Peace Corps News

Spotlight on Peace Corps Guatemala

Ronny Diaz served in Peace Corps from 1979 to 1981  and found his roots in Guatemala
Ronny Diaz, an Alamogordo native in search of his Latino roots, joined the Peace Corps and traveled to Central America. Two years in the Corps gave Diaz more than he had ever expected. He returned home in better touch with his heritage, speaking a second language and accompanied by his soul mate.

Diaz said Americans were generally accepted when he served in Central America. "We as a people were very respected," he said. But he does remember one occasion in which he was searched by soldiers and led out of a cafe with his hands up. Diaz said that's the only time he felt fear during his stay in Central America. "The hardest thing is getting over your homesickness," he said. He said volunteers leave their way of life behind, including the simplest of necessities, such as hot water. "You are basically going to a Third World country," Diaz said. "You live in isolated, primitive villages."

He first traveled to Costa Rica, where he immersed himself in an intensive, rigorous three-month Spanish course. Diaz said he lived with a family who didn't speak English. "I learned enough Spanish to survive," Diaz said. Then, he moved to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. His job involved teaching farmers soil conservation methods. In his time away from home, his way of life in the United States seemed to follow him around. As a young boy, Diaz helped on his grandfather's 43-acre farm. The Peace Corps assigned him to a soil conservation project due to his farming experience. Diaz was able to use his journalism experience as well. He was featured in a documentary, "Marco de San Marcos," which revolved around the work of Peace Corps volunteers. But, Diaz said, the most rewarding benefit of his Peace Corps tour was finding his soul mate, his wife of 25 years, Sonia Edith. A friend introduced them and, Diaz said, they connected immediately. "I noticed his sincerity and his heart," his wife, Sonia, said. "That's why I fell in love with him." Diaz' wife doesn't speak English and they both speak Spanish at home. They have two daughters, Raquel, 24, and Daniela, 22. "Meeting her was the highlight of my whole experience," he said. Read more.

Guatemala RPCV Mark Brazaitis wins Outstanding Researcher Awards
Brazaitis, who earned a MFA from Bowling Green University and a bachelor's degree in history from Harvard University, is a member of the English Department's creative writing faculty at Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University. A number of his writings have won national prizes, including “An American Affair,” winner of the 2004 George Garrett Fiction Prize; “The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala,” which won the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award; and his novel, “Steal My Heart,” which won the 2001 Maria Thomas Fiction Award. His work has also been published in prestigious journals such as “Shenandoah,” “The Notre Dame Review,” “Poetry International,” “Poetry East,” “Hayden's Ferry Review” and “The Carolina Quarterly.”

His remarkable debut collection, "River of Lost Voices," chronicles life in the impoverished Guatemalan towns of Santa Cruz and nearby Coban. The physical distance these 10 stories cover is short, but the geography of human spirit it traverses is vast. In "Gemelas," a young woman reacts with a mixture of happiness and jealousy at the prospect of her twin sister's marriage to a wealthy landowner; it is her fate to follow her sister down a tragic path. A father, his daughter and a young woman grapple with fear of abandonment and aloneness in "How They Healed." A young boy experiences the erotic thrill of mystery when he is seduced by his employer, whose face he never sees, in "Bathwater." Pervading each tale is ex-Peace Corps volunteer Brazaitis's understanding of the intricate social stratifications of his characters' rural community. Adopting the conventions of folktales in sophisticated ways, Brazaitis controls his narratives with sparse dialogue and omniscient or calmly retrospective narrators. His admirable restraint anchors the stories and connects them by a tight chain of motifs, while his lucid prose directs attention away from itself and toward the characters who provide their color and drama.

His writing frequently draws on his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. “Although I use small towns in Latin America as settings in some of my work,” he said, “I cast my thematic net wider, creating what I hope are complicated and rich tales of North Americans and Latin Americans meeting, approaching understanding, and sometimes even falling in love across language and culture.” Read more.

Torrey Peace's friends told her not to go to Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteer but she's glad she didn't listen
Torrey Peace's friends told her not to go. They said Guatemala was too dangerous, that it wasn't the place to be a Peace Corps volunteer, but the 26-year-old DeLand resident didn't listen. And she's glad she didn't.

