do the setup was complicated by the Kazaks who were having a reception in the ballroom and were paid up through 4:00 a.m. Saturday.  

Setting up for the bazaar/expo is a two to four hour stint, shorter if things go well and longer if they don't.  Friday evening started out by thinking that the ballroom would be empty by 10:00 p.m. Which came and went with Kazaks' band and the booze flowing like a stream in the spring after a heavy rain.  More time passed and then suddenly it seemed quiet, the band had stopped!  At 12:30 a.m. we were able to get started but this was when the pre planning once again fell apart.  The hotel was setting up tables nearly half a meter longer than the floor plan allowed, and they were half the width!  They were dirty, dirty, dirty tables which then needed to be washed....all 100+ of them and then we were able to start reorganizing to accommodate the new size table!  Things continued to go down hill as we prepared to organize the ballroom only to find that the hotel had run out of tableclothes and the proper sized ones would not be available until 9:00 am, an hour after exhibitors were going to start setting up.  The compromise was to use two smaller clothes vs the larger ones.  We finished up our work at 3:30 and headed home for some sleep.  

Saturday morning arrived and Marty headed to the Sheridan to assist with exhibitor check-in while David caught a few extra hours of sleep.  Above a general view of the area outside the ballroom.  Below a few photos to sample the flavor of the day with folks in costume.

It was a crazy morning with exhibitors demanding different places and names on the list not making sense when folks checked in for groups as we didn't have all the names of members in groups.  But eventually almost all exhibitors showed up and were given a space.  All this confusion leads us to ask ourselves many questions about the purpose of the bazaar and just who it is supposed to serve in the end.  All this remains for another day.

We did some good shopping for Christmas and after Marty worked a shift at the IWA Tombula space ending with a glass of hot mulled wine on an empty stomach she was fading quickly so by 2:30 pm we were both at home and resting.  

Evening found us with family on Budapest Street and enjoying the company of three of Nia's sisters, their children and her cousin and his wife.  Food was plentiful as was the village wine.  We lasted only until around 10:30 before it was obvious that we would both be nodding off right there at the table!  Our evening also included a Skype call with Nia, Seth and children.  It is one of the wonders of technology that we can pass around an iPad and talk to everyone.