Nam Jai - A bazaar for Asia

A bazaar for Asia - reported by Taco Stroo

I had never quite realised that people collect so many things… or actually I did, because I am quite the collector myself. Well, everything was more than welcome to be sold at our special bazaar/garage sale at primary school de Achthoek in Amsterdam.
It started with only one pair of ice-skates on Tuesday. Only after we had put out a flashy sign at the door, did the vaults open; bicycles, bags filled with teddy bears, necklaces, old clothes, yellowed books, CD’s, games, anything… it kept on coming in. Were we ever going to sell it all?!

It was a lot of work putting everything nicely together and spreading it out, but on Thursday night, we were calm: this was going to work out just fine! In class 7b the kids had thought out precisely what the market was going to look like, how to negotiate prices, catering and logistics. Also they pulled all the genies out of the bottles to complete the bazaar with music, dance performances, an auction, a lottery and an old fashioned ball-throwing stand, with a piece of apple pie for the winner.

The bazaar opened at noon and it was immediately crowded. Especially the kids from class 5a were enthusiastically making a lot of money selling their things. It was great to see how they were enjoying themselves and how they took their jobs very seriously. After an hour, we had already collected 400 euros! It was time to tidy up in preparation of the second round.

At 2pm it was time for that second round. And again it was crowded. It was lively and the atmosphere was good. People were slowly passing by the stalls and there was music and dancing. The children were absolute heroes! As if they had done so all of their lives, they drove the prices up. They would make an Indonesian salesman proud: “I give you good price, you my friend!”. In the centre of the hall beautiful objects were auctioned, after which the lottery started. “Ticket 100045. No one? Ticket 100046! No one? Ticket 100033?”. Vincent and Kwinti even played some acoustic songs, before people started leaving.

This was it. Everyone was satisfied and we were proud. This was a great bazaar for a good cause and together with the kids we collected over 1300 euros! Amazing!