Presentations in Mongolian Yurks

Me in the Yurk!

Thats right, an authentic Mongolian Yurt was the venue for my second presentation with community group Girvan Community Gardens. The setting was beautiful as the group had been working on the garden for years. It was a great way for people to come together and meet other like-minded people who care about things like the environment, co-ops and the larger infrastructures of life. This group was not, perhaps, my ideal audience as many of them were heavily involved in charities, co-ops and their own local communities. 


Would I hopefully would get though is more presentations as they took my details into their own communities. And as a result I have been in touch with two schools, looking for presentations in the next term. 

Had a great, positive day and I am looking forward to many more!!

£234 raised :)

Well I finished my LBTL last week, and first of all I need to apologise because I have fallen completely behind in my blogging responsibilities. A bit like my alter-ego Carrie Bradshaw, there is the odd deadline that I just don't meet. Sometimes life just takes over and all last week I had to work late, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was go onto another computer.

However, I do apologise because I know there are some avid fans of this blog (feel free to share and pull in more!) and I do feel I have let you down a little so I will try to do better in the future.

However, the rest of LBTL went very well to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I won't be having rice and curry sauce for a long time, but due mostly to my experience of last year coupled with better planning meant that overall I did pretty well. I was hungry, and by day 4 very tired (and constipated, sorry but its true) but muddled through.

What really hit home for me however was my reliance on having access to clean drinking water. I had no coffee (and a sever lackofcaffeine migraine) and only budgeted for 4 cups of tea a day. So I drank a lot of water! Water that I did not have budget in! Drinking water in Scotland comes out the tap, and personally I think it tastes amazing (it does have a taste, I have had this argument over with people and it does, there is a difference between taps, and brands!!). My work has a positive employee scheme and in accordance to legislation we have drinking water freely available at work. In fact, I have always had a thing about always having a bottle of water on me at all times, and I simply reuse 5 or 6 bottles with tap water. I am a big water drinker, so that aspect of the challenge didn't knock me but what really struck me was the significance of having water available to me. A thought emphasized by Hugh Evan's (CEO of the Global Poverty Project) blog, where he talks about his final 3 hours of the challenge where water isn't available.

It is estimated that right now, today, in 2012, 1 in 8, 1 in 8, people do NOT have access to clean drinking water. Also, 1billion, 1BILLION, people have no access to a toilet. A toilet!! Charities like WaterAid have determined that for ever $1 invested in clean water and sanitation facilities would bring returns of $9. A 900% increase....who is saying that this is a bad thing!!

Even when you're in amongst it, when you know the stats inside out: challenges like LBTL still remind you to really think about the things we take for granted, and gives focus to the journey that will see the end of extreme poverty in our generation.

Reflections of day 2

My 5 days worth of food!

Its the morning of day 3 and I have today off my work...I slept through to 10am, which may o ay be a reflection on my lack of food. Even though I am eating fairly well I am still going to bed a little hungry (really needed to get out of the habit of nibbling at night anyway, so that it one good thing that has came from this!) However, I am also genuinely knackered...have had a couple of late nights at work and busy weekends, whatever the reason I loved it! (although I ran in a panic when I heard the bin men and thought I had missed them...they only come every fortnight!!)

Click here to donate!

Had to actually stop half way through this blog to have my breakfast...crumpets...again! But with scrambled egg, a splurge this morning but hoping it'll see me right through to tea time, where I am having rice, veg and curry sauce....again!

Its a VERY small plate!

Repetition of food if definitely another of the points of this challenge that you see very quickly! I may never look at another crumpet at the end of this challenge, or an egg!

However, yesterday something else quite interesting happened. I was at work and it was manic and I had to stay late. Now, I am always, always, hungry at 5pm when I leave work. Its probably more a phychological issue than a physical, but when it was the back of 6pm my stomach was echo-ing around the empty office and I started to feel quite sick. This would probably be the situation regardless of if I was on live below the line or not but I also knew that my dinner was a long way off. So I broke into my emergency 5p cup of soup I have had at the bottom of my bag and managed to work through and had my dinner at 7!

