So I don't have classes on Mondays and the normal routine is to stay on the north side of the bridge (ie: not take the train to campus), head to the local coffee shop for a double shot latte or a long black (cafe americano for all those americanos), and then saunter over to the town library nursing my caffeine fix for some quiet school reading.
Well today I decided to break routine, and I am glad I did. It started out like every other Monday, except the vibe in the coffee shop was warm, inviting, and just bright if you can understand that, so I said to myself, "why not just plop down at one of the tables and do my reading here." Oh man, best decision ever! Not only did I get around 75 pages read for my Politics of the Global Economy class, but I also got to have a brilliant chat with the manager of the cafe.
Her name escapes me now, but she started a little conversation with me after most of her customers had come and gone from the shop over a 2 hour period and I remained steadfastly underlining, reading, and highlighting a seriously over sized 700 page bound collection of articles pertaining to politics, the global economy, and necessary for success in school.
She apologized for interrupting, but wanted to know what I was studying. I told her I was studying IR and Global Government so that I could join the Foreign Service and/or promote development, interdependence, and well just plain old common courtesy and good will in the ever growing global village. She was fascinated and asked if I knew anything about 'fair trade'. I told her what I knew and she then proceeded to launch into all the things that this small coffee shop and its sister cafe was doing to help promote global development, sustainable coffee farming, fair wages, compensation, and living conditions for the coffee producers (the lowest people on the coffee food chain).
It was amazing to see this woman so passionate about something so simple and a bit idealistic, but at the same time totally noble and totally worth while. She explained to me all about The Rainforest Alliance and how her shop's blend of beans consisted of 50-60% Allicance 'stamped' beans in their 2 shops and were hoping by 2009 to raise it 70%.
If that wasn't enough to get me inspired and excited to order another coffee, she told me about how the owner and herself are looking into going into coffee farming/development in Ethiopia to help at an organic/grassroots level put in place training systems to help get the coffee producers on track to bring a fair trade quality coffee product on the market for export. Amazing stuff!
I applaud Pablo's & Rusty's (the coffee shop). They have earned my business for the remainder of my time here. They have also earned my respect for launching a campaign of integrity in and industry and a developed world where that word is lost and almost archaic. Good on ya' all the P&Rs of the world!
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