Where does my 10,000 Villages Christmas ornament come from?

Well, my friend, I'll tell you! It comes from a village called Bat Trang in northern Viet Nam, about a 30 minute drive from where I live in Ha Noi. The name of the village literally means "pottery guild." I visited there during my first week in Viet Nam (see blog entry from August 23) and returned for the second time just yesterday with Hannah (fellow SALTer), Co Bay (MCC project manager) and Gordon (visiting MCC program evaluator). It was fun to go again and understand so much more of what I heard and saw than the first time. And once again, I was so tickled and mind-blown to see the familiar 10,000 Villages products at their source!

I'm not sure why I find this so exciting... maybe something to do with the material disorientation and disconnection that comes along with a globalized economy: having no part in the production of your things, never knowing quite who it was that made them, where they come from or how they come into being. At this point, this disconnect is so totally normalized in the "developed world" that we don't give it a second thought. But what about the trill in the particular beauty of a bunch of flowers you planted from a seed, or the touch of the farmer's hand as she hands you a bunch of radishes she nurtured in a spot of earth you can point to, or the pleasure of regarding a little jewelry box with your name carved into it that your grandpa made? It seems to me that with each point of personal connection we have to a commodity, with every string that ties it into the core of our hearts, so its value increases. The harder it is to discard it to the back of a closet or to the landfill. And when we value and enjoy our things for our relationship to them, the less it seems like we need more. Like when you have several intimate personal relationships, it doesn't make you want to go out and make a bunch of new superficial ones.

Well, I wasn't really planning on that meandering reflection, I just wanted to show you these pictures! But there you have it. And now for the pictures...

Like on our first visit, we got a tour of Mr. Kinh's workshop. 60% of his production goes to a Vietnamese fair trade agency called Craft Link, and 10% of that goes to 10,000 Villages. He told us that Craft Link is the most transparent and fair buyer he works with, and later he announced that "MCC understands Vietnam the most!" I'm supposing this means out of all the foreign organizations he has worked with.
The craftspeople (mostly young women) are either family members (part of his family that has made ceramics here for the past 500 years) or local farmers who do ceramics part-time. They mostly sit in clumps, working together on one project, in this case, painting the design on round Christmas ornaments to go to 10,000 Villages.

The Christmas balls are sorted into baskets - painted and unpainted - like different varieties of eggs at the market.

Each brush stroke is unbelievably quick and precise.

All was going smoothly and efficiently until those pesky foreigners arrived and asked to take pictures!

The finished product, hanging shiny and gorgeous in the display room upstairs. I bet it would look great on your Christmas tree too!

After we finished at the workshop, Mr. Kinh (above) took us on a tour of the oldest part of the village, including a stop at his mother's house for tea. It's ALWAYS teatime! On the floor of what used to be the family workshop and is now her living room, sits a jug, like one you'd find at any 10,000 Villages, in it's natural habitat! Mr. Kinh is chuckling as Hannah makes this comment to him while I take the picture.

I'M FINALLY 21!!!

...And in here, where there no such thing as a "legal drinking age," it means nothing. Oh well, I already turned 19 in Ontario. And who needs to get intoxicated to have a crazy, out of the ordinary and exciting day in Viet Nam? Not me. It happens every day!

So celebrating my day of birth (March 2) farther away from where it happened than ever before was extra special, and what made it extra extra special is that my mom and Aunt Kate were here as part of the festivities! What a wonderful gift. Here is a photo tour of the big day...

When I walked downstairs in the morning, the party was waiting for me! Actually, my host-family had already left for work and school, so Mama, Kate and I had a nice private kick-off to the day.

We had lunch at the MCC office, complete with delicious food (that's nothing new there), fancy flowers, a new birthday shirt (being modeled), singing and cake. Above is pictured almost all the MCC Viet Nam staff, minus two people.

Then off to Just Massage, a massage clinic that employs visually imparted young people where I teach English to new therapists twice a week. But this time I was not working! Here's me with my friend Dung, one of the older therapist who helps me with teaching and who had just given me a fabulous massage!

Kate and Anne chilling at after-massage coffee break. Vietnamese coffee is basically a good choice after of before anything... expect maybe not before sleeping!

Upon returning home... "Are you ready to be SUPRISE?" I prepared myself and...

...was not disapointed! My little sister Bong (complete with "hair just like mine") was lying in wait, along with ballons and a host of stuffed animal friends there to "enjoy the party."

The excitement continued with a big dinner at a restaurant down the street attended by my real family, my host-family, a bunch of their friends and a bunch of my friends.

After that, the real and host families and I went to the Indian neighbours' house for a tea party... but I forgot to take pictures. Oh well.

The final, and possibly best, part of the day was opening the big stack of cards from folks at home, which my mom brought along. Seriously, along with the visitors in person, I could not have asked for a better birthday present this year. My never ending gratitude to those of you who contibuted the kind words of encouragement and wisdom (and the chocolate, not pictured). As the clock neared midnight, my last birthday act was to tape all the cards on the wall above the head of my bed, where they continue to shine their blessings on me every night.
(In case you were wondering, the poster was there before [I love it too] and the handson lad keeping watch over my bed is my host-brother, who is presently studying in Australia.)