Peace described her time in San Carlos Sija, a tiny Guatemalan town of 2,000 people, as one of the most rewarding experiences of her life. "By the end of the two years I felt like I knew the majority of the people," Peace said. "Everyone was very friendly, and even more what struck me was their generosity." People she barely knew would invite her to dinner and give her food. Someone even loaned her a gas stove to use during her stay. "How is it that a country known to have so little can give so much?" Peace said.

Her job was to help the people in her town make better use of funds from immigrants working in the United States. "It is interesting to see the other side of the situation," she said. "That is, the fear of failure and lack of opportunity drives people to the U.S., where they believe they will have a better life." Peace met many people who had not seen their mothers, fathers, sisters for more than 10 years because they couldn't get a tourist visa, yet without the U.S. funds being sent, Sija and the economy of Guatemala would suffer. Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Guatemala.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Gay Marriage

Togo RPCV Evan Wolfson is married to the cause of Gay Marriage
Evan Wolfson spent two years with the Peace Corps in Togo in West Africa, and had his first gay relationship. After law school, he was recruited by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, then run by Elizabeth Holtzman. He worked as a prosecutor from 1983 to 1988 (and wrote amicus briefs arguing for a ban on racial discrimination in jury selection and the abolition of the marital rape exemption) and, with Ms. Holtzman’s blessing, moonlighted free at Lambda from 1984 to 1988. Which meant he had to “come out” professionally.

In 2004, he wrote a book, “Why Marriage Matters,” in an attempt to generate dialogue with (mainly) heterosexual Americans who don’t realize that civil unions are a parallel alternative, not on an equal footing with marriage. “One state down, 49 to go,” Mr. Wolfson says of Freedom to Marry’s success rate. “Gay marriage is not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for the legal right for gays to marry. You don’t ask for half a loaf. We don’t need two lines at the clerk’s office when there’s already an institution that works in this country, and it’s called marriage. One of the main protections that come with marriage is inherent in the word: certainly in times of crisis any other word than marriage would not bring the same clarity or impart the same dignity.”

“The classic pattern for civil rights advancement in America is patchwork,” he says, “but I see equal marriage rights for gays becoming a nationwide reality over the next 15 to 20 years. I really believe it will happen in my lifetime.” Read more.

Cameroon RPCV Margaret Krome writes: Gay marriage proposals carry the message of hate
Several years ago we had a sign in our front yard in support of gay rights. A young visitor from elsewhere in the state came and whispered his amazement to my then-young son. "Do you know what it means? It means homos!" Yes, my son knew, and was startled that our visitor voiced such repugnance.

But almost no gay man or woman I've ever known would be surprised. Such cultural hostility is simultaneously the cause, result and direct purpose of the anti-gay rights amendments at both the national and state levels.

Are gays a legitimate enemy? Well, the right says it loves them despite their sin, but it seems that because they are "fallen," their claims to even the most basic human relationships aren't justified. Conservative hate-mongers challenge the common figure that 10 percent of the population is gay, as if by making the number smaller, they can attack them more freely. Yet many families I know have a brother, aunt, cousin, uncle or even a parent who's gay. Several of our children's friends have gay parents. Are we the enemy to ourselves? Why would we support a law that would make it harder for these people, no less law-abiding than others in the state, to be deprived of health insurance, medical care, retirement benefits, legal protection and all of the other benefits conferred by marriage?

Numerous commentators, including Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold, have criticized President Bush for advancing an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment as strictly a divisive tactic to galvanize conservative voters prior to the 2006 fall elections. It's particularly blatant this time, since the amendment stands no chance at all of passing the Senate. Politicians, especially those with low popularity, have a long history of advancing measures based on the sure social calculus that setting up a clear enemy rallies the troops. Anti-communist rhetoric, complaints about trading partners, patriotic calls to arms, and mean-spirited attacks on vulnerable targets get louder before a national election. Read more.

