day 18: a picture is worth 1000 words

I'm dedicating day 18 to this barefoot mother and child in the slums of Hyderabad, India. They had come across a small bunch of grapes which are grown in this region. You take what you can get. I'll let the photo do the talking tonight.

I'm tired and feeling a little weak but my spirit is strong thanks to the progress we've made toward the $5,000 goal. Currently at $3,700 with 12 days to go. Today was another $0 day but that's ok, we press on! I appreciate all of your facebook shares, retweets, instagram mentions, and amazon link usage!

Would you consider helping us maintain our pace toward the goal by giving toward scholarships for children of these slums, even if it's what you think is just a small amount?

It all makes a difference, and with your help, they'll be able to attend The Children's Hope Center, where they'll get everything they need to attend a local school, plus hygiene items, daily fresh meals, after school care and tutoring, access to our computer lab and medical attention when needed!

Somehow I'm finding sudden gusts of creativity as I sit and stare at my remaining ingredients before each meal. Here's what I came up with today...

Breakfast. Tostada time! Baked a corn tortilla in the oven- 400 degrees. 5 min one side, flip and baked for 3 min other side (basted both sides with a bit of canola oil first). Then made re-fried beans, spread that on top, added shredded cabbage, chopped carrots, one scrambled egg on top! Usual 1/3 cup of oatmeal and raisins, seasoned with what other than... season-all. Not bad for a 33-cent breakfast! ▼

Lunch. A little more re-fried bean love with homemade corn chips, and a ramen noodle soup with one cup of brown rice and a bit of shredded cabbage mixed in. Thanks to the spicy ramen seasoning packet, the soup was really delicious! Rainy day lunch! ▼

Dinner. I had not tried potatoes and pasta (I thought, gnocchi is potatoes and pasta, right?) So I cubed 1/3 of a small potato and boiled that with the pasta. Mixed with a touch of pasta sauce and seasonings. With some corn chips, wow, this was really good. Just a little light, but that's ok, I don't need a heavy meal at the end of the day. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $3,700 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 17: for the women of the slums

Tonight I'm dedicating this post to the women of the slums. They do all of the cooking, under the most deplorable conditions. As my friends and I sat with this family, it was the typical time of the day for chai, but she had no milk. So we bought her some milk and tea mix, and she made us all chai. It was delicious, and she was so amazingly kind to prepare it for us. We listened to several stories of what they face in their daily struggles. This is the site of where we'd like to open a second education center. One step at a time, with your help, I'm confident we'll make it happen.

On another visit to the slums, I met these lovely and talkative ladies who were preparing a few small potatoes for dinner at sunset. I looked into their pot (you can just see the lip of it here), and it was full of murky water. One method often used to deal with the muddy water in the slums is to let the bucket sit for a few hours after collecting it from the well, so that the sediments settle to the bottom. Then, they will carefully scoop out the "good" water from the top of the bucket for drinking water. It goes without saying that the number one killer of children in the slums is from water-borne diseases that lead to diarrhea and dehydration.

Shifting gears to another continent, this is in Uganda near our medical clinic and school campus. Yet another glimpse at what these women have to work with in their outdoor "kitchens." This precious lady walks for several miles every day with her baby on her back to gather drinking water and firewood. Here she's preparing some kind of small meal on her makeshift outdoor stove.

It's a stark reminder that my "challenge" is no challenge at all as I work with my electric stove, oven, microwave, toaster oven, sink with running water and garbage disposal, and dish washing machine, while keeping all of my perishable ingredients nicely refrigerated in my huge refrigerator! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, I have electricity to keep all of that running without fail (they don't have access to any electricity).

Great news today. We had an amazing response of donations today. A total of $920 came in toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums! And what's even better, it was the best day in terms of number of donors and number of countries represented! We received our first-ever donation from Italy, and another came in from the UK. Thank you all so much, we really recovered from our $0 day yesterday, with a vengeance!

Here we are, together, making a difference, because we're overcoming indifference!

These funds will be in the field within a matter of days and I can't wait to show you the new kids who have been on the wait list to get into the education center. I'm already coordinating with our native team to be prepared to bring these kids in! We're a smaller organization, so we can move rather quickly on this. So, please, consider chipping in toward the goal today.

Here are some images from the education center, of kids who were previously searching for recyclables in the trash, now cleaned up, getting an education and fresh meals daily! They say, "Thank you!"

