Yesterday I took my ESL students from the Saskatoon Open Door Society to a slide show at the main library downtown. Frank Roy, who's an excellent photographer and speaker, focused on several provincial and national parks in Saskatchewan. On the way back to Open Door, I commented to my students that I've been to 16 countries, including faraway places like India and China, but I haven't been to most of the beautiful parks from the slide show. There really is a lot more to this province that the stereotype of a place that's "so flat you can see your dog run away from home...for three days".

This will be a brief blog entry. (Do I hear cheering out there?) I thought I'd put a plug in for what I'm drinking right now: "Fair Trade" 100% Columbian coffee. I buy it at Ten Thousand Villages. I'm sure that some of you know about it already. For those who don't, here are some details:

"Fair trade is an alternative approach to conventional international trade which promotes sustainable economic justice and environmental practices. It is a partnership between all involved in the trading process--producers, workers, traders and consumers."

Cafe San Miguel: "Coffee farming families and their community benefit from FAIR TRADE premiums. Ecologically friendly (mostly shade-grown, under a canopy of fruit trees). High mountain grown (average 1,500 metres above sea level). Hand-picked, washed with mountain stream water and sun-dried."

Of course, it's much more expensive than regular coffee, but it's delicious and makes me feel that I'm doing at least a little to protect the environment and help farmers!

It seems that hell has frozen over. Surprisingly, I'm not talking about the cold weather. I'm referring to an extremely unlikely event: Grant Schmidt is back in politics. As many of you probably know, he was an MLA in Grant Devine's scandal-ridden Saskatchewan government in the 1980s. One of Schmidt's memorable statements compared homosexuals to bank robbers and other criminals. Last night he won the Saskatchewan Party nomination for the riding of Melville-Saltcoats. Bill Boyd, who was the last leader of the now defunct Saskatchewan Conservative Party, was appalled by the nomination. He suggested that it be overturned because Schmidt has so much negative political baggage. At least it's good to know that we practise recycling in Saskatchewan!

I've finally added some more photos from my trip to my Yahoo photo album. To see them, along with the previous ones, go to

ca.photos.yahoo.com/donaldbcampbell

[Don't forget the middle initial "b".] Click on "All Albums" and then keep clicking until you get to the "Shared Photo Album" folder. Don't be confused by the one that says "Yahoo Album. Share with friends". That folder has only two photos in it. The "Shared Photo Album" folder has 18. One good way to view them is to click on "slide show". I'll be adding new ones and deleting older ones soon. Please check my blog website to find out when I do that. Thanks!