Here is what we had to say on the first morning of the Challenge in 2011...
Monday
Amanda's End of Day 1 Journal - 2011
Monday February 14, 2011
2011 A-Dollar-A-Day-Challenge
I woke up this morning around 6:30 ish and immediately my mind began to churn with thoughts about the coming day. Any other day I would have reached for my phone to check the time, then probably rolled over to catch another hour of sleep. But today there wasn’t a phone to grab. I sat up and removed my mosquito net from around my bed and swung my legs around to touch my bare feet to the floor. No flip-flops today. I sat there for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. I am such a routine girl; even here in Africa I go through the motions of morning grooming. You never really think of looking at yourself in a mirror as a luxury. There was no deodorant to apply, no body spray, no tweezers, no lotion, no Q-tip, and no toothbrush. I said to myself, “Okay, check… what next?” I guess I will put my clothes on and be on my way. That wasn’t a hard process either with only one outfit to choose from. It was time for the dreaded outdoor toilet… the one where I always seem to pee on my feet. You would think being a country girl and all would help with this, but not so much. Returning from the toilet to the “western room” for the final time brought me into my present reality. As I picked up my Nakumatt bag with all my belongings and closed the door behind me, I was determined to embrace this lifestyle. I could already hear my tummy telling me that it preferred the PB & J sandwich. Instead I reached for all that was available… a tin cup of tea with milk… no sugar. I drank slowly today, not because it was too hot, but because I knew it would have to last till lunch. After morning tea we collected out 20-liter cans and headed barefoot to the spring. I recall the pain on the bottoms of my tender feet as we walked the short 10-minute walk to the water. When we arrived many others gathered to do their daily washing and fetching. We fetched our 20 liters each and hiked back up to the dirt road from the spring below. Many curious bystanders looked on as these 2 wazungu (white people) attempted to strap water to their backs. Let’s just say it was an epic failure. Lacey opted to try carrying the water on her head, as did I. Her arms were not quite long enough to hold it on her head so she had to switch to carrying it on her back again. I was able to go the distance and even greet people along the way, but it was tough. My neck and arms were exhausted but I must say that my feet were not so tender on the way home. It’s amazing how quickly you mind shifts from one pain to another. I couldn’t help but compare this revelation to the vicious cycle of poverty, where a greater pain relieves the lesser pain, until the pain becomes completely unbearable. Then you just become numb, helpless, and hopeless. So so sad.
As we were struggling to carry the water we really drew an audience of children and adults alike wondering what in the world these 2 white girls were doing trying to carry 20 liters of water a mile barefoot. It actually made me sick when a kid looked at me and asked me to give him something because of the color of my skin. Here I am trying to understand the painful depths of poverty and now he wants a sweet that I don’t have. Not that I ever gave sweets before, but now I couldn’t if I wanted to. We finally made it back to Tumaini already exhausted and weak. The greetings we received from the teachers encouraged me to keep going and they kept asking if we needed assistance. We took the next few minutes to wash our clothes with our bar of soap and then journaled a bit before it was time to report to the school for the reading program. My stomach was growling at me most of the morning, but we put off lunch until 2:30 pm. I was excited to have the ugali but quickly realized it wouldn’t make much of a difference. It was nice to chew, but the foreknowledge that it would be a full 24 hours until I was given the opportunity to chew again was overwhelming. It’s so hard to decide if you want to eat it fast or slow. Fast is probably more filling but slow you get to “enjoy” it a bit more. After our late lunch we helped sort books and then went for a walk. It felt like walking on sand paper. With every step I was dreading the next hoping that my feet would eventually become numb to the pain… they didn’t. When we arrived back at Tumaini around 4pm (I know this because that’s the time the kids are dismissed from school and we had met some along the road) my feet were on fire and I couldn’t stand one more idol moment to think about my hunger. My hands needed something to do. I went to the orphanage and sewed buttonholes onto the uniforms. For a moment I had forgotten about my humble circumstance. I was busy and I liked it. It made me think about all those people who walk around town trying to sell random things. I’m sure they never aspired to sell junk on the side of the road. My guess is that they are not even that interested in selling much at all. I think it’s more likely that they just need something to do to forget about the hunger or the pain. I’ve heard it said a million times by that guy just outside my matatu (taxi) window, “please I’m hungry… buy from me these things.” Now I’m not so naive to think that all 100 guys that pitch me this line on any given day in the city are legit or that they don’t drink their earnings away on illegal homemade brew, but to some this is a true statement… they have no idea when they will have enough money for their next meal, so walking around town gives them something to do to ease the hunger and maybe just maybe earn them enough change for their next meal… now I am humbled.
Lacey's End of Day 1 Journal - 2011
February 14, 2011 - TMSC, Kenya
As I woke up on this Valentine’s Day morning, love was the last thing on my mind. We spent the night in the guest house and woke up with all of our things of comfort around us. I woke up with mixed emotions about the start of this challenge. We got up around 7:30 *not too sure of this as we have no way of telling time :/ * It's a strange feeling having a normal routine and not being allowed to follow it. Usually, I would wake up, check the time, and then fall back asleep for a little while longer. Not here. Our world has changed.