For those of you curious about how I'm faring with $1 worth of food per day, here's the daily recap. Today was not bad at all. You should really give some of these dishes a try. 

Breakfast. I had a stroke of inspiration. I cooked my oatmeal not only with raisins, but also with chopped carrots, and placed a fried egg on top with just the right amount of my favorite savory season-all. What would I do without season-all? It lives up to its name: it really seasons all. Smile. This was awesome. ▼

Lunch. I lightly fried some cabbage and then prepared that with a basic egg fried rice dish. With a standard re-fried bean dip and homemade corn chips, I was set for a great lunch. Cost, about 33 cents! ▼

Dinner. Now this doesn't look too healthy, I admit, but it was delicious. It's all about the seasonings. If we've got seasonings, even basic ones, we can really work miracles in the kitchen, amen? Fried potato slices, the usual (and simply amazing) homemade corn chips, and pasta/ramen with one teaspoon of pasta sauce and just the right pinch of seasonings! Bam, 33 cent meal, done. Day 17, kicked. If I can do this, you can too! Time to simplify! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $3,700 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 16: just feed one

I'm growing lethargic and struggling with headaches. But I'm overcoming and encouraged to know that I have more days behind me than in front of me. I just keep drinking a lot of water and going from meal to meal. Each meal provides quite a boost to morale once I get through the puzzle of trying to figure out something creative to make with my limited ingredients.

But again I realize this is no challenge at all compared to what the people of the slums go through on a daily basis. However, I have reached that point in the experience where I am really identifying (in my own little way) with their struggles. Just think of being really hungry and you go to the pantry and you find this--every time. (A photo I took this morning, at the beginning of the second 15 days. This is what remains of the $30 of food I bought--it must last me for the next 15 days).

I'm dedicating day 16 to these girls who literally live in a trash dump in the city of Hyderabad, India. I found them wandering around (of course barefoot) with no parents in sight. I lingered until I saw what looked to be an older sister call them away. Their feet and clothes were filthy. Inside the shanty shelter behind them, there are bags of dirty pieces of trash that are waiting to be sorted and sold as recyclable materials. That's the way the people of the slums get by. I'm thinking of them tonight.

This was the first day of challenge that we received $0 in donations. A little discouraging but I knew this day would come. It's ok, I'm not stopping. But for their sake, I'd like to ask you, would you consider chipping in even a small amount?

I'm getting about 250 visits a day from all around the world. If each person visiting just gave $1 or $5, just imagine how quickly we'd reach the goal of rescuing 10 of these kids from the trash dump? At the Children's Hope Center in Hyderabad, we're cleaning them up and getting them into school, with shoes, uniforms, supplies, hygiene needs, and daily fresh meals! But we can't do it alone. That's where you come in. Make that decision to do something about this. A small donation says, "I can't solve it all but I want to do something, I want to overcome indifference."

I love this Mother Teresa quote.

“If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

Thank you, Teresa! That's right!

It takes me back to our day 12 mantra... "One Dollar, One Child, One Hope." 

One dollar buys about one day out of the trash heap for these kids. It buys hope. It really does.

If everyone just does their small part, we can change the slums forever, one child at a time.

On to what I managed to do with my $1 today. Remember that a big point of this blog is to show you that living off of a $1 of food per day in America is not really that horrible. Lack of variety and smaller quantities, yes, but it's not slum life. I hope it makes you think about what you're eating and if you really need to spend as much as you do. Here's what I cooked up...

Breakfast. A one-egg cabbage omelette, which I highly recommend. Something about cabbage with eggs, very satisfying. Usual 1/4 cup of oatmeal with raisins. Not much but enough to get the day started right. ▼

Lunch. Improvised the salad again. Instead of toasted ramen noodles, I tried hash browns. With a few splashes of vinegar I bought from my existing stock with my seasonings allowance, it was really delicious. It was a lot of trouble, but for the sake of variety I prepared one corn tortilla taquito, stuffed with re-fried beans and brown rice--a complete protein. ▼

Dinner. It was back to the usual again tonight. But it's not bad, really. I love the homemade corn chips with a small serving of re-fried beans. It really adds a lot to the meal. Prepared the bean, rice and noodle soup with my usual 1/3 brick of ramen noodles and 1/3 cup of penne pasta. It does the job. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $2,780 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. The main goal is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 15: perseverance

We're half way. I made it through day 15. Persevering. It was a particularly tough one for me in my own little world. But I'm constantly reminding myself that for most of the world outside of my bubble, what I'm doing would not be any kind of challenge. Today I'm going to take a break from any major thoughts as I don't feel the energy to write tonight.

