day 25: the power of encouragement

I'm dedicating day 25 to this brother and sister I met in the slums of Chennai. Their squatter's home had just been bulldozed by the police. All that remained of their previous make-shift shanty lay in the few scraps you see in the background behind them. Look at the little girl's smile. In one way she's smiling at me, but in a stronger sense, I feel she's smiling because she knows her brother is looking out for her.

Some days I think we all feel like the little girl in this photo. Alone, we're weak, but with someone's arm around us, with that sense of encouragement from others, we get a smile, and we can press on. We can overcome the most dire of circumstances to rise above the despair.

Here he is explaining to us what had just happened. Apparently we had missed the act only by a few moments. You can see the shock in his face as he tries to make us understand--"my home, where I was sleeping just last night, it's now gone, in one minute!" I'll never forget this.

Back to the little girl getting the encouragement from an arm around her. I wanted to share a tangible example. If I were trying to live on $1 of food per day, and it was just me, no blog, no community of support, I would really be struggling to make it. But because of your encouragement, I have a huge advantage.

I'm just convinced that everyone needs encouragement--something, some catalyst to take you from despair to hope, from hope to a determination that you're going to make it, and from a sense of "I'm going to make it" to a creative, almost entrepreneurial drive that allows you to overcome in ways that are beyond anything you could have imagined.

This past 25 days has been just that. I've really surprised myself with what I've been able to come up with in terms of variety and satisfaction from these past 75 meals. And I attribute it all to those of you who've been cheering me on. You see, I believe we're all created to be a light to others, to shine on others' darkness in some way or another. It's just a matter of whether we're going to let that light shine, or keep it to ourselves.

Where you might have guessed I'm going with this... to another real-world example, which is much more poignant than mine. These children in the slums. They have no reason to possess hope. Their identity is that of the untouchable, the slum dweller, the trash-heap scavenger. There's no hope, there's no future for them. But I'm here to testify to the fact that there can be hope. I've seen it in the eyes of these children at The Children's Hope Center--how appropriately named! Here's a picture of that hope in their eyes:

In the same sense, the kids of this education center are getting an arm of support around them. They're thinking, with their new shoes, school uniforms and first-ever school supplies fitting snugly on their backs in their new backpacks... "Wow, I'm going to school? So this is what it feels like to wear a uniform and shoes!" And they're getting some sense of "Hey, I've got a chance at this!"

This glimmer of hope becomes a little light within them. If appropriately fanned through encouragement from teachers and peers, it becomes a fire of passion within them, to overcome, to be creative, to someday start their own business, or learn a special skill they never would have had the vision to believe they could master.

It's beautiful when you think about it. One flame to another, lights going out into the darkness. Will you let yours shine? Will you extend your candle of hope to another in darkness? Or will you just hide it in your own little world of indifference?

Today, I was incredibly encouraged. We received some smaller donations that added up to $125. Why am I so encouraged about this? Because now our total is up to $5,225--10 new children of the slums have received scholarships and are in the process of being enrolled at the Hope Center, and we only need $275 to bring in one more. Will you be a part of helping me get the next child enrolled? You can donate any amount here, and I'm here to tell you that it will make a difference.

On to what I was able to cook up with just $1 today, thanks to your support, encouragement and wonderful recipe suggestions!

Breakfast. Was in a hurry this morning and had to simply throw together a quick batch of oatmeal and raisins, seasoned with none other than my favorite, season-all. It's really good on oatmeal--try it! I think it's partly the conditioning of the past 25 days, but surprisingly, this held me over nicely until lunch. ▼

Lunch. This was my masterpiece of sorts, I'll be honest, I'm kind of proud of this one. Again, a tostada variation, but with fresh chopped carrots and a chopped hard-boiled egg on top of the re-fried bean and brown rice base: this was over-the-top sensational for a meal that cost about 30 cents to make! The kicker--you ready for this? My kids asked me to make these for dinner (from the family stock, not mine, thankfully), and they all loved it and asked for seconds! Yessss! Fist-pump! I'm already thinking about a 30 days on $30, family edition! Hahaa!! Hope my wife's not reading this. ▼