What struck me though was how organised you have to be to survive on this. I have a drawer full of snacks, nuts and seeds, at work, and always have fruit. But I can only afford an apple once a day because fresh fruit is so expensive! Having that cup of soup really saved me from getting to a point where I was going to be really uncomfortably hungry and binging when I got home! Planning is certainly a key.

Which is fine. Its fine when you have a local store, which is always in stock, and your income is steady, and regular. Its fine to be organised, and plan it out, when there are less variables. In fact bad planning for us really equates to laziness! For 1.4 billion people in the world, this is  not the case. Their shops may be their neighbours, they depend on the harvest, and people have stock to sell at the same time. But most of all they depend on a wage, a steady wage, and for many this is the difficulty.

That's why it's important for us to make choices here, every day choices. Like purchasing fair trade products. Yes, they are more expensive, but that's because they are fair. Those prices are what we should be paying, but instead we choose companies that cut costs, and therefore prices, to make more profit. Now I don't tar them all with the same brush: Ben and Jerry's and Cadbury are huge companies that are fair trade as well, they have obviously found alternative, fairer, ways to cut costs whilst still giving those who are growing, picking, harvesting the raw materials that make our food a fair wage for their labour!

Morning of day 2!

Vlogging before work eh!?

Day1, reflections with words.

Apologies, will make sure tomorrow's Vlog has at least clean hair :s eck!

But for those of who like to read, and for me who likes to write, here is my reflections in a little more depth.

So I currently sit at the end of day 1, feeling still very satisfied and knowing I half just under half of my dinner uneaten and available for a reheat if I need to :)) Here's what I have had:

• 2 crumpets with butter and cup of tea (breakfast) : 5p
• 2 cups of tea in work : 4p (I shared the tea bag!!)
• Apple : 11p (fruit is soooo dear)
• 150g Rice (6p), Veggies (25p) and 1/4 jar of curry sauce (6p) : 37p
• Another 2 cups of tea : 4p (I can't help it...I'm giving up coffee for goodness sake!) 

Total 61p...which leaves me quite a tidy sum left over, 39p no less! I'm also onto my 2nd liter of water, which is not too much of a task because I am lucky enough to live in beautiful Scotland were the tap water is actually delicious!! and water will probably feature heavily in a later blog.

Today I want to talk about the interesting reaction I got from many of my colleagues at work. The reaction of charity.

I know your probably thinking that the whole point of this challenge is for charity. What I found intriguing was the direction of the charity. I had people asking me if it was ok for me to accept food from them as extra. One of my friends said "I really want to feed you". We laughed about it at the time, but it made me think, because I have read in other blogs that this phenomenon, of people directing genuine sympathy and empathy for us, the challenge takers.

This is not to say that the concern does not spread to the people or plight that I am campaigning for. I just found it weird that people's first desire was for me to, effectively, cheat. Someone even threw a multi-pack of crisps across my desk!

This is a tough challenge, almost impossible feeling at times. I feel pretty good today but I know from last year the worst is yet to come. The point is though that this is a choice. If I really wanted to I could just nip to asda and buy food, I live alone, no-one would know. I can try to keep my budget low some weeks, but I can indulge on others. I can chip in with friends or go it alone!

Take my normal diet: I tend to choose convenience or low maintenance foods (I can't cook, pasta is about as adventurous as I get!). I also choose to drink fruit juice twice a day, I choose peppermint tea at night, I choose brown pasta and rice and I choose fresh fruit daily. I prefer to eat chicken or fish over red meats, although I do like beef mince. These choices are a result of my desire to try and eat healthily, to try and keep my digestion and...well the results of that process...in good order (I know I am sorry but if you are squeamish my live below the line blog is probably not your cup of tea.)

I choose fair-trade: coffee, tea, chocolate, ice-cream and whatever else I can get. Its more expensive, but I can afford it, so I do it, because its the right thing to do.