However, I am dedicating tonight's blog post to this widow in the slums of India, and would like to share a few thoughts about her. She does not have shoes, she does not have electricity, she does not have running water. The facade of her home behind her is made of styrofoam boards she found in the trash. She's carrying her water jug to get some water from a well head that's at least a mile away. The residents of this colony complain to me that the water makes them sick. You can see the real struggle in her face as she tells my friend in the local language some aspect of her challenge--her real challenge. There's no day 31 for her.

Great news. We received another $250 in donations today as a result of this blog! This brings us up to $2,780 of my $5,000 goal for 10 scholarships for children of these Indian slums. I'm encouraged to press on, knowing that already 5 lives will be forever changed because of our collective effort here. Thank you to all of you who have decided to overcome indifference, to make a difference. I challenge you to chip in anything you can--it really does make a difference. Your help is deeply appreciated and needed.

And for a look at how I ate from $1 worth of food today...

Breakfast. A repeat of a breakfast I really enjoyed from a few days ago. Oatmeal and raisins, hashbrowns, and a one-egg carrot omelette. Very satisfying, all things considered. ▼

Lunch. A little bit of pasta primavera, with a side of re-fried beans and a few of my homemade corn tortilla chips. Not much in terms of quantity, but enough to keep the variety and substance at a decent level. Very delicious. Just leaves you wanting a little more. ▼

Dinner. 1/3 of a ramen noodle soup pack mixed with rice and beans, seasoned with the included ramen spicy chicken seasoning. Side of homemade corn tortilla chips and seasoned beans. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $2,780 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. The main goal is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 14: a different kind of poverty

I'm dedicating day 14 to the girls in the below photo. I captured this scene in one of my recent visits to the Indian slums. These are the kinds of girls we're trying to rescue at "The Children's Hope Center", our slum education center in Hyderabad, India--India's fifth largest city at 8 million residents, and among the 40 most rapidly growing cities in the world. Here, they stand in front of their make-shift home made of tarps, cloths and sticks found in the trash.

I'm living on a total of $30 of food for 30 days, and going barefoot for the same time. Why? To bring awareness on their behalf, to try to identify with a small facsimilie of their many struggles, and to raise $5,000 to for 10 scholarships at The Children's Hope Center. So far we're up to $2,530--more funds came in today from concerned individuals who chose to overcome indifference--who chose to do something to be a part of the solution that's needed.

Very small donations have come in and some larger ones, too--everyone doing their part as they're able, to chip in toward a larger goal--an uprising, a revolution we're starting, to overcome indifference and create a solution to bring hope for these girls!

Help is needed because this is a different kind of poverty. The photos tell it all. Below is a scene I shot in the same colony, where these girls use a crude excuse for a latrine. The raw sewage just trickles down the hill through the same path where they walk barefoot. This is extreme poverty.

This takes a different kind of solution. Yesterday I wrote about the sustainability of our approach at Peace Gospel, how we're working with an empowerment model to multiply donations. That's a model, but not the solution itself. The solution is found in this revolution I've been writing about. It's found in people finally deciding they've heard enough, seen enough, they get it--and finally decide to do something about it. This is the revolution against indifference.

Will you join in? Would you be willing to do something? How about pitching in $1, $5, $10? The average daily earnings from someone living in this colony would be around $1. So for a $5 donation, think about the impact that can have--that's five days' earnings for them. When translated into the impact at our slum education center in this area, reaching these kids, it's literally a matter of offering hope vs. despair, of life vs. death. Just think about the dangers that await these girls if they don't get an education. That's where you can literally intervene and be hope for her.

This is a photo I took when I sat inside one of their homes after sunset. No electricity is present here. Only candles and small lanterns. Here is a symbol of what I'm talking about. Hope in the darkness. You're the flame. Will you shine or will you be the void that remains? It's a tough question, maybe a little harsh to put it in such black and white terms, but one I think is fair when considering what's at stake.

For those of you interested in following along with what I'm able to prepare with just $1/day, here's an account of my meals from today. One of the things you'll notice here is that I'm trying to display the contrast of how I'm virtually living like a king on $1/day compared to what those in the slums deal with on a daily basis.