Guatemala RPCVs Lara Weiss and Nora Wynne — accompanied by their 3-year-old twin daughters —turned down for marriage license
“In accordance with the laws of the state of California, a marriage license can only be issued to an unmarried man and an unmarried woman,” said Vicki Cushman, supervisor of vital records. “Until the law is changed, we are bound to uphold that law and can only issue a marriage license to an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. “If you would like the law changed, you need to contact your government officials at both the state and national levels.” Cushman then handed the couple three pages, neatly stapled together, that contained Cushman’s speech and contact information for several politicians — from President George W. Bush to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to Assemblymember Patty Berg.

Wednesday marked the fifth year demonstrators congregated outside the Humboldt County Courthouse, as multiple same-sex couples rode the courthouse elevator to the fifth floor to apply for marriage licenses.

Nora Wynne said she and Lara Weiss met in Guatemala in 1995 while in the Peace Corps. After a year, their friendship blossomed into something more. The two married in San Francisco in 2004 after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom directed the county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Although Wynne said she is aware that until laws change, her marriage to Weiss is not legally valid, events such as Wednesday’s are just one of many steps to marriage equality. “We know that when people realize it’s not a religious issue, but a civil rights issue, and they change the laws accordingly,” Wynne said. “These are all just steps toward the goal.” Read more.

Caption: Friends Abigail Frankel, left, and Abigail Hastings-Tharp, right, both 4 1/2 years old, stand on the Humboldt County Courthouse steps in the rain, Wednesday afternoon, while couples of the same sex apply for civil marriage licenses. Photo: Katie O’Neill/The Eureka Reporter

Read more about Gay Issues and the Peace Corps.

Forestry and the Peace Corps

Nepal RPCV Joe Krueger has been to Liberia four times in the past two years as part of a program that is drawing on skills from the U.S. Forest Service to restore Liberia's timber industry
The Liberian Forestry Initiative came about as a means of re-establishing a viable and responsible industry, as the country operated under a shaky interim government. While the initiative is driven by a U.S. Forest Service team, it is funded by the State Department with the cooperation of the United Nations. The program is aimed at establishing laws and regulations and a general framework for managing Liberia's forests. Krueger said he was tapped for the program because he had worked on a community forestry project in Senegal in 2004, and had served in the Peace Corps in Nepal in the early 1990s. He first went to Liberia in April 2005 and has been back three times since, most recently in December. Krueger said there has been progress in rebuilding the country's timber industry, and a big part of it is due to the relative stability that's developed since last year, when a competent, Harvard-educated president was elected, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

"Right now, the industry is completely unregulated," he said. But many of the pieces are falling in place for an organized, regulated timber industry to start up soon. And there is pressure for Krueger and his fellow advisers to make it happen. "There is a lot of pressure on the Forest Service to get this sector back up and running," Krueger said. "People want to know, where are the logs, where is the revenue?" The old contracts have all been nullified and new ones will be issued under a system that will more closely monitor the movement of products. A "chain of custody" system is being developed to track logs from the stump all the way to their export destination. Read more.

Niger RPCV Clark Fleege helps rebuild Afghanistan's forests
Fleege, who directs the Lucky Peak Nursery for the Boise National Forest, will make his second trip to Afghanistan to continue working on a United States Department of Agriculture project to plant native tree species for reforestation, soil improvement and beautification. The country has lost a lot of its forests to a drought that has plagued the area for the past several years.

"By us going in there and helping improve their natural resources, we can help these people improve their lives and have a more stable country," Fleege said. The U.S. compound where Fleege will stay includes dorm-style housing in metal shipping crates. He will be confined to working in and around Kabul because of safety concerns, and will need an armed escort everywhere he goes. "What we do is management of natural resources, and sound natural resource management is just fundamental for anything, for life: having good water, good soil, clean air," he said.  Read more.

Ed " Redwood" Ring writes: The best thing that ever happened to me was going to Central America to help treeplanters. I was fortunate to have a first-hand look at some of their finest work, when I went there with Stuart Conway, an EcoWorld Hero and co-founder of the reforesting group, Trees Water and People.

Stuart Conway has been living half in the U.S., half in Central America for about 25 years now. He and his wife Jennie Bramhall joined the Peace Corps, went to Guatemala for their honeymoon, and didn't come home for three years. They lived and worked in a small town just south of the beautiful highland colonial city of Antigua. Since then, they return to Central America several times a year, specializing in helping small communities grow trees and protect their watersheds.

