The Britannica International School just had an unusual special assembly, the first ever where outside guests were specifically invited to participate. Part of Human Rights Week at the school, and the brainchild of teacher Toby Scammell, some students put on a play about Fair Trade, watched a short film, participated in a Fair Trade quiz (and won Fair Trade organic chocolates and gumi-bears from Treehugger Dan’s), and looked through a small exhibition of Fair Trade products put together by Gyorgy Ujszaszi, Fair Trade campaign coordinator at the NGO Vedegylet. Gyorgyi and I also gave a small talk about the basics of Fair Trade. For example, there are over 240 million children working around the world instead of going to school, and many of the world’s carpets and footballs are made by child labor in such places as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Thanks Toby and the Britannica School for caring, and making this possible.

On the way to the school, I was a bit early, cold and hungry, so I popped into a small bakery at Kosztolanyi Deszo ter 5 called the “Pain” Pekseg for a coffee and smoked cheese croissant. Chatting with the owner, I commented that I used to live in the area about 17 years ago, in one of the first of my 21 flats in 19 years here. I wondered if the Ham Ham Bar was still around? She was very surprised and told me I was standing in it! She was the owner of the Ham Ham until several years ago when they converted the premises to a bakery. “Ham Ham” is what Hungarians use as the English equivalent of “bzzzzzz, open wide and let the plane fly in” when trying to feed a child. Just as I was beginning to know my friend Balazs (then a punk rocker, now a Buddhist working for the regional environmental authorities!), he took me after English class to the Ham Ham for a meal because he knew one of the waitresses. I don’t remember much about the night except that we got into an argument about how to translate “paradicsom madar” into English because I could just not conceive of a “tomato bird.” We ended up calling a friend of his to look in a dictionary. Of course I know now that the word for paradise and tomato are the same. She was very nice, and the positive nostalgia was a great way to start the day.