Breakfast. Thanks to a tip from a friend via Facebook, I tried an egg fried rice with raisins dish, along with the standard oatmeal and raisins. It was a fantastic change and provided great sustenance. Thanks for the tip, Aric! ▼

Lunch. Thanks to a tip from a friend via Instagram, I tried a mixed mashed potatoes & carrots--genius idea, Annetta, and it was just the variety I needed to break up the monotony. Combined with a small serving of pasta, a hard-boiled egg and my usual homemade corn chips, this was off the charts! All for about 30 cents! My kids called this the "birds nest" meal! Trying to keep it creative, I can't help it, I'm an artist! ▼

Dinner. Another variation on the Chinese cabbage coleslaw. This time added baked tortilla strips and rice. No carrots. A few splashes of vinegar I bought from my existing stock. Variety is the key to making it through this "challenge." It's a beautiful meal for a mere 30 cents! Highly recommend this! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $2,530 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. The main goal is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 13: sustainability

I'm dedicating day 13 to this little girl I witnessed sifting through the trash for whatever recyclables her mother has trained her to look for. I wonder how much money they'll get for whatever it is she's managed to put in her little plastic bag today? Definitely not enough to pay for one of my 30 cent meals.

In the same slum colony, I met these kids in front of one of their make-shift homes. These are the kinds of kids we're trying to raise money for, to enroll them in school for their first time, to care for their needs at our slum outreach center in Hyderabad, India, "The Children's Hope Center." At a cost of $500/year, we're able to put them through school, pay for their uniforms, shoes, school supplies, hygiene items, including training at our computer lab, hot meals, and access to our medical care for those children in need.

Forgoing my favorite foods and walking barefoot for 30 days is turned into a delight when I remember them. I would do another 30 days in a heartbeat for these kids. (I just have to pace myself--this takes a lot of effort). Their resilience and sweet spirits in the midst of their struggle are enough to melt any heart. And they need our help, they really do. This is not just something the Indian government or locals are going to take care of. The problem is way to widespread and overwhelming for that.

The problem of urbanization in the developing world--the problem of the slums and their staggering overcrowding and the ecological nightmares found therein--must be met with a global effort of concerned individuals ready to take action, to do something to chip in whatever little bit can be afforded, to make a difference in a sustainable way. While, yes, there are problems in our own countries that need serious attention, we cannot forget our fellow global citizens--our neighbors--who cannot help themselves.

Speaking of sustainability, everything we do at Peace Gospel is undergirded with the support of small business enterprise. We've empowered each of our native teams in Asia & Africa with some form of business--mostly farmland related--that they must rely on for a portion of their program funding and to stock their orphanage pantries (we have at least one orphanage in each of the countries where we're working). In this way, we're empowering our native teams with an ownership in their work, knowing that if they can make their small businesses succeed, they'll be able to to do far more than if they just waited on the ebb and flow of handouts from the West.

So your gift to our slum education scholarship fund is actually multiplied to reach more children over time. In other words, our programs are sustainable--they would not just disappear if the funds from the West were decreased or stopped. They would suffer, yes, but they would not be paralized.

Here's a shot from our slum education center where a little girl named Luci is getting sized for her very first pair of shoes! And you know why she's able to wear shoes and go to school, right? Because someone decided they were done with indifference, decided to be a part of the solution to the problem--they overcame indifference and chipped in to help Luci go from barefoot in the trash heaps, to happily in her uniform and shoes, going to school with her new friends! I invite you to be a part of the solution today--again I'm challenging you to give even as little as $1.

Great news today! We saw several smaller donations come in toward the $5,000 goal, and we're now up to $2,230 on day 13! We're right on pace to reach the goal! This is very encouraging!

For those of you interested in following along with what I'm cooking up for $1/day, here's the meal run-down from today... hungry here and there and craving the comparatively rich foods my family is enjoying, but another pretty good day overall, no complaints!

