Equal Exchange Article

Here is a wonderfully descriptive, beautiful article from one of the team leaders, Susan Sklar of Equal Exchange, about our mission:

http://smallfarmersbigchange.coop/2010/02/22/delegation-to-nicaragua-january-2010/#more-2874

In the morning light we saw the entire menagerie: a small herd of cows and calves, horses, geese, a pig, dogs, fruit trees, a flower garden, as well as wet mill and coffee drying racks. Luis and Elsa’s farm was the picture of success. We realized that the fact that there were many animals, diversification of crops, and growth was partly due to the Fair Trade premiums distributed by the larger Tierra Nueva Co-op. Fair Trade brought the Castillos, like the other co-op members, access to the U.S. and European organic coffee markets.

Thoughts on Fair Trade

The trip is a memory now, the sunshine and friendships of Nicaragua replaced with the gray winter, the rush of my commute and the hustle and bustle of life. I am watching the snow fall from my window, another blizzard coming. Lots and lots of snow.

Memories of Nicaragua: spectacular starry nights, warm and inviting families, laughing giggling children, horses nibbling grass with the mountains as the backdrop, the bright blue sky filled with puffy white clouds.

I think always about the plight of others and the struggle to make a living, whether the farmers in Nicaragua, the people in the devastation of Haiti or the homeless or people in my own community struggling day to day to make ends meet.

The picture is of workers at a fair-trade sewing cooperative we visited. It was nice to see workers in a bright, airy, cool factory where they worked under good conditions. A cooperative leader told us with pride, and some sadness, about the struggles they overcame, and those that they still face. But the down side is, without orders for merchandise, the shop can't exist forever. It needs the support of me and you, our churches, friends and communities. Read all about it: http://www.nuevavidafairtradezone.org/.

And the link from Presbyterian USA for fair trade t-shirts, straight from the cooperative, www.pcusa.org/sweatfree

I recently came upon a documentary on Planet Green called Blood Sweat and T-Shirts, a series documenting a group of British fashionistas who see how their clothes are made, and what they learn through painful, tearful experiences as they live as sweat-shop workers, the thoughts that never crossed their minds before, and the profound experiences that change them forever.

They travel to India, a world away from their lives in London, and they work in a sweat shop, a grueling monotonous day's work for a heartbreaking dollar and some change. At a store nearby, to see how they can live on that income, it hits home - a stick of deodorant costs nearly a day's wage. How can anyone afford to live on this? The unfairness of it all is crushing. After the sweat shop, they move on to a clothing shop in a cramped alley that is even worse than the sweat shop, as they work in a dingy room and sleep at night on the factory floor with the other workers. That is the painful human cost of our cheap clothing, trinkets and other goods, intense grinding hours of work in deplorable and dangerous conditions for little pay, all to churn out items that consumers discard or forget about in no time at all.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/blood-sweat-t-shirts-tracing-clothes-to-the-source.html

It's a vicious cycle where, as many things in life, those on the economic bottom suffer the most. Consumers demand cheap stuff. Companies demand cheap labor. Workers have no choice but to suffer and work harder and harder.

If only these companies would pay their workers more. A little would go so very far. Those on the front lines are producing the merchandise, a designer clothing item sells for more than what a worker earns in months, a year even. The big-name store isn't producing the items. It's the factory workers. That fashionable boutique isn't making the items. It's the factories in China, India and elsewhere.

It is so very important that we continue to ask the important questions, and demand that people are treated fairly and earn a fair amount for a day's work. I will always support fair trade.

But First Reflections on Guatemala

10 days until Nicaragua...and I wanted to share some thoughts. My mind keeps wandering back to my trip to Guatemala in 2007.

I think often about the rugged and lush mountainsides, the wonderful Mayan people and the packs of laughing children, but also about the poverty, the constant struggle to earn a living in the remote villages and the fight to keep families healthy and warm in the highlands.

Some children were kept away from school for a variety of reasons: the family could not afford the school fees, the father would not allow the girl to attend, or the chores of cooking, washing, caring for young siblings and fetching heavy buckets of water were just too time consuming to allow a young girl to attend school.

I think about the stunning beauty of the countryside. The spectacular views from 10,000 feet. The Mayan weavers in huts creating beautiful textiles. The welcoming families, the smiling children and the sunny afternoons. The days were warm, the nights very cold on the mountain.

This Mayan village was relocated by the government high atop the mountain after devastating Hurricane Stan destroyed their homes on the slopes, making access to local markets and travel even more difficult. No indoor plumbing. Children sneezed and coughed, as did the women who spent hours each day hunched over an open flame cooking in an enclosed shack. We were there to build cinder-block stoves with proper ventilation. Rural and remote, the village was a far distance from medical care and medicines.

My story on Guatemala: http://www.contactomagazine.com/articles/mayanindians1207.htm

I loved the spirit and gentle kindness of the people, their strength in surviving the nightmare of brutality and injustices of war, their will to move forward from those horrific events and their marginalization in society. Their life is a constant struggle to care for families, with the men working all day to earn a living and women toiling for hours cooking, weaving and caring for many children in their simple homes along dusty roads, tucked away in cornfields high on the mountain.

The adventure begins...in two weeks

In two short weeks, I will be in Nicaragua for a mission trip where I will meet with local coffee farmers, artisans, leaders, teachers, church members and families as part of a delegation with Presbyterian Church USA and Equal Exchange. And I thought of no better way to inaugurate my blogging experience than by writing my thoughts about the trip ahead. I hope to be able to have Internet access while in the country and write about the people, post photographs and detail my experience.

Scared at first, I am really looking forward to the trip. I am blessed to have been selected to be on the trip that will include people from across the country. Nicaragua will be the third country in Central America I have visited (Costa Rica, and a mission trip to Guatemala, to be discussed soon in this forum, I am most certain), and let's see....my sixth country in Latin America and the Caribbean. I love the region. I love the laughing children, the warm and inviting people, the culture, the history, the religious traditions, visiting old cathedrals, the natural beauty, the beat of the music, the sunshine and dazzling blue skies against whitewashed churches, the food: black beans, plantains, mangoes, meat, fresh fish.

Nicaragua has been for years a country at peace moving forward to overcome the horrific scars of war, the ghosts of the past. Just like anywhere, problems persist: corruption, narcotics, crime, violence, gangs, trafficking, poverty, unemployment. But we are hopeful. I am hopeful. So as it goes, January 16th, I head to Managua.