life, by me: September 2013

Day 1 - Total spend = £1

Monday, September 30, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

Day one of 'living below the line'. In conclusion, it hasn't been as hard as I had expected, and the main problem seems to be a sugar low headache that has been pretty persistent all evening.

Firstly, I already had food in the fridge and cupboards before I began this challenge and I didn't want to waste that food as that would kind of defeat the aim of trying to live below the poverty line, food waste is not an option to people who can't afford to put meals on the table (or floor if you live in India...). So everything I have eaten today (except a butternut squash) has been using items I already had and what they cost me to buy.

Breakfast - Porridge made with water and a sprinkling of sweetener

Porridge oats - 3p for a 35g portion

Water - Free

Sweetner - 1p for a 'sprinkle'

Snack - a banana - 15p

Lunch - Home made spicy roasted butternut squash soup

I have made enough soup to last all week and it works out at 31p per portion.

Snack - an apple - 5p (from a friends orchard)

Dinner - Pasta and red pesto with a dash of cheddar

Pasta - 10p

Pesto - 20p

20g cheese - 15p (I had 15p left of my £1 budget so the cheese was a total luxury, I worked out what I could eat for 15p and it was 20g, it was totally worth it)

Total spend = £1

All in all, it's been a pretty good day. I've felt hungry at points but I think that's probably more down to the fact that I have known that my food intake has been limited by cost and therefore I couldn't just eat every time I felt a little bit hungry - or not hungry at all but just bored and wanting food! I've even tested my self control, holding back on 2 times today when I have been faced with a lot of cakes and sweet stuff offered to me. I know I probably could accept 'freebies' but I have decided not to as if I wanted I could probably get a lot of food for free from the kindness of my friends and the people around me, but people living below the poverty can not always rely on others' kindness to put food on their table.

You definitely have to be a lot more organised and plan ahead when living on a tight budget and find creative ways to use every ingredient you have to make your food go as far as you can.

I've had a lot of food in bowls today for some reason - just noticed that. Breakfast and lunch are going to look pretty similar for the week and I'll have to see how creative I can get with dinners.

By the way, the soup was really nice, I freestyled a bit but hopefully I can cope with having that every lunch this week.

Thanks to everyone who has already donated to Raleigh International!

www.justgiving.com/hazel-swan4

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Living below the line...in Lincoln

Sunday, September 29, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

So having recently returned from India, I'm feeling passionate about some of the things I saw and experienced whilst I was out there.

One of the big things that touched me whilst I was living in Kokkal was how they survive on much little that us. I'm not talking about the relation between the British Pound and the Indian Rupee, but about the fact that many of us live lifestyles with comfort and an abundance of food and facilities that other people could never imagine. They are forced to live a much more basic lifestyle, living under the poverty line.

"The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries." [wikipedia]

This week I am challenging myself to live below the line, spending a maximum of £1 per day on all the food and drink that I consume. I won't be accepting freebies and any food I already have in the cupboards will be costed and accounted for in my daily budget.

I'm definitely going to have less variety in my diet than I usually would and choices are going to be more limited. I'm going to have to be a lot more organised than normal and think a lot more about what I am purchasing and spending my money on.

When I was in India we ate rice for pretty much every meal and when the supplies were low there wasn't much else to the meal. It was very humbling when in the last week in Kokkal the locals in the village all clubbed together, donating 50 rupees each (a third of their daily wage) to buy us some chicken - which they then cooked for us.

One of the amazing meals the generous people of Kokkal cooked us

Raleigh International is working with ICS (the International Citizen Service) supporting a diverse range of UK young people and volunteers from developing countries to fight poverty, gain skills and change their own communities for the better. I went out to India with Raleigh and would like to raise funds to help support the work that Raleigh International does to help build and develop communities all over the world.

Tomorrow it begins... www.justgiving.com/Hazel-Swan4

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Goodbye Kokkal

Tuesday, September 03, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

We basically hit the ground running this phase completing all the following in the last 3 weeks: a health camp, a vet camp, the Mense House construction, building a wall around the Kindergarten, constructing some washing stones and lots of health awareness. It has been really busy, and feels as though it went really quickly as well.

So, the Mense House - we finished it! It was hard work and took longer than we expected but the whole team worked really hard to get it completed on time ready for the women in the village to use.

Building the walls

The local ladies watching us work (a regular occurrence)

Outside complete!

Plastering the outside

Ta da!

In the last couple of weeks the weather really picked up, with torrential rain and wind an almost distant memory. We all spent a lot more time with the villagers and I now feel as though I know some of them really well.

We were given a small budget to use within the village and reach another need. We decided to use this money to buy the materials to build a wall around the kindergarten to stop children from running in to the cars. This was again another big project but we managed to get it done and the volunteers painted educational murals along the side of it, it looked really good and the staff at the kindergarten were all really pleased with it!

Our accidental blue wall which we grew to love

Leaving our mark in the village on the new wall

Some educational painting on the wall

The song we taught the children to encourage them to brush their teeth everyday with toothpaste

Painting health awareness about washing your hands on the children's toilet

We spent the rest of the money on constructing some washing stones for the people in the village to wash their clothes on, digging a kitchen garden by the kindergarten, painting murals on the children's toilet and training some of the ladies in the village to knit scarves so they could earn some additional income for the upkeep of the new Mense House.

We were in the village in Independence Day, awkwardly celebrating the day India became Independent from the British, although it wasn't awkward at all and they held an event to celebrate just because we were in the village, complete with dancing and flag themed outfits.

Independence Day celebrations

In our last week all the local people invited us round for dinner to say thanks for the work we had done within their village during our stay. One meal in particular stands out - I ate so much I felt physically ill afterwards, just around the time they dressed me in their traditional clothing and got me to practice their traditional Kota dance in the street.

The amazing feast we had in our last week - consisting of rice, egg, fish, potatoes, carrots, fruit and other stuff

All tucking in

Trying on the Kota dress

Learning some new moves

Rocking the outfit

On our last night in the village, the local people all threw us an amazing surprise party. They had been planning a function for a few weeks for us but then the day before sadly someone died in the village, and due to their culture, they are not allowed to have any celebrations for 3 days. The ladies in the village were so sad about not being able to have the leaving party for us they spoke to the village leader who agreed they could do something small scale in the evening. This 'small scale' event included dressing us all in traditional Kota dress, rigging up some speakers and lights and doing some dancing for us, followed by speeches and then making us dance for them. It was great fun and an amazing end to our time in the village.

Charlie 5 looking the cleanest we did all project in our Kota clothing

We only left the village 3 days ago, but already it all seems a bit surreal. The volunteers arrived back in the UK on Sunday evening and we have a few more days here before we fly home at the weekend.