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Published: January 8th 2008
Trade Aid!
(taken by Elizabeth) the sign for the organization that helps the businesses and workers we met today Today, we visited different components of Trade Aid - a fair trade organization that helps local artisans earn a living wages and that supports the community. We went to both a basket-weaving place and a pottery-making place. This is where we actually were able to see the benefits of fair-trade - these women were so thankful to have had the funds to just build the building in which they were sitting. Yeah… it was only a pavilion with some low walls… but to them it was a place to store straw so that they could buy it when it was cheaper and store it during the rainy season, and it was a place where they could work, even when it was raining. It is a place to get together and work, share and teach the younger generations the tradition of basket weaving, and socialize. Amoungst the women, you would sporadically see a few of their children camped out - asleep, chilling, helping hold materials. From here, we drove and had lunch at the pottery place - the Sirigu Woman Organization of Pottery and Art (SWOPA). This village was so far north we were practically in Burkina Faso. We had a quick
lunch there (I don’t remember of what because I wasn’t very hungry and don't think I ate much).
From here, we embarked on quite the adventure to Damongo to the Peace Center there. I think it was a 5 hour trek, with 1 hour and 8 minutes on a dirt road. Here at the peace house, we got there pretty late in the evening (and had to leave early in the next morning) so we just shared dinner with leader of the peace center. This was our “roughest” stay - that is no tv, no ac, an enormous loud beetle (seriously, this thing was monstrous) outside of my room… but hey - I had running water and a bed so I was living large. At dinner that night, Ringo shared a lot of his knowledge with me - he began to teach me a lot of the different words from two different languages: the Dabani language from the Dagumba tribe, and some Housa. He taught me how to say water in both, as well as “How’s it going” and to respond “fine.” Knowing the basics - gotta learn the lingo somehow! Thank you Ringo! After dinner, after some chit-chat with
It is harder than it looks...
Elizabeth trying to twist the pieces of grass together... the ladies make it look so easy... NOT SO! Sarah and Elizabeth, I crashed.
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