Moving on up

The sun is shining up here in t'north and I'm feeling a damn sight better about my shift. I'm now volunteering with a Manchester group who are promoting the Just Change form of trading, a system which has the potential to be fairer than Fairtrade (if that makes sense). I did contact them a while ago but my email got caught in a spam filter and I didn't hear from the for a while. When I didn't hear back from them I figured I'd just leave my volunteering for two places. Now I have three groups.

I'm definitely capping it at that! :)

In other news, I'm going to be heading up an advertising/PR/marketing campaign for Arkadash, which I have still to discuss with the owners. My budget is £0 so I'll be finding innovative ways to advertise for free. Creating something out of nothing - if that doesn't look good on my CV then nothing will!

My work at Olive Cooperative will soon include helping to run tours to Palestine, which will be fantastic as I've never done anything like that before. I'm not exactly sure what I have to do just yet but the current tour manager will be handing over to me and a coop employee soon so all shall be revealed. I'm surprised I haven't been asked to babysit as most of the employees have kids whom they bring in to work. Participating in meetings with people as young as 5 months can be quite interesting, but certainly less painful than those I've endured with some of the adults I've worked with in previous jobs.
This week I also had the honour of meeting one of the leading figures of the Palestinian Faitrade Association - Dr Nasser Abu Fahra, who was on a whistlestop tour of the US and Europe spreading the news about Fairtrade in Palestine and seeking out suppliers. It was fantastic to hear their successes despite such huge obstacles imposed by the Israeli govt, plus he was a really nice fella!

I suppose the only thing I'm griping at now is my paid work. My hours have been cut and the pay is shine-a-lite. With Christmas coming up I'll probably find another part-time job - shouldn't be too difficult. I'm gaining enough experience through my volunteering to do something not as ethical but pays more.

I have to get my family something decent for Christmas after all. :)