Stuart co-founded Trees Water and People (the name grows on you) in 1998 with Richard Fox, a veteran forest arborist, who specializes in North American forest preservation and watershed protection. Both of them moved with their families to Ft. Collins, Colorado, rolled up their sleeves and got their organization up and running. They work along with a small staff in a lofty 2nd floor suite in an old brick and timber building on College Avenue between downtown and the University. Towering Plains Cottonwoods hang huge limbs overhead (Cottonwoods decorate the whole city, and why they aren't planting new ones is beyond me), and just one block north the main train line intersects the street. If you call them and hear a roar in the background, it's just a freight train about two hours on the tracks from Denver.

When the folks at Trees Water and People aren't providing funds and expert assistance growing trees and protecting watersheds in Central America, they are working closer to home, protecting watersheds in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. This is Richard Fox's area, and he brings to his work a lifetime of experience in forests throughout America, but mostly in the Rockies. In his time, Richard has had crews of planters where, using a special planting tool, each person could plant up to 1,000 trees per day. I didn't believe him, but we timed the motions, and I did the math. I guess it's true. We could have fun with this! One thousand people could plant a million trees a day. A billion trees in less than three years!

Planting trees is only part of the solution, though, and managing a forest and a watershed is complex work that is never done. Richard's trees and watershed protection has so far enlisted the support of communities throughout Colorado and Wyoming, mostly along the "Front Range," the eastern slopes of the Rockies.  Read more.

Read more about the Peace Corps and forestry.

RPCVs - Believe it or Not

RPCV living in Oregon refuses to heat his house
Guatemala RPCV Dave Kaplowe and his roomate Stuart McDougall try to use as few resources as possible, such as keeping the heat off in their Portland Oregon house. Girlfriends Andrea Walter and Katy Daily do their best to humor them.

“We’re not burning fossil fuels,” Kaplowe says, “and we’re very efficient thermoregulators.” McDougall laughs at this. He’s wearing a T-shirt and is barefoot on the hardwood floor. “The no-heat thing started in college when we didn’t have the money for it and then realized we didn’t need it anyway,” Kaplowe says. The household heating bill from NW Natural arrived Nov. 1. The total due was $6.54. The men are so pleased they present a hard copy while Daily rolls her eyes. The women may wish for warmer digs, but Kaplowe says there can be no compromise.

Kaplowe manages fish and wildlife mitigation projects with the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland. The University of Oregon graduate was drawn to the BPA after serving nearly four years with the Peace Corps in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. While in the Peace Corps he helped rural communities, nongovernmental organizations and trinational government organizations adopt sustainable forestry and watershed management practices. Instead of working on watershed management in three Central American countries, he now works with very similar issues in the four states that make up the Columbia Basin — Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. “I believe hydroelectric power is a renewable resource and a great alternative to the burning of fossil fuels or nuclear-derived power,” Kaplowe says. “The BPA demonstrates environmental stewardship and public responsibility.”

Bolivia RPCV plays Mozart concerto on a garden hose
Howard Pink learned of the unique musical instrument while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia in the late 1960s. At that time, he found a recording of noted horn player Dennis Brain playing a piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, on a garden hose. "A garden hose is nothing more that a French horn played in the technique used in Mozart's time when they didn't have valves. I thought it was a really good idea," he said. At that point, he ran out and bought a standard variety garden hose in a market and went on tour. He soon reached some level of regional acclaim on a South American television show — similar to The Ed Sullivan Show — as "the man who played the hose."

Pink was a French horn player for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for more than 25 years, where he continued his garden hose show for local school groups and libraries. His program, "Howard Pink and His Musical Garden Hoses," isn't just entertaining, it's also educational. Pink goes into the history of wind instruments and hopes to instill a love of music, if not creativity, with the younger members of the audience. "By the time I'm done, you should have a good idea of what it takes to play not only the French horn but members of the entire brass family. But if nothing else, I hope they learn to appreciate music and want to become a member of an audience. Maybe go to a symphony concert sometime," he said.

