live a year in a week

It is surreal to sit at a computer at an ecolodge far in the Amazon Basin. We are as removed from the rest of the world as we ever will be. Its beyond words. I'm aware that blogging while paying for minutes is definately an inhibitor to creativity. We just wanted to let folks know we are still kicking!

This week has been a beautiful whirlwind. We will expound later, but I'll sketch out the rough shape. After adjusting in Quito for a day we spent 3 days driving through the Andes meeting with artisans with our host friends. People have been so generous and friendly. We have placed some orders (Jency, our manager, will be happy to know we ordered some awesome clothes!) and bought lots of samples. We have been in some of the most remote and diverse places we have ever experienced. Above the tree line look like something out of Star Wars (according to Simeon, 6).

Saturday we headed out to our surprise adventure, to find ourselves 6 modes of transportation later a this unbelievable lodge in the Napo Wildlife Reserve. I can hardly imagine a more peaceful place (in spite of the alligator laden lagoon). The boys and their Daddy will have much to report on all their adventures. Jessie, unfortunately, has been sick. Not ämazon"sick, it started Friday before we left and is just a bad flu bug. Those of you who know us well will be glad to know we even took her to a doctor to make sure she's OK. The upshot is that she an I have spent a lovely time swinging in the hammock and resting in the top of the lookout tower. There is another family traveling here, which is always a fun encouragement. Much much more later on all of this!

Time is up on this computer, and I have a sweaty, snoring 3-year-old resting on my lap. One final note for now. The boys' favorite meal so far has been a whole trout cooked by local friend! Good for them!

Gatlinburg, Thongs and Back Hoes

We ended yesterday with a brilliant full moonrise silouetting the volcano visible from the large bay window of where we are staying. We were amazed and the kids were freaking out. What a treat.

Earlier in the day we took an excursion to the city park. On the way we passed a strip of buildings with the familiar logos of McDonalds, KFC and Burger King. Our six year old said ¨Hey, daddy, it looks like Gatlinburg.¨ Indeed, it did and no commentary was necessary.

His quote of the day was matched by our three year old. A billboard with an attractive women lathered in baby oil and sporting a well-placed thong was beckoning my family to eat a meal at her restaurant. Our girl said, ¨Daddy, I see her bottom¨. Yes, I see her bottom , too. ¨Daddy, she needs some pants.¨ Yes, she could use some pants. We ate dinner at home.

And our middle boy found the park of his dreams. Large, yellow, earth moving equipment was set on concrete foundations. Who needs Tonka trucks when you can climb on the real thing? I doubt any municipality in the States would expose our children to such danger. I think we will go back next week.

Spoke too soon

So, the girls did not show their normal fortitude and both of us came down with altitude sickness! Poor little Jessie would start walking then just sit down and cry saying,¨My legs feel funny!¨ Fevery and dizzy, but we should be adjusted by tomorrow.

Yesterday we laid low, unpacked and went to the local downtown park where the children learned a very important spanish word, ¨helado.¨ This is usually yelled repeatedly until the man with the bicycle ice cream cart comes around. It was great to have a 5 year old translator (our friends´ child, Claire) for the ice cream guy and the taxi driver.

Today we left early for Ibarra, an artisan town about 3 hours north of Quito. Its near the Columbian border and an easy stopping point for Columbian refugees. Apparently, the situation in Columbia is gruesome with paramilitary groups doing all kinds of horrific acts of violence. Its surreal and disturbing to realize what doesn´t even make the news back home.

We met up with a friend of Chris´ who is a priest of the Episcopal Church there. After a series of unfortunate events (girls being sick, the truck battery died, the artisans didn´t meet us at the church as scheduled and the sample goods were locked in a closet with no key...), we drove up to some villages and met with people in their homes. What a treat! One family did ceramic work with a cooperative and they had a whistling parrot who also spoke Spanish in one of their trees. Everyone from the grandpa and grandma on down was there to be a part of the meeting. We ¨sealed the deal¨ on jewelry with some Sprite from the village store. And the children left with flowers and parrot feathers as gifts.

Next we went to a home where the woman´s husband was disabled (from a bike robbery) and she started a microenterprise making guazy, embroidered blouses and pants. She employs several local women and supports her family. Senora Laura Maria was inspirational to me! Her products were also beautiful, so we ordered a package to take home with us. Women´s blouses, girl´s blouses, crop pants, girl´s dresses...

Our children are troopers. Today they amused themselves even without Uno, Go Fish and coloring books (the airport staples). They greeted everyone they met and even tried out a little Spanish.

It was a successful day despite the setbacks.

