Global Fayre Newsletter

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Fair Trade Ostrich Egg jewelry from the San Bushmen Women of the Kalahari

We just got our first shipment of Ostrich Egg jewelry, made by the San Bushmen Women of the Kalahari.

Ostrich eggshell beads are considered the first beads humans ever made, dating back over 50,000 years, with the San Bushmen women being the last people to make these beads as part of their tradition.

How the ostrich eggshell beads are made:

Photo courtesy of Women's Work and Kuru Family of Organizations

1.) The first step is to break the ostrich eggshells into chips.

2.) Then each chip is made round by a springbok horn or nail clippers-whichever is readily available.

3.) Next, a hole is started in each chip with a hand-drill then punched through with a small awl.
4.) Next the drilled chips are strung and laid across a wooden board. 5.) Using a whetstone, the chips are hand polished. The strings are wet, rubbed, then, wet some more. Through this tedious and strenuous task the rough chips are transformed into lovely luminous beads.

We sourced this beautiful jewelry from Celicia at Women’s Work, a fellow member of the Fair Trade Federation. Like many other products that we have managed to find over the past two years, this jewelry is great example of finding a market for a local tradition, using local (and sustainable) materials and giving a real sense of empowerment to the people of the region.

The purchase of these beads helps to preserve the San culture, bringing much-needed income to women deep in the heart of the Kalahari in Botswana.

We’ll be retailing these ‘pearls of the Kalahari’ at Global Fayre in downtown Springfield, and they will also be available shortly through our online store.

Free Parking at College Station

Great news!
We got this press release recently from the Urban District Alliance (UDA)….

Parking Decks Update:

Dec. 18, 2008

News Release

For Immediate Release

The new downtown College Station and Heer’s parking decks will offer
free parking seven days a week for all downtown patrons effective
immediately.

This creates more free weekend parking for visitors to all downtown
businesses in addition to the validated parking that had already been
offered by Hollywood Theaters. Under this full-time free parking, no
validation will be needed at the theaters.

The City is able to offer the free parking at least until the
additional build out of the College Station project is completed. The
capacity in the parking decks and the two surface lots on the northeast and
northwest corners of Campbell Avenue and Olive Street was designed to handle
both the theater traffic and the eventual build out of College Station. A
total of 975 spaces are available, with about 800 of them covered parking
adjacent to the project.

The current capacity of the parking decks and surface lots is proving
to be sufficient to guarantee enough parking for theater patrons, so the
City is able to add free parking on weekends as well as during the week.

For more information, contact: Louise Whall, Director of Public Information,
864-1010.

C-Street Market

Isn’t it great when you see something bloom?

C-Street Market was good fun today. There is a broad range of vendors, and we had a good number of customers (until the rains arrived!). But more than anything, I really like the atmosphere. Great conversations, lots of goodwill and humor (people are VERY tolerant of this British guy and his strange accent) and a real sense of community.

That’s what a community market is all about, right?!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, then get down to Commercial Street on Saturday from 8am to 12 noon, or on Tuesday from 3 to 7.

Memorial Day Fund Raiser

Lots of the downtown retailers and restaurants are open for Memorial Day (you can check out more about who is open at www.itsalldowntown.com) so we decided to go ahead and open up the store, but use that chance to raise some funds for a worthwhile cause.

In our last newsletter, we talked about raising funds for the people of Burma – so we figured we should put those words in to action.

WE WILL DONATE 10% OF EVERY SALE WE MAKE ON MEMORIAL DAY TO THE INTERNATIONAL BURMESE MONKS ORGANIZATION

So – come downtown and support the retailers that are open for Memorial Day, and come to Global Fayre to make sure some funds go to the people of Burma!

PLUS – we have some goodies to offer to thank you for making the effort………

First blog!

This is the first time we’ve entered anything here so, of course, there’s nothing much to say except Hi, and welcome….whoever you are…..and please come by again when we will have something (hopefully) of import to share about Fair Trade in general and Global Fayre in particular (and other things too of course).

In the meantime, while you are waiting, visit our website at www.globalfayre.com, or our space at www.myspace.com/globalfayre, or our book at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=759089481