Breakfast. Just went with a straightforward breakfast taco combo--two corn tortillas, one scrambled egg, a bit of pinto beans and brown rice, and the ever-present oatmeal with raisins. Thank God I love oatmeal. I seriously never get bored of it. It's the perfect breakfast food. If I could come up with a marketing slogal for oatmeal, it would be... "Oatmeal. Give it another try. Come home to the meal you've been missing." Sorry, humor break. ▼

Lunch. This was another huge success thanks to a suggestion from a friend via Instagram (Annetta, @_lupin_ thank you again!). Five words: Egg fried rice cabbage rolls! Enough said. Look at these beauties! Satisfaction, for about 30 cents! ▼

Dinner. Again, by the end of the day, I'm always racking my brain as to what to do with the remainder of my daily rations. I typically use up the good stuff at the beginning of the day, which might work out better anyhow, as that's when I need more energy. So tonight it was pasta/ramen noodle potato soup with a touch of what little cabbage I had left for today. But with the side of re-fried beans and my now-famous (in my little world) homemade tortilla chips, I was all set for about 30 cents! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $2,230 of my $5,000 goal (10 scholarships). Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. The main goal is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 12: one dollar, one child, one hope

I dedicate day 12 to this brother and sister in India who were happy to get a little attention from a foreigner, maybe who felt important for a moment. When you look into their eyes you catch a glimpse of the human spirit, that of finding joy in the midst of struggle. I go barefoot during this 30 days to remember them, even though my clean paved streets and pristine grass-covered lawns of my safe neighborhood are nothing compared to their colony's alleyways lined with trash and broken glass.

It's not a challenge really, I almost wish I had not chosen that word to describe what I'm doing. They're the ones with the real challenge. My effort here is a mere shadow of what they go through. Their smiles shine through and there are rays of hope breaking through the darkness of their surroundings, but truth be told, it's not a happy place.

Right now, in that slum colony, there's the girl in this photo who's sifting through the trash on her bare feet, trying to help her mother find some valuables they can redeem for a few rupees. I know it sounds dramatic, but honestly, it's just the truth. If they're fortunate, they'll come home with about 50 rupees-- approximately $1. From this, they can scrape together just enough food to survive. So your $1 just became much more powerful than you imagined before reading this.

Here's my point... What's a dollar or a euro to you, really? What if you dropped that note or coin in the store in a moment of absent-mindedness? Would you miss it? Would you even notice? Now put the story back on the little girl. What if she misplaced her 50 rupees? Do you think she would notice? Do you not think it would be devastating for her? Do you not think she would cry?

So I'm daring you to do something that you would usually never think to bother with. Donate $1 to our slum scholarship fund. Think about the impact it will have in that kind of economy. Do it just for the principle of the matter. Do it to know that you've done something--that you overcame indifference (see my thoughts about this on my day 7 entry). But not only that--do it because $1 really will make a difference! I thought of a little mantra, a slogan of sorts around this, what do you think?

One Dollar
One Child
One Hope

Your one dollar, for one child, provides, essentially, one hope. When I see the faces of these kids who have already entered our program, that's what I think of. They feel hopeful! Just look at them...

So, why not? Why not give $1? Come on, let's do this!

Earlier I declared... "Together, we can make a difference, if we overcome indifference."

A key word here is together. $1 alone isn't going to change much for very long. But 100 $1's? 1,000 $1s? 10,000 $1s? It's an image of the masses rising up to do something, the masses rising up to say, enough is enough, I'm ready to be a part of the solution. Come on, join the revolution! Let's do this! You balk at this notion as a fantasy? But I ask you, why not use superlative language like "revolution"? That's exactly what the world needs--a revolution against indifference!

Great news! Today, someone decided to do something about it. Someone brought our total up to $2,000 toward our $5,000 goal! Now, together, we've provided a way for 4 children to come in to our slum education center program in Hyderabad, India--we call it "The Children's Hope Center." You can learn more about it here. These 4 kids' lives will be forever changed. They'll be provided an education and literally rescued from a life of trash heap scavenging. Way to go! See, we're doing this! It's getting done!

For those of you interested in following along on my meals, to discover how I'm living off of $1 of food per day for 30 days, here's what I came up with for today. 

