Ten Thousand Adventures

Before we hit the road a few weeks ago, Jordan had been proactive in sending emails to people out east who might need a hand. He was able to find a good hook up with the Ten Thousand Villages store in Peticodiac New Brunswick.

If you are unfamiliar with Ten Thousand Villages, they are an organization that specializes in selling fair trade goods made by disadvantaged artisans. The products they sell are made by over 120 different people groups in 38 countries worldwide. Their Wikipedia page has some great info if you wanna learn more about this win-win-win organization.

The location in Peticodiac is special because it is not just a retail store, but also the warehouse that sends goods to all east coast locations. When we arrived, we were shown around, and learned quickly that it was a seriously slick operation. Mostly “pop-up stores” are sent to cities on the east coast, so we saw how they set these up and even helped build and stain some wooden jewelry displays

The people that are in charge of operations are given an apartment above the store and the cabinets needed painting, so we got to it. The work was a little tedious since all handles had to be removed and each section needed to be sanded, but we were happy to do it so someone else wouldn't have to. We also took up an old tile floor that was going to be replaced.

The time we spent there there flew by, especially due to the breaks we spent slurping fair trade coffee and chatting with the one worker Sarah.

When we went to lunch at Subway down the street, we passed a house where a man was doing some yard work. On our way back, Dylan and I stopped to see if he needed a hand. Sadly, he was almost done and could have used our help an hour earlier, but, we did help him with the last of the leaves and had a great chat with him. Bob McGrath heats his house with firewood and taught us all about how to stack wood properly. We also chatted about lifes adventures and he now drives tour bus part time in his retirement. We got to meet his wife and daughter and ended up trading a jar of homemade jam for a bottle of homemade wine plus the most delicious cookies that have graced our taste buds in years.

So Peticodiac NB turned out to be one of those towns that you would never expect to be so neat. From here we were headed to Fundy National Park to witness some classic east coast beauty.

Hanging out with some dudes in a metal band we met.