Costa Rica RPCV sells Coconut water imported from Brazil
Mark Rampolla decided to sell coconut water, imported from Brazil and marketed as a high-potassium, sugar-free alternative to Gatorade and other sugary sports drinks. The product, Zico, is now sold for $2 per 11-ounce container in yoga studios, health food stores (including Whole Foods) and other outlets.

Because the Rampollas want to support economic development in Latin America, Zico is produced and packaged in Brazil. That creates factory jobs, not just the agricultural work of harvesting the young coconuts. The company has also pledged to give 5 percent of its net profits to improve health and education in the communities where the product is produced. The marketing budget is small, so the approach is "grassroots and guerrilla" - no advertising, but a lot of free samples at health stores and athletic events. There have been anxieties and some scary moments, as in any new business. Soon after Zico got started, a paperwork problem with U.S. Customs halted shipment of the product from Brazil, a mess that took two months to untangle. And living without a reliable corporate paycheck has required some adjustments by the Rampollas, who have two young daughters. But the company is growing, and Rampolla hopes to hire five people, mostly in sales, in 2007.

Having lived as both a poor Peace Corps volunteer and an affluent executive in the Third World, Rampolla has a different perspective on business ups and downs. "We always know if things really go south, we'll wind up on a beach in South America, and as long as I have my wife and kids, I'll be happy," Rampolla says. "I just really enjoy everything that's involved in trying to make this happen."

Guatemala RPCV RJ Harper Produces Award-winning film "Typecasted"

Guatemala RPCV RJ Harper Produces Award-winning film "Typecasted"
Shine-Box Productions, LLC. is very proud to announce that their latest short film: “Typecasted”© has today been awarded “Best Comedy Short Film” at the 2006 NY International Independent Film & Video Festival (NYIFVF). Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Guatemala), Robert "RJ" Harper co-produced and acted in the comedy short entitled: "Typecasted." The award-winning film stars Frank Fata, Adam Piacente and RJ Harper.

Guatemala RPCV RJ Harper co-stars as the zany Vietnam War veteran turned eccentric film casting director. Director Robert Roberts (Lion’s Gate Entertainment) latest film is on its very successful film festival run and will be headed to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for international feature film development consideration. The multi-talented cast and genius directing team have received rave reviews from film critics on both coasts. “Typecasted”© was shot on High Definition (HD) and is a cinematographer’s paradise of lush imagery. Typecasted’s© team of producers have generated major indie buzz and are now slated to begin work on a major feature film. Watch the film online at: www.Current.Tv/watch/13498343

In the search for top-quality comedy, there is truly only one short film to see that single-handedly represents the Italian streets of New York and it is the undisputedly hilarious short film: “Typecasted©.”  The film demonstrates a complicated and comical series of internal connections to both the fictions and the reality of that popular Hollywood subject, the stereotype of Italians and the Mafia in film. Rated the 2006 “Best Short Film” at NYIFVF, the film marks the “unofficial official silver screen debut” for actors Frank Fata, Adam Piacente and RJ Harper. Through allusion and parody, “Typecasted©”  practically hits on the whole history of the Italian stereotype in film, quite literally following the form through generations of Italian actors from Little Caesar through The Godfather to “The Sopranos” to “Meet the Gottis.” 

Read about other RPCV Filmmakers and Movies by RPCVs.

Greg Van Kirk and his team of volunteers comprise Community Enterprise Solutions the not for profit he co-founded with fellow Guatemala Peace Corps Volunteer George Glickley to provide loans to rural constituents

Greg Van Kirk and his team of volunteers comprise Community Enterprise Solutions the not for profit he co-founded with fellow Guatemala Peace Corps Volunteer George Glickley to provide loans to rural constituents
While working in investment banking in New York City in 2000,  Greg Van Kirk read about Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ micro-credit work providing loans to the poor of Bangledesh. “When I turned 30 and read about Mohammad Yunnus’ work, I knew it was now or never, so I joined the Peace Corps,” he said. Armed with his investment banking credibility, and accrued analytic and business skills, Van Kirk knew that what he needed was real field experience. His transformation from Peace Corps volunteer to social entrepreneur began in Nebaj, an indigenous, rural town in the mountains of Guatemala, where he found himself surrounded by nature and culture but with no facilities or centers for tourists to stay at or visit.