Before I even got out of bed I was hungry. That’s not exactly how I wanted to start the challenge - but it was a reality. We did our first video interview of how we felt as we were starting day 1 and the real reality set in...there is no turning back now. We came and greeted everyone before having our 2 cups of tea for breakfast. Oh, and we had our first outside potty experience of the challenge. We have decided that the only time that we’re allowed to wear shoes is when we use the bathroom. We’re only doing hat for sanitary purposes. It hit me hard that many people have to do this in their bare feet! The floors in these ‘stalls’ are covered in urine and who knows what else. This stall is also where we will be bathing. I almost dread the thought of being clean because it will mean that I will have to be in there for even just a few minutes. The smell is so awful in there. The ammonia fumes can burn your eyes and it often makes it hard to breathe. I can’t imagine even feeling clean after a bath in there. But welcome to reality…
Fetching Water- After we drank our tea it was time to go and fetch water. We have to walk about a half a mile, round trip, to get water from a protected spring. We’re really lucky to have it so close as others have to walk very far or just drink from local, unclean streams. This was our first trip to the spring barefoot. You have to climb down a steep hill in order to reach the P.S. We got our water (in a 20 liter jug, each) and climbed back to the top to figure out how to carry it back. We each brought a lasso (a piece of fabric) with us to tie the jug on our backs. Amanda helped me get mine on my back but it was really hard bc there is a hole in the top of it…needless to say I got really wet! Amanda is a champ and just put it on her head bc we couldn’t get it on her back! After about 20 feet, my water was splashing all down my back. I decided that it wasn’t a good way to carry it bc I was wasting way too much water. Amanda put it on my head for me bc I wasn’t strong enough to lift 20 liters of water that high. This also failed bc my arms weren’t long enough to hold the top of the heavy jug! I was pretty upset by it all and decided just to carry it :/ it was the longest ¼ mile ever! When we finally got home I just broke down. It was such a humbling experience that it brought me to tears. I was so humbled by the fact that I couldn’t do something that these people do multiple times per day. It definitely looks a lot easier than it really is! I have a much greater respect for these women and children after today!
Laundry- After fetching water we decided that we needed to do some laundry. I needed to wash my lasso bc it’s serving as my water jug carrier and my towel. We quickly realized that washing your clothes is difficult when you don’t have any detergent! We ended up using our bar of soap that we also use for bathing…hopefully we won’t run out!
Lunch- Praise the Lord for ugali (corn flour + water)!! I went into lunch more excited for ugali than I ever have been before. *Ugali is almost like grits w/out enough water* Although I knew that we wouldn’t get much, I knew that it was something. We discussed what would be best- eat slow or eat quick? We wanted to make every bite count, so we opted for eating slow. It’s a really hard concept to grasp knowing that I won’t eat anything solid for another 23+ hours. So I ate that ugali as slow as I could to try to make it last as long as possible. All that I could do was pray that it would be the least bit satisfying. We pretended that our last bites were our favorite kinds of food…it helped a little :/ I can’t imagine how people go so long w/out eating. I guess I’ll know a tiny bit of that when the week is over. I pray that God will give me the strength and motivation that I will need to get through this challenge!
Post Lunch Activities- After lunch we washed some books…sounds crazy, I know, but somehow kerosene was spilled onto some of the book that we use for our lunch reading program. We washed them off and then laid them in the sun to dry. I would have never even thought about appreciating a bookshelf as much as I do now. God is really showing me that I need to be more thankful for the ‘little’ things that I have been so blessed with. I pray that I will never forget how blessed I am and who it all comes from.
Amanda and I decided to go for a walk to sort of debrief our day so far. We still have no shoes and had to walk down a dirt road that was covered with tiny pebbles. Our feet were praying for the end! We went a different way than we usually walk and found that it was much worse! We talked about our feelings of day 1 and just took a break to clear our minds. It is so hard not to think about my stomach growling, but being active helps a lot. When we got back we had nothing to do but we didn’t want to just sit around. Violet (the social worker/house mom for the kids) told us that we could earn our keep by helping to sew buttonholes onto the kid's school uniforms. This kept our hands busy as well as keeping our minds off of our stomachs.
Dinner Time- After a full day of activities, it was time for ‘dinner.’ The only thing on the menu for us was 2 cups of tea, w/out sugar. We felt ok, but it would have been really nice to chew something! I didn’t realize how much satisfaction came with the simple act of chewing. We brought our tea to our room and began to enjoy our first meal in our new home. We drank tea by the light of our small lamp…it was actually quite nice :) We also did our first home video diary. Pretty cool stuff came out of our thoughts on the day. We went over to the orphanage as usual and did a small devo w/ the girls. They are such a blessing to me! All in all it was a good first day of our ‘A-Dollar-A-Day’ Challenge. We’ll see what happens in the days to come!
Thoughts- So many things in only one short day have humbled me. I knew that this challenge would be hard but I had no idea of the real things that I would learn. I have always thought of myself as a strong person, but I now have seen that my definition of strong is a western one. We have no idea what it means to be strong. These people are stronger than I would have ever imagined. You think that their lives are so simple- and maybe they are, but they are hard. Their lives are hard. Going into this week I thought that I could carry 20 liters of water on my head, but I can’t. I thought that walking barefoot would be a piece of cake, but it’s not. I thought that I would learn a few things but go on living the same, but I won’t.
Day 1 Complete
End of Day 1 Videos
So as we start to close out Day 1 of our 2012 Challenge, we want to thank you for your continued prayers. As the day has gone on we have been reminded of the first day from last year. During the Challenge we will consume less than 500 calories per day. It's quite a drastic change from 'normal' life and it's pretty hard on our bodies. The pure lack of energy is remarkable...and it's all because of a lack of nutrition. As we say goodbye to Day 1 we ask that you would pray for the millions of people around the world to whom this is a reality - every day. They have no choice - but we do. We have the resources to be able to make an impact...even if only on 1 person. We all have the power to change a life. Tonight we ask you to be a part of the change. We know that not everyone can/will/or wants to go to Africa...but we know that everyone CAN help. We ask that you would consider partnering with us financially so that we can do the work to HELP these people. Go to our 'Get Involved - GIVE' page and help us make a difference. Every penny helps...
Here are our thoughts after our first full day of the 2011 Challenge...be sure to watch both videos!
Thank you for being a part of our journey and taking the time to invest in us!
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