2012 trip to Nepal # 9

Only 4 days until I'm off again. Bye Australian summer, I'm trading you yet again for a freezing nepalese winter. But the love and generosity of the people there will make that all ok.

This trip's purpose is a bit different from previous trips. The women's skills training centre is up and running and there are no more facilities to build but orders to make. We have quite a workforce now. Over 100 women. I'm feeling good. I have a Dropbox full of sorted designs and sketches from Branches of Life, The Fair Trade Store, Chooktopia, Fourth Daughter and Nepalese handicrafts plus all of my own for expanding the Seven Women product range.

Time is an issue. I have one month and designing new things in Nepal is not only a massive personal development experience in patients but a very tedious process as well. The simpler the design, the closer is is to what I have already spent house tweaking in previous trips and the clearer the measurements, photos and samples the easier my trip will be and the happier the customer will be.

But I also don't mind a challenge. The journey is what is the most rewarding and fascinating about my time in Nepal. There is so much fun to be had, so much to give and so much to learn.

I'm feeling confident about the designs I will do my best at this time around.

I have made a rule to self before this cause became a social enterprise and I started wholesaling, that I would only ever do business with great people. I'm really happy with that decision and my gut feeling has served me very well over the years. I love the women who have given me designs to make this time in Nepal and it makes it very enjoyable.

The main reason why I'm heading to Nepal is to make a Documentary of the project. I want to be able to expose the stories behind fair trade and the challenges in development. Because I feel most people don't have a realistic grasp on what it is like to work in this field and I find it fascinating to learn about what works and what doesn't and seeing the impacts on the people involved. Very exciting stuff and I'm hoping to capture it on camera so others can watch and form their own opinions and think of things they may not have considered before.

Strange, nervous, time constrained, excited, apprehensive feeling.

Bring it on!