Dinner. Ok, nothing to write home about here, except for one little "rationing victory" story. As you might have noticed (really? I don't expect it, lol), I have not made soup the past two days. So, as a result, I saved up an entire ramen seasoning pack for use in tonight's soup. (It's the little things!) Usually, I would have split the packet up between soups and other dishes across three days. So tonight I had a minestrone-style soup with the added kick of a full packet of "spicy chicken" flavor ramen seasoning--a flavor with a lot of kick to it! As far as soups go, definitely nothing gourmet about it--but it was tasty and it filled me up! Mission accomplished: day 25... done! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. We surpassed our initial goal of $5,000 to cover 10 scholarships, but I want to keep going to see how many more scholarships we can come up with! 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 21: for the elderly caregivers

Tonight I dedicate day 21 to the elderly caregivers of the slums. These women, like the ones pictured below, are suffering from various health issues but are expected to care for their grandchildren as the parents work long hours in hazardous conditions, and even as they themselves work sifting through the trash searching for recyclables. Many of them are also widows which, in India, brings its own set of challenges due to cultural stigmas associated with them. Sadly, blame is often placed on the widow for her husband's death.

They love their grandchildren, but the obvious concern is that they're not in a stable enough condition to care for them properly. This is one of the reasons you will often see children wandering around barefoot in the slums. That's where a solution like The Children's Hope Center comes in with an effective approach: preparing children for everything they need to enroll at local schools we're partnered with, caring for the children before and after school, offering tutoring, computer lessons, and a warm meal before departing for home. This gets them out of the slums and out of danger when their parents are away during working hours, into a program that's allowing them to advance and develop at an accelerated pace.

Yesterday I promised you that I would update you on some exciting developments at the Hope Center. The project began as a humble effort to do something--again, reflecting our theme throughout this blog--to overcome indifference, to defeat that feeling of "oh well, the problem is far too big, so what can we possibly do to solve it?" At first it was just a tiny rental property with a very small building. It was just enough for the computer lab and some storage. The children met outdoors on mats under a tent awning.

But then, thanks to some concerned individuals who all pitched in (much like is happening here), we were able to buy that same property, which had come up for sale. And then money was raised for the new building, which is just a couple of weeks away from being completed! And at the same time a clean water well is being installed. We will share this water well with the local slum community--this will make a huge impact among the colony.

We've already discussed on this blog that many of the illnesses in the slums, and deaths of the children, are caused by the consumption of contaminated water. So just right there, with the addition of clean water at the Center, we're going to be solving a lot of the health problems of the local colony where we work! Here's a photo of the new building in progress, where the water well will be located also.

Fundraising update! A great little story to share with you. A friend who has been to these places with me and her husband had a great idea today. She's pregnant and they recently found out the gender of their baby. She told her Facebook friends that she would announce the gender only after her friends went to this blog and contributed a total of least $250 toward my goal. Well, guess what? She raised not $250, not $500, but $735! I was stunned! This puts us just a few dollars shy of the $5,000 goal to sponsor 10 of these kids' scholarships and bring them into the program! Now the total stands at $4,888!

I never imagined we would get this close to the goal on day 21. This is extremely encouraging, and making my hunger seem very bearable, even dare I say, enjoyable! Thank you for the amazing outpouring of support!

But we're not quite there yet! Would anyone want to do the honor of bringing in the 10th child for just $122, or at least chip in what you can toward this amount? You can donate here.

On to what I was able to cook up for $1 today with these limited ingredients. My strategy lately has been going heavier on breakfast and lunch, and ending with a lighter dinner most nights. This seems to be working really well in keeping me sustained more evenly through the day. I'm running low on some supplies, and had to throw out one rotting potato. But I've been diligent to ration everything and I should be ok right up through day 30. Again, please remember that one of the main points of this blog is to demonstrate to you that, while hunger does play some role in this challenge, it is completely possible to find nourishment and substance from $30 of food. The point being, how much more could you find it from $60 of food for 30 days, or even $90 for 30 days? Time to simplify?