In the last few paragraphs I used the word choice (or choose - derived from choice, don't split hairs) 8 times, I also used the words prefer, want, but all indicating that I have a decision to make, I have a choice.

Of the most pertinent and quickly realised points of LBTL is that choice is the first thing that goes out of the window. When you live on such a tight budget without an end date in sight the challenge becomes much bigger. Its about getting the most for your money, every penny literally counts, every day, all day...forever. Its certainly a humbling thought!

Day 1: An acceptance of technology new!

So Vlogging, that is video blogging, seems to be all the rage! So here I am in my technicolour glory, explaining how day 1 has gone so far!

Variety is the Spice of life....and....

Thousands of people are starting their live below the line experience today and first of all I want to wish them all the very best of luck.

I am starting on Wednesday, which is explained in previous blog posts. But I am so aware looking at my twitter page in particular how difficult people are finding day 1, and its only lunch time. I am going to go shopping tomorrow and get organised, but I have done this challenge in the past and I know how difficult its going to be. I was aware eating my egg and bagel this morning how privileged my breakfast was, given that the bagel would have been about 25p and the egg 9p if from a caged hen...which mine are not! Then the butter, say another 1p, then milk and coffee...before I even think about it my breakfast costs almost 40p, from Wednesday that will be nearly half of my total daily allowance, and I am already hungry again!

So a few plans are developing...first of all I am probably going to have to go cold turkey with the coffee and stick to tea were I can as the tea bags work out much cheaper. I am also going to have to put my ethical shopper to one side. Not only is fair-trade unaffordable I will have to compromise on other things as well. Like my aforementioned eggs, I only ever buy free range but when every penny counts and eggs will probably be my only source of protein this week then I am going to have to go for budget caged, and the thought makes me a little sick.

Being restricted in meal choices, in the quality of food you can buy, is one of the points of the live below the line challenge. Its not just about trying to get the best deals, no matter how creative you are, how much you can get for every penny, you are still severely restricted in your choice. Variety and quality are compromised over quantity.

Now you may think that this is not important to the starving. Who cares what you are eating as long as you are eating. Well first of all as I noted eggs will probably be my only source of protein, which is also found in white meat like chicken and fish, which I can't afford. Now I am no dietician, but years of diet plans has taught me something (thankfully, as I have yet to gain anything else from them barr more weight...) is that protein is very, very, good for you! Protein is actually our best source of energy and builds muscles. So when you don't have enough...you get fatigued, you burn more energy than your eating, which causes weight loss, and if you aren't building muscle...you're burning it.

Variety is more than the "spice of life", its a necessity!

Just a few days to go...

Its just a few days now until my live below the line challenge begins. As you can see I am raring to go: I have my posters, flyers and sponsor forms printed out and my campaigning starts today! Email and facebook and twitter are all step up and just waiting on the click of a button. In fact I even have a t-shirt (pictured) which I made myself (I know how cool!!) and on the back I have the website for Live Below the Line.

Unfortunately I have not heard back from the local press or radio as yet. I am hoping for a last minute call before Tuesday, when the guides meet. If not, then I'll try again towards the end of the challenge.

I have decided to start late - the Wednesday rather than the Monday. Few reasons: Monday is a bank holiday so I will be home, alone, all day...so that's just not going to happen. Plus it'll give me more time to get my shopping and last minute things organised. However, mainly its because of my guide group: I want to start my challenge the day after our night of organisation. I want photos etc to get the ball rolling with them and if they think I am organising with them they'll be more motivated!

I always get nervous before I actually start any charity campaign. I have worked pretty hard with what i've got i'd say. I mean, some people do amazing things, my friend Fiona was part of a group who managed to get all but 3 universities in the whole of WALES involved with LBTL. Another ambassador ran a hugely successful campaign last year on campus with creative buzz creators including Limbo games on the street.

There are times I wish I was part of a group, be bigger then just me. However, I am not, I am just me.
Sometimes I wonder how much I can really do, just me.

Then I think about Mother Teresa; 'I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.'

So it is time to cast my stone!