£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.