Working in fair trade is so, so much more than designing and creating the product. We thought it would be fun to give you a sneak a peek into the other twists and turns in our journey.
There’s the adventure of travel that fair trade happily requires. Train rides, polluted city and quiet country roads. Rickshaws, jeep, horrible buses, bike, and foot. 
Learning the ins and outs of ridiculous government customs procedures and learning how to smile the entire time. The joy of feeling more creative and resourceful the more we don’t fit in – wandering through new streets, markets, public stalls and meeting with our fair trade friends and artisans. Stupas, spritual pilgrims, blaring Hindi music, Bollywood, and street dogs. There’s speaking a different language, even when we are speaking the same language. There’s eating the delicious meals offered to us, and then burning the midnight oil to keep up with work both in Canada and overseas simultaneously – in between travel or home life. And desperately trying to fit in learning a respectable level of Nepali and Hindi along the way.
There’s the organizing, counting, double/triple checking, packing, shipping and the always exciting receipt and unpacking of our goods arrival in Canada– a little like Christmas every time, even if you had to sort out in the middle of winter how to fit 8 50 lb boxes into a hatchback, and fitting into a store room that looks about ½ the size it should (but never fear, there’s always good music in there!). And finally, now learning how the heck that online world of e-commerce and social networking works, and how to get your packages to you safely, and even with an element of an extra special something or surprise tucked in.
