The weather turned cold, and the downpour of rain seemed to follow us from Edinburgh through to East Dunbartonshire. However as we entered the council offices in Kirkintilloch we got a warm reception from Councillor Morrison and a team of council staff who had set up an event for the launch of the East Dunbartonshire Fairtrade directory.
We made a brief presentation and showed an extract from the PaPaPaa DVD before Louise asked Comfort K and Comfort A about life as a cocoa farmer and the benefits of Fairtrade to cocoa farmers in Ghana.
This was followed by two excellent presentations from local schools where pupils had learnt about Fairtrade and had set up co-operatives within the school to sell Fairtrade products.
The event was a huge success, attended by around 70 councillors, local business people and students. Sylvia Grey, Sustainable Development Officer for East Dunbartonshire Council and secretary of the local Fairtrade steering group stated that she was "delighted to see the number and diversity of local people attending" and that it was "good to hear first-hand of how Fairtrade can make such a huge difference to cocoa farmers".
With little time to gather our breath we were meeting up for an interview with Colin Blane for BBC World Service. It can sometimes be a little difficult to tell your story with a microphone being held so close to you, but Colin had a way of putting the Comforts at ease and made the whole experience good fun.
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