Ten Thousand Villages

Continuing with the theme “Multicultural Texas”… I want to tell you about my volunteering at Ten Thousand Villages. Yes! I decided to do something useful for the world. Ask not what mankind can do for you, but what you can do for mankind. Or something like that.
There is a shop here at Rice Village, just a few blocks away from my house, called Ten Thousand Villages. It belongs to a non-profit organization that sells products manufactured in developing countries and all the products sold there are fair trade products, meaning that the people who produced them got paid fairly for their work. There’s no middleman between the organization and the artisans and the whole thing is more or less run by a religious association. I can see my mother frowning on the other side of the Atlantic. Yes, mother, like priests and nuns, missionaries, whatever.
To tell you more about the mission of Ten Thousand Villages, here are the key principles of fair trade:

1. Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
2. Transparency and accountability
3. Capacity building
4. Payment of a fair price
5. Gender equity
6. Good working conditions
7. Care for the environment

Seems ok, doesn’t it? I like it. There are Ten Thousand Villages shops all over the US and Canada. The shops work mainly based on volunteers who take care of everything, from receiving deliveries, store decoration and cleaning, taking care of costumers, and above all, letting people know what is the goal of Ten Thousand Villages.
Check the website to see some of the beautiful products they have for sale. Personally, I never leave the store without buying something. So, I’ll leave the US as a true humanitarian and broke. Luckily, all volunteers have 15% off in all the products they buy at the shop. Hehehehe. I can still see my mother frowning on the other side of the Atlantic. No, that’s not the main reason why I’m volunteering there, mom.
I’ve been there only twice, though, due to my intensive (and utterly non-productive) lab work lately… But it’s really nice, the people are very friendly, mainly women in their 40’s, housewives… The concept of housewife that I had forgotten all about is very real here. Although Portugal is a Catholic-majority country, and most people think that therefore women should be more submissive there, women cannot afford to be just housewives. One salary rarely does the trick to get a family through the month. Portuguese women know their place very well, don’t worry, and that’s working like hell both at work and at home. I really think most Portuguese women are some kind of Super Woman. Here in the US, however, wives can be just that. Wives. Why? Because salaries are high, and especially “oil” wives, don’t really need to move a finger. It is really absurd how rich some people are here. Anyway, most of the volunteers at ten Thousand Villages are women who don’t have to work therefore they give their time to this and other non-profit organizations. I think it’s a good spirit to have… Now I just have to get used to the extreme enthusiasm people greet each other with here. Every time a costumer enters the store I should say “Hi!!!!! How’re y’all doin’ today??” as if I wished for nothing else in this world than having those particular persons entering the shop that day. Damn. I could barely get the hang of the extremely cheerful/irritating/cheerleader-like Dutch “doeiiiiii”. I don’t think I’ll manage this. I’ll just stick to wrapping stuff and sipping my 100% Fair Trade Colombian Coffee, while keeping a lookout for new earrings in the jewelry section… All for the good of developing countries!