Monday, July 21, 2008

The Rest of the Story...Almost!

I left off telling you that we had decided to give the organization a try. It was fabulous! We had a wonderful trekking experience, hiked through the misty forests, gawked at the beautiful waterfalls, and struggled to keep ourselves free of leaches! Because it is the monsoon and the off-season, it was cloudy and cool for most of the adventure. The last morning we woke up early to the astonishing site of the Annapurna Mountain Range. This view only lasted a few minutes, until the clouds came in, but still, nothing better than a beautiful view while drinking a cup of warm tea in the mountains.

Our porter was an 18 year old girl from the northwest mountain area. She was looking forward to becoming a guide, but knew she needed to work her way up to that job and develop her English skills. She was living in the dorms provided by the company and taking English and computer classes, also provided by Three Sisters. I have to be honest, at first I felt horrible having this young girl carrying my sleeping bag and change of clothes. But as we continued our trek, I realized how much harder life would have been for her if she had not left her village or ended up with the wrong employers.

Women are put to work when they can carry a baby or mop the floor which ever comes first. They are often looked at as free labor and violent actions against women happen quite often. Lately, many girls will come to Pokhara or Kathmandu looking for jobs, they end up in the dance bars or the brothels. Even worse, some are kidnapped from the hills at a very young age and taken into India, part of the sex trade.

Three Sister’s Adventure trekking provides training and job opportunities that are fair and, now, respectable. If the girl doesn’t want to become a guide or porter, she can still take the training and use the skills learned to pass tests or for other job interviews. It is a really great organization and I highly recommend that if you ever go trekking, you contact Three Sister’s Trekking Adventures.

Now we are back in Kathmandu and realizing that we only have three weeks left! We have plenty to do before we leave and plenty to do once we return home. Rita is out of town at the moment, but we will meet with her, Ratna, Pritiva and Bindu sometime next week. This meeting is to help set up some coding systems and other systems that will be simple enough to understand and establish quickly, but good enough to work. Really, this information needs to come from them, Stacey and I are acting as support and giving recommendations. The final actions will be made and decided by the management team and the Board Members.

We are trying to close up loose ends and make sure that we have met with everyone that we need to while we are here. This has proved to be difficult because no one seems to have anyones current contact information. Most of the founding members of Dhaka Weaves have changed their phone numbers. I guess it is all about finding the right people to do the research. Pritiva is working on this for us, she said her sister knows someone who is related to someone, who just might have a few of the phone numbers. Time will tell.

Everyday we are learning, or at least trying to learn, more about Fair Trade and how it affects the producers. It is such a new movement here and it seems that everyone is still trying to understand it, especially us! We will continue to send out questionnaires via email and make appointments whenever possible, every conversation leads to something new! This work is still very exciting and challenging, and I think we are coming along quite nicely!

Please, we are open to comments and suggestions, or even just reactions! At this point, we are not even sure if anyone is reading or enjoying our experiences! If you don't feel comfortable posting to the blog, please feel free to contact me or Stacey directly! Our information is on the blog page. Thanks you...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We love reading the blog. That is once we found it in our junk mail...who knows how that happen. Please keep typing so we can learn more. The pics are great too. It is good to see you both healthy and smiling! Leslie and Robin

Anonymous said...

keep the post coming, its always interesting to have someone's opinion and insight that you know. Reading the posts has reinforced the idea that life is so different in places outside our doorsteps.

Kiley

Anonymous said...

I am sorry I have not responded on your blog but I have emailed the two of you directly. I so enjoy reading about your days. The two of you are amazing as are your experiences. Please keep on letting us know whats happening and how you are.
Take care and God Bless
Betti

Jessi said...

I am totally in awe of your experience! I am planning a trekking trip and would love to get in touch with Three Sisters. Do you have their contact info? Thanks.