Breakfast. I followed the tostada recipe for baking a corn tortilla and served a fried egg on top of that, and ate it together to create a new sense of variety--sensational! Another small portion of hash browns--these are delicious. Standard oatmeal and raisins seasoned with season-all--can't go wrong here. ▼

Lunch. This was a definite winner. A friend from Instagram again had a brilliant idea. (Annetta, you saved me so many times with your amazing brainstorms!) I've already done egg fried rice, but she had the stroke of genius to add cooked ramen noodles to the egg fried rice. Oh my, this was delicious and felt like a real meal. Then, bonus, I had enough for a re-fried bean taquito, baked in the oven at 500F/260C for 8 minutes. This was a serious meal, for about 33 cents! ▼

Dinner. Again I was down to soup ingredients by dinner. Did a kind of potato & rice minestrone soup. I had been saving up my potato skin shavings from the past few days, and added this to the soup to give it a lot of extra texture and nutrients. Also included toasted corn tortilla strips. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $4,888 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 19: the simple truth

On day 10 I tried to answer the question "why simplify?" Tonight, I'd like to take another look at that topic, but with a little more simplified approach.

Definition of simplify:
sim·pli·fy /ˈsɪmpləˌfaɪ/

To make simple or simpler, as:

a. To reduce in complexity or extent.
b. To reduce to fundamental parts.
c. To make easier to understand.

Why I think we should simplify our lives:

• We'll be happier. The opposite of simplification is complication. Who wants that?
• By eating eating less, we'll feel healthier, and we'll save a lot of money.
• By purging junk sitting around the house that we don't need, we'll feel freedom. 
• By shedding overcommitments, we'll find peace.

In summary: we save money, we feel freedom and we find peace. With this extra money, freedom and peace, we can take better care of ourselves and those we love. With this extra money, we can also be more generous to those truly in need.

When these principles are put into action, everyone wins, including these girls I met in the slums of India (because of the generosity they could feel from those living the simplified life). They don't go to school so that they can help their parents sift through the trash to find recyclable materials to earn about $1/day.

Recent donations totaling $353 have come in to bring us up to $4,053 of my $5,000 goal. This is amazing news! This means we already have enough scholarship money in place to rescue 8 of these children from the trash heaps to enroll them at The Children's Hope Center in the slums of Hyderabad, India.

Peace Gospel is going ahead and wiring this initial amount to India tomorrow, and I really look forward to reporting back to you with the images of these children coming into the education center, getting their new uniforms, shoes and supplies--embarking on their new journey of hope!

Sure, you might argue that 8 or 10 children is just a tiny number in a sea of millions and doesn't seem like much progress. But to those 8 or 10 kids, it means the world to them. Their lives will be forever changed. Thank you for supporting this amazing cause, it's very dear to my heart.

If you'd like to chip in whatever amount you can afford, just know that every single dollar, pound, yen or euro makes a huge difference. It certainly has made a difference for these two girls at The Children's Hope Center.

For those of you who enjoy following along on what I'm managing to cook up for $1/day, here's the daily recap. Overall faring pretty well and adjusting to barefoot life. Sticker burrs are my new worst enemy. Oh, what we take for granted.

Breakfast. Standard 1/3 cup oatmeal & raisins preparation, lightly seasoned. Cabbage omelette which I rolled up in a corn tortilla to invent a new variety of breakfast taco! Not bad at all for about 33 cents! ▼

Lunch. Now this was really good! Seasoned beans and rice topped with a chopped hard boiled egg. Cubed and boiled potato & carrot mix, lightly seasoned. With a side of homemade corn chips, perfect! ▼

Dinner. My evening schedule was full so I ended up eating pretty late. Since there was no good light for photography, I just decided to have a candlelight dinner with my daughter. We shared this pasta/ramen noodle bean and rice tortilla soup. She said it was really good! I agreed! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward my goal of 10 scholarships for children of the Indian slums. So far we've raised $4,053 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 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 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 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 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!