Seeing an opportunity to help local people bring new money into the community and create new jobs, he donated his own money and solicited the support of family and friends and created five tourism-focused businesses: a restaurant, a Spanish language school, a guiding service, an Internet café, and an artisan store. Van Kirk said Jan. 16 will mark the fifth anniversary of the tourism business and said the businesses have received about $10,000 in total donations to date and are now all locally owned and operated, directly employ over 30 people and have average annual revenues approaching $100,000.

When it came time to create his own venture to build on the success of the tourism businesses, Van Kirk took into consideration the whole picture, using his heart and his head. Since he co-founded Community Enterprise Solutions in 2004, Van Kirk’s work has had a concrete impact. For example, thousands of women weavers and rural merchants with bad eyesight are now able to continue making a living by buying eyeglasses from Community Enterprise (CE) Solutions. The company trained and equipped local entrepreneurs, as featured in November of 2005 in the NBC Nightly News “Making a Difference” segment. When summing up his work Van Kirk said, “It is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, working with so many human, cultural, and societal issues, trying to come up with solutions to problems that have been around for thousands of years.” “In the end, my job is to drive myself out of business. We train people and get them to the point of self-sufficiency; to the point where they don’t need us anymore,” he said.

Read more about the Peace Corps and Microfinance.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers support Fair Trade

Nepal RPCV Damian Jones started Annapolis-based "Aid Through Trade" in 1993 to help provide good employment and fair wages to artisans and farmers in developing countries
Since 2000, Aid Through Trade sales have returned more than $500,000 to the economies of Nepal and Vietnam. Workers from his Admiral Drive company visit either of the countries - sometimes both - each year. The visits allows Aid Through Trade officials to meet the workers, and see their conditions and the environment in which products are being made. "We have to make an assessment of the presence of human dignity, besides looking at wages and exterior conditions," Mr. Jones said. "From a business point of view, that's a big step in the business supply chain." Mr. Jones said he believes fair trade will soon become as popular as organic goods, which are now carried in such grocery stores as Giant and Safeway. "People want to know that their food came from a clean and healthy place," he said. "They also want to know their goods came from a good, healthy, fairly paid source." Read more and leave your comments.

Guatemala RPCV Naren Sonpal Offers Fair Trade Coffee
Naren Sonpal's two-year term of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala ended in 2001, but he's still working to make the world a better place, one cup of coffee at a time. He was 55 when he entered the Peace Corps, assigned to work with cooperatives of coffee and tea farmers in the Guatemalan highlands near Coban. On his return, Naren and his wife, Gun, built a business on his experience in Guatemala and a subsequent trip to India, becoming roasters and blenders of 100 percent organic, shade-grown, Fair Trade coffees and purveyors of organic Fair Trade teas. The Sonpals opened Coffee-Tea-Etc. in December of 2002 in the lower level of their Goshen home. Sacks of coffee beans from every corner of the globe are lined up near the couple's state-of-the-art drum roaster.

"Our coffee comes from Mexico, Peru, Sumatra, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, New Guinea, Costa Rica and Ethiopia," Naren told Voices, "and we know the farms they are coming from. Most multinational companies won't pay what coffee producers need to survive." "The farmers suffer a lot," Naren said. "Right now, they're selling to the big corporations at below their cost of production. When farmers can't make money producing their coffee, they sometimes turn to the production of drugs - and who can blame them?"

Central African Republic RPCV Katie Dyer is co-owner of Cadeaux du Monde, a fair trade shop that sells artwork and jewelry from all over the world
Katie Dyer and Jane Perkins of Newport have done their share of traveling. The mother-daughter duo are the co-owners of Cadeaux du Monde, a fair trade shop in Newpor, Rhode Island that sells artwork and jewelry from all over the world, representing over 40 countries. What is Fair Trade? It's fairly traded folk art, directly from the village. There's not a lot of middle men. It's the same idea as fair trade coffee where the producers actually get a fair price. We buy directly from them so they're in control of their prices.

Read more about Fair Trade and leave your comments.