Breakfast. Had another go at the potato pancake with raisin syrup. But to mix things up a bit, I substituted my usual oatmeal with a simple mixture of heated brown rice and raisins. It was a bit dry but a welcomed variation to the usual. ▼

Lunch. I've really loved the Chinese coleslaw recipe, but today just put a little twist on it by adding a hard-boiled egg to the mix. This salad, with a splash of vinegar and seasonings, really hits the spot. It's light but just enough protein, variety and substance to satisfy. All for about 30 cents! ▼

Dinner. I perfected what I've been calling chimichangas, although I think they might be more like taquitos. Whatever they are, I'm really enjoying them. It's just re-fried pinto beans with a little brown rice, rolled into corn tortillas, basted in a bit of vegetable oil and baked at 500F/260C for 8 minutes. Added to this a small portion of pasta with one teaspoon pasta sauce and carrots for substance. A really satisfying meal. Again, amazing what you can do for about 30 cents! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $2,000 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. The main goal is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

day 11: living like a king on $1

I'm dedicating day 11 to a lady I met named Beena and her daughter, pictured below in a slum colony of South India. Compared to them, I'm living like a king, even on $1 of food a day. She sifts through the trash looking for redeemable metals and preps them for redemption, scraping by on about $1 a day--not just for food, mind you, but for every need. Their deplorable living environment is right on the edge of a stagnant canal filled with sewage and trash where her daughter plays barefoot with the other children of the colony. Their shelter is composed of a basic frame of sticks tied together and draped with tarps, plastic bags, and vinyl banners found from scavenging through the trash dump.

I'm writing this post and publishing these photos just as much for myself as for anyone else. I don't know where your heart is, I don't how you live your life. I just know that, as for me, I take a lot for granted and complain about really ridiculous things like discovering the microwave not being reset to zero when I start punching in the time. It messes up the time of my cooking and I get irritated with whoever left it that way. I mean, come on, I've got a microwave, with electricity, that nukes my food to piping hot in 60 seconds. And I'm complaining? I've decided to stop complaining about that. I'll just check the timer each time before I use it, problem solved. Wow, imagine that.

I need to look at my photos of the slums more often. So that as I'm preparing my meals made of fresh ingredients in my posh air conditioned kitchen, I can remember how good I have it, and remember why I do what I do to bring awareness for them... to remember why I need to speak up for these who do not have the platform to speak, nor anyone to go to for help. They're simply in survival mode.

So as I've said before, I'm not trying to wage a "shock" campaign here. I'm just inviting you in to my world, to let you peer in to what I've seen, and to hear what I have to say about it.

The stagnant canal next to their home, where the children play barefoot:

One of the girls playing there:

A peek inside their humble shelter:

Now that the reality check is on the table for me and everyone else who needs it, back to why I'm doing this: I'm trying to raise enough funds to rescue 10 more children who scavenge with their parents in these trash heaps. You can help rescue them through sponsoring a scholarship or a portion of a scholarship that covers their expenses to be enrolled in our education center in the slums of Hyderabad, India. It's called "The Children's Hope Center" and you can read more about it here. The great news is that today we raised another $500 toward the $5,000 goal, putting us at $1,950! Now we're just $50 shy of having 4 complete scholarships in place! This is fantastic news! Thank you to all who have contributed even small amounts--it all makes a huge difference!

For those of you interested in keeping up with my challenge, here's the meal run-down for today. Some more innovation and experimentation that overall turned out really well, all things considered!

Breakfast. This was the best breakfast I've had on the challenge, and maybe even the best breakfast I've had in a couple of months, honestly. I made some very basic seasoned hash-browns, a one-egg omelette with diced carrots, and oatmeal with raisins. The variety was off the charts compared to other breakfasts the past several days. ▼

Lunch. I was in a hurry so I just had to throw together a quick soup, but it was really good and hearty. If it had to have a name, I guess I'd call it a "bean, rice, ramen noodle, potato, egg-drop spicy tortilla soup." I used the spicy ramen seasoning pack, which has some serious kick to it. Delicious.  The trick is not overloading it with too many beans or too much rice--just enough to add texture and variety. ▼

Dinner. It occurred to me that I had bean using the pinto bean broth (saved from cooking the beans) in every soup or stew I've so far prepared the past 10 days. So I realized it would provide some good variety to have a much more simplified soup. So I made a cabbage and pasta soup with a the clear broth gained from cooking them together. Seasoned slightly with the spicy ramen seasoning again. It was light, but spicy and tasty. Combined with a side of lightly re-fried pinto beans and my usual homemade tortilla strips, it was a solid meal. ▼

Barefoot update. Not much to report here. Still getting hot feet on the pavement in this hot Houston summer, and stepping on a lot of uncomfortable objects. But again, it's nothing compared to what those in the slums must walk on. But it keeps them on my mind and humbles me to be thankful.

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $1,950 of my $5,000 goal to cover 10 scholarships. We're just $50 shy of 4 scholarships covered! Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. The main goal is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!