going global

i've been thinking alot about this lately: fair prices, fair trade, fair deal... fair go... fair dinkum...
*blinks*
i really like to *make* pressies for people: it's a gift from the heart, you know. mum and dad have made their own presents for as long as i can remember: beautifully embroidered linen table mats and various wooden items; and traditionally The Gang have made all of our christmas presents for friends and family too: ranging from the story hubby wrote one year.. which was the written version of a bedtime tale he told to the big two kids over a series of weeks when J11 was a wee baby, to the maths game called *Maths Eisley Space Port* (lol yeah, we're Star Wars fans) that he fashioned when D18 was learning his times tables... about ten years ago, to family photos, to various delish edible items, to little hackisack balloon balls filled with rice for the kids and bracelets for the babies. last year we bought goats and chickens and toilets to give to our family.
and yesterday i was touched again by globality. is that a word?? it is now.

fairness and sharing the love. parents given the choice to educate their children in literacy and numeracy rather than survival and oppression. so when we visited the trade aid shop with the home ed crowd and sat on the floor School Style and listened to the lovely volunteer ladies, i loved hearing the STORIES behind how things are made and the PEOPLE who make them. and then we bought some coffee and chocolate and peppercorns and celebrated the fact that the people who've worked to produce them have been given an honest day's wage and can survive in their communities. did you know that trade aid was set up in NZ when i was four??? it's a NZ initiative. that makes me happy. i have a tendency to go all out with stuff and then drop it after a month or two. but this is a baby steps idea and i'm contemplating trying to buy most of our pressies from global friendly places from now on.
S9 and J11 each got themselves a little bamboo whistle and have been practising Mister Tumnus' tune ever since.