informal project introduction

Today is July 4th, I almost forgot. In the mornings, I check the news back home to see what is happening. Although I probably will not see any fireworks today, or eat any grilled hamburgers and potatoe salad...go swimming and eat red velvet cake with too much cream cheese icing that I LOVE....baked beans. There are fireworks here,ALOT, usually on the weekends for some religious festival or temple celebration.

I have been waiting anxiously to go to Madurai. It is a city kind of central South India. I have been corresponding with a local director for fair trade cotton. The organization he works with is called Educational Training Consultants. Here is the link, http://www.etcindia.org/, they have many projects in the works but the one I am currently interested in is the organic cotton producers. This includes local farmers who are producing fair trade cotton. I will be going into the field and visiting their offices at the end of July. I want to use this fair trade cotton to produce market bags that benefit these farmers, help eliminate the question "plastic or paper?", and selfishly, allow me to return to India to do more things here. I love it here, but seeing all this poverty and cheap, cheap labor breaks my heart sometimes. I will be posting some random things until I go to Madurai, and then I will come back with some fabulous photos to show how the process will work in making my bags! I already have three designs that I have been working on, and hopefully I will have some samples soon.