It's 3:15 a.m. and my 3-year-old has just crawled into bed with me. He tells me he's had a bad dream as he nestles his head full of curls onto my shoulder. I listen to him fall back asleep and any normal person would fall soundly back asleep, too.
But, not I.
My brain goes down a rabbit trail of thoughts. First thought is: "don't forget to finalize that last item for The Mama Box."
Next thought is about getting the next box prepared to ship down to Haiti. I have a call with a friend later this week about her doing some part-time work with me; I think about that, too. I have a few ideas of some new card designs; let's get those executed, too.
I start to think of the mamas. One-by-one, they come to my mind. I haven't talked to quite a few of them in such a long time now. I know everyone is "okay" - I know the work is being distributed and they're being paid. My brain kindly reminds me that I want to change some verbiage on the website to continue "marketing" how we are expanding our curation of goods to a more global "fair trade" approach. We just can't get things easily in and out of Haiti anymore. More businesses have closed their doors. In order to keep our shop full of exciting, new things, we need to adjust.
I'm thankful the Lord continues to position me in places where He prepares me for future adjustments without me recognizing that initially. Last year, I was invited to the Fair Trade Federation conference - all expenses paid minus my plane ticket. I wasn't sure why I was going, but by the end of the three days, it was clear.
It was time to get more serious about certifying the work we do with our greeting cards, but also time to expand Rosie's business model. Since the inception of this silly business plan, it was to always be about promoting 100% Haitian made goods, but due to Haiti's instability, that selectivity needs to change in order to see the business expand.
Anyways, my brain circles back to thoughts of fair trade...need to get the application submitted, need to clarify some raw materials, need to submit financials, need to show we are doing what we say....
By societal norms, our team is paid a "fair wage" but their wage is so incredibly unfair, actually. My family could never live off of it. My stomach begins to turn. How is any of this fair?
Most Haitians will face extreme hunger today. And by most, I mean almost 50% of the population. That's not fair, but I'm thankful to know our team is able to eat.
Most children in Haiti will not attend school because the schools are either closed due to the violence or their parents cannot afford the high fees. That's not fair, so I'm thankful to know all of our greeting card team have access to send their children to school. We continue educating 700+ children despite our school being ransacked and looted by gangs. Our staff face the harshest of realities every single days. Teachers have been held at gunpoint. Teachers have slept on the streets to avoid danger. The list goes on and on. None of it fair. My soul cries, "none of this is (insert colorful language) fair!!"
So, we promote fair trade and fair wages, yet it still seems unfair. You know, the realities of the world. The fact that people still don't have access to clean drinking water. The fact that babies will die from super preventable things, simply because there wasn't a hospital to care for them. The fact that people sleep in small huts with no electricity, no warm beds, no sense of safety.
My parents always said, "life isn't fair," but now it all just kind of feels like a cop out. Life isn't fair for a lot of reasons that are out of our control, but what about the things that are in our control? We have the technology, resources and money to eradicate world hunger, yet....
We have doctors, vaccines and medical advancements to save precious lives from so many preventable things, yet....
We have machinery to drill wells and smart engineers to design sewers & roads & all sorts of fun infrastructure, yet....
We have these insane amounts of technology and internet and access to information like no generation before, yet...
A wise friend once told me, "all problems have a solution, it's just whether or not we care to find the solution."
That hits deep.
So here's where my 3:15 a.m. thoughts lead me...while there are many aspects of world issues we won't be able to solve here, there are still so many things we are solving. Yes, the work is hard, but we need to keep being loud about these jobs & partnerships & keep selling the dang things.
We can't eradicate poverty, but we sure are going to go down fighting for it. Every job sustained is a life forever impacted.
Every single day we get to make a choice in what we buy and where we buy it. I'm just going to call it for what it is, but your purchases with big corporations only add to the world's suffering. Truly, there's no way around it. These corporations are some of the world's biggest polluters, are publicly known to be abusers of human rights, and act with no intentionality except to make an easy dollar.
By shopping with them, we participate in the unfairness. We play a role, whether we want to admit it or not. But behind all the pretty advertising are people in bondage, and aren't we the ones who are to be carrying good news?
I think of this every time we place a PO or send another box to Haiti...work is on the way! The praises that follow. This is good news to our partners & artisans we have the honor to work with. You all should see me when I open an email from a partner and it includes a PO - THANK YOU JESUS! I will never not rejoice.
Imagine what it must feel like to be a woman working 60+ hours in a factory, being paid little to nothing and she hears more work is on the way...I can't imagine her weeping.
We play a role in the rejoicing and the weeping. But, the good news? We get to choose which side we land on. Our resistance is our intentionality in what we buy, where we buy, from whom we buy...
There's so much more to come...tomorrow we are going to dig deeper with Frentz & Mallery, founders of Avanti Coffee Company. They're some of our sweetest friends and the work they are doing to revitalize Haiti's land + coffee industry is truly revolutionary work. The best part? We can all be a part of it!
TOMORROW on Facebook @ 9:00 AM CST