An olive wood factory...

I visited an olive wood factory today with a bunch of the summer interns and another ward member. It was fascinating to watch the piles of wood being transformed into tiny ornaments, sheep, angels, camels, wise men, shepherds, Mary's and Joseph's and baby Jesus's. 

Also fascinating - the men worked on the ground floor and the women worked on the second floor. Strict segregation was a requirement for the families to allow their daughters to work at the factory.

Raw materials

Ready for rough cut shaping

Making a "Loaves and Fishes" bowl

A special order, clearly for some uber-patriot

Sanding and staining the finished product

I did some entertaining towards the end while all the purchasing was happening, which involved having 13 smiley face stickers applied to my hands and arms. And then having them all peeled off. Actually that's the cause of the blurriness - a race to take the picture before she got them all off, a feat which she accomplished before we could retry the shot.