Hola from Ecuador

I can hardly believe I´m sitting in Quito, Ecuador, overlooking red clay roofs, and the massive expanse of this capital city. The hills are backdropped by mountains which they say are snow covered under the distant clouds. We´re at almost 10,000 feet, but it looks like nobody is really feeling the effects of altitude sickness too badly. We have arrived safe and sound! (or at least as sound as we started out)

Yesterday we got up before the sun and hitched a ride with our sweet cousin to Atlanta. The trip went without a hitch, which is of course, what you hope for. Jessie was a little nervous about going through security, but everybody thought is was a kick to have to take your shoes off. We picnicked in various gates watching planes come and go and luggage be loaded and unloaded from the silver underbellies. Being with children gives you a good reason to think and talk about things we take for granted. ¨How do we know where to go,¨ Äre all the even gates on this side¨,¨ Where all these people going¨,¨Why is this potty going to flush by itself,¨... We took one flight to Miami and another into Quito. The plane offers much to pique a child´s curiousity, but the 2 highlights were the tiny bathrooms and seeing the ocean. In retrospect, the 2 hour car ride to Atlanta was the craziest part of the trip.

Our friends, Chris and Trish (along with their 2 girls, 5 and 1) are hosting us in Quito. We know them from our stint in Honduras 7 years ago. Its great to reconnect! The children are having a ball. The airport is right in the middle of Quito, so we have spent most of the morning watching planes of all varieties land from our window. After we unpack we´re going to head out to the market and the park.

We may be out of pocket for a few days as we are heading out to meet artisans starting tomorrow. We´re already looking around the apartment and seeing cool things for the shop. Will grabbed one of Chris´ shirts off the laundry line. Maybe there´s a men´s line in our future! Adios, until later! (Sorry, punctuation is going to be tricky on Spanish formatted keyboards)

Saddle Up the Horses--Off to Ecuador

Watching the sunrise up against Lookout Mountain its hard to believe this is our last day before leaving for Ecuador. A little background on this crazy adventure

We've been itching to travel since we got back from Slovakia 6 years ago. Our oldest turned one, learned to walk and said his first words in Eastern Europe. Since then we have had 2 more children and realized travelling when the short people outnumber the tall people was not an adventure we were up for. We said when the baby was potty-trained we would take another trip. When Jessie announced this summer that she was "all done" with diapers we started looking at flights to Ecuador. Six months later, Simeon (6), Eli (4) , Jessie (3) along with their mama and dad are as ready as we're going to be for our big adventure!

We chose Ecuador for a few reasons: its relative cheap (compared say, to Indonesia), its in the same time zone (going to Texas would be a bigger time adjustment), we have friends down there (being together is always more fun) and the largest artisan market in Latin America is in Otovalo, just north of the capital. Plus, we speak a tiny bit of Spanish (emphasis on tiny).

So we've been working on a little Spanish with the children. I (Kim) spent a bit of time on Rosetta Stone language program. Its fantastic and is available at our local library even on-line from your home computer. Our language goals are for all of us to be polite and be able to try to make friends. So far, even Jessie (3, who's English is still a little tricky) can say basic greetings and introduce herself. We got a bunch of Spanish CD's from the library and have been playing them for a month or so. When we land, they will at least have heard the sound of these words that they don't understand. We'll see how we progress! Key Question: Donde es el bano?

We're going for 2 main reasons, one professional and one personal. We're hoping to meet artisans whose goods we can sell at the store. We're looking for fair trade cooperatives and communities who need a fair, equitable link to the US market. In the bigger picture, we think that the world is a beautiful place full of interesting, creative people and wonders of God and man. To see people living differently opens us up for inspiration, appreciation and a new perspective. As I sit here at my computer, in my warm house, after making tea with clean water from the faucet, wondering which thing to make for breakfast, I'm hoping that our trip will help us be really thankful for things we normally take for granted.

Pancakes and sausage. Off to enjoy our last day at home for a while.

Blog? Us? Ha ha ha ha...

My name is Nathan. I work for a small business. No, I work WITH a small business. It's called the World Next Door Market, and it's a fair trade store in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I have the wonderful privilege of working with three other interesting and dedicated people as we all share in making this fair trade thing work. We all thought it would be cool and beneficial to start blogging about the challenges and rewards unique to our business. Cool and beneficial to you, the individual, to get to know us and our hearts for this business; cool and beneficial to the fellow small business owner/social justice promoter, to have a place to share experiences and methods and get a better understanding of what works; and cool and beneficial for ourselves, to have a place to process our thoughts and dreams, our setbacks and challenges, and our stories and experiences, laid bare for all the world to read and enjoy.

So stay tuned! And please visit us in our store in downtown Chattanooga. And check out our website, www.worldnextdoormarket.com. And tell us what you think. And have conversations with us. And have conversations with yourselves. And enjoy our blog.