On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Vista choir went to sing for the fifht graders at three schools and those three schools that were blessed with the choir´s amazing voices are , Jackzon Heights , Metteer , and last bout not least Bidwell. I do actually have to say that although it was fun but the fifth graders were extremely disrespectful. Leadership and band went too  but I am only talking about the choir. We went to Bidwell last and our bus was late. But we got there and the fifth graders were int the cafeteria before us.  We went To Jackson Heights first and I saw my old teachers and we had fun and there was actually alot of room. Make sure to come back later for more posts and blogs about Life In Rm 30.

• Guiding Light
• We Three Kings
• All I Want For Christmas Packet
• Over The Rainbow
• Jingle Bell Rock
• The Little Drummer Boy
• Old Toy Trains
• Silent Night

In the middle of my first trimester at my school I heard about an after school activity that was choir and I thought into it a little bit until I realised you know what I am going to join choir and that was about two months before our first concert. The first concert we ever had was a christmas concert and these are the songs we sang. They are all listed above. These are the songs we are singing Currently.

• Seasons Of Love
• Love Song
• I Am The River
• Simple Gifts or The Shaker Hymn
• One Voice
• Great Gettin Up Mornin
• Amazing Grace
• Let Us Break Bread Together

Although I am a young child and you think I’m probably immature but, I can tell you right now that what you are about to learn might shock you even if you may have known these things you may read things that might surprise you and  these are my concerns for the whole chocolate industry and for the people on the cocoa plantations. These are actually my concerns and you may think I am a little one sided on this subject maybe you’re right  I really hope that you take this action into consideration. This letter took me  awhile to prepare because I wanted to say the correct things and not be rude because this type of thing is really close to my heart so here are all my concerns of  non fair trade chocolate.

I live in california..  Have you ever wondered where your chocolate came from and who it was made by?    I have one word for you ,Slaves. Yes , slaves do unfortunately make most of the chocolate we consume today.  You may still think that big name brand chocolate companies make their own chocolate and it is not made by or picked by by slaves. Well if you thought that one half was true and the other was not, then you are half right and half wrong, because slaves not only pick the cocoa beans for the chocolate companies, they use harmful cutlery for instance , machetes sprayed with poisonous pesticides and with who else knows what.  With working in harmful conditions and working in the cocoa fields sent from home or sometimes even shipped overseas from Africa to the plantations or the big chocolate like Hershey’s  and Nestle.Unfortunately , slaves are still needed to make the chocolate we consume today.

With slaves still needed to make chocolate we consume today , according to the text ¨about three hundred thousand children are forced to pick cocoa beans that will be sold to big chocolate companies ” with that information they are enslaving children at a very young age and are sometimes even taken from their parents with financial problems and they can’t work for themselves they send their children away to either work on the family farm or to go work for big chocolate brands like Hershey and Nestle.  Slaves are forced  to live in dirty living conditions. They are at risk of dying especially young children because they are using harmful weapons like machetes , sprayed with strong poisonous pesticides.

 

According to another source ¨about 300,000 children are forced to pick cocoa beans that will be sold to big chocolate chocolate companies like Nestle and Cargill. About 6,000 of the children there are treated like slaves.¨ According to another source , ¨ The death rate even on that ideal state ,considering that is for adult population is appalling¨.With adults on slave plantations dropping like flies. That takes a toll on the birth rate also , plantation managers are needing to import over 1,000 people a year and that isn’t so good because sometimes they will get sick on the way and die and they eventually  end up getting the other passengers sick and they can spread whatever disease they have onto the vast majority of plantation work.

 

When slaves come to the U.S. they are sometimes coerced or stolen and put on a ship to the United States. When they are put on the ship to come here they can pick up diseases and possibly die or survive and pass  the disease onto the current slaves and children that live on the plantation. Because of this sickness the death rate is incredibly high and the birth rate is incredibly low.

With slaves needed on the cocoa plantations ,  they are not being treated well , they live in dirty conditions and they only have the clothes on their backs , they are barely fed , they share a bathroom that is very disgusting , sleep in very little rooms . On the other hand people that work for fair trade are paid according to one article ¨ 43% of the world’s cocoa beans are being harvested by slave labor.¨  According to another article ¨Cases often involve acts of physical violence, such as being whipped for working slowly or trying to escape. Reporters have also documented cases where children and adults were locked in at night to prevent them from escaping.¨ Maybe when you order more cocoa i would consider buying it from fair trade farms and then not only is the plantation workers government being paid and the farmers but they being the plantation workers  are also being paid. And as a consumer of your chocolate i would really like to see Fair trade Hershey bars on the shelves in the near future.        Sincerely your considerate customer , Jorden L.

 

There was more but that was confidential sorry is this was long.

In room 30 we do a lot of fun actitivities like book tasting and we have parties. We even paricipated in #GSPD (Global school play day) we justy dropped everything we were doing and played all day but sadly it had to end because it was a short day. I wish we did not have short days because we only get 4 hours with pur friends and classmates. Thats all for now keep coming back for more fun posts.