What is Live Below the Line?

Here we are.  Getting into the nitty-gritty of the Live Below the Line Challenge I've signed up for.

What is LIVE BELOW THE LINE?
Live Below the Line is an anti-poverty campaign that challenges Kiwis to feed themselves with the equivalent of the International Extreme Poverty Line for 5 days.  This is not the Poverty Line you might hear about in New Zealand (or other western nations).  While there are many Kiwis who experience poverty on a daily basis, and I'd not wish to de-value the pressures this places on them, Live Below the Line is talking about EXTREME poverty.  When we are 'poor' in New Zealand, we usually have the ability to go to WINZ and get a benefit...not much to be sure, but enough to keep food on the table.  If we lose our job, we might end up with either no savings or a maxed out credit card by the time we are back in work.  People living in extreme poverty usually have NO governmental assistance, NO savings, NO credit cards, and NO FUTURE HOPE of things changing.  Live Below the Line has been set up by the Global Poverty Project to help raise awareness and funds towards eradicating extreme poverty. 

The Challenge is to feed yourself on just $2.25 per day, for five days!  22-26 August, 2011!

Why $2.25NZ a day?
In 2005 the international Extreme Poverty Line was defined as US$1.25 a day (that means having only $1.25 a day in the US, buying US goods with which to survive on). $2.25 is the New Zealand equivalent (taking into account inflation and purchasing power).  So this is basically what anyone living in extreme poverty in New Zealand would be able to buy.  It is NOT what someone in Uganda (or elsewhere) could buy for $2.25NZ.  Their figure would be different, as it all depends on what things cost versus the value of the local currency.  To put it really simply: if you try living on $2.25NZ a day, then you're getting a good idea of what living in extreme poverty is like.

Why Live Below the Line?
1.4billion people live in extreme poverty!!!!!  In a world of great abundance, one in six people are going hungry.  Think of it like this: $1.25US a day would basically give someone two bowls of rice a day, with a few foraged wild greens on top.  They'd be left with 10cents leftover for everything else.  Yes, I did say EVERYTHING ELSE.  That's shelter, clothing, medical care, education, future job training or improvements, everything else except enough food to barely survive today.  Imagine that.  Extreme poverty doesn't just threaten people's lifestyles.  It threatens their very existence.  Your floor is made of dirt that turns to mud whenever it rains?  Too bad.  You'll all just have to get wet during the monsoon rains because your 10cents certainly can't get you a better floor.  Your baby gets sick from the dirty water pooling through your house?  Not much you can do, even if you could trudge the kilometres to get to a doctor, because you can't afford any medicine.  Later in the year drought hits?  Well, you obviously don't have anything saved for a 'rainy day.'  You get the idea.  Extreme poverty is not a temporary setback.  It is dangerous.  It is all-invasive, all-pervading, and far too common.

I believe we are all citizens of planet earth.  We are all called to care for one another.  I won the lottery.  I was born into a country with reticulated water supply, and a public health system.  I was born to parents who have jobs, skills, and education.  I got to go to school.  I eat well, I am never without.  My son has been born into a similar position of luxury and privilege.  For I do believe that we are privileged to live where we do.  You and I don't choose where or when we are born.  But it makes a HUGE difference in how our lives turn out.  And we CAN choose what we DO with what we are given.  If you know me well, you will know that I am the one who crys when I get newsletters from World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, or any other aid and development agency.  I have always felt this way.  Now I am choosing to do something about it.  I am choosing to live out what I believe is the thing God has made me to do: do something about the plight of people living in extreme poverty.  Give.  Share.  Influence.  Prod (yup, I do secretly hope to prod you into caring just a little too!).  Help.  Do something beyond myself.    Offer dignity and hope to those who have had it stripped from them.

So that, in a nutshell is why I am doing Live Below the Line.  The timing is REALLY bad for me.  The Challenge is placed smack bang in the middle of my busiest study time of the year.  Two assignments before it, two after.  Thrilling.  If I'd realised, I might have been tempted to back out.  But one thing I am trying to do, is not put things of for that 'perfect' moment in time.  You know, where all the stars align and everything just drops into place.  Doesn't happen all that often, I've found.  I'm trying to start doing SOMETHING and doing it NOW.  And not think too much about the time or hunger involved!  Grin.

I'm so passionate about this, that Boyo has even been lulled into doing the Challenge with me!  Poverty is not something he is passionate about.  He has other giftings and drives.  But he has decided that this is a big enough issue to get behind.  It's going to be an interesting ride!

Amy

Fare Thee Well - But Not Really

Well, I feel a little embarassed.  Here I was, thinking to myself, "I'm being so good, so focused avoiding blogging for the next few weeks until my assignments are done." Then a day later I realised I am committed to doing Live Below the Line on the 22nd of August!  While this is still a few weeks away, part of the committment is to raise funds and awareness of the issues faced by people living in extreme poverty.  I need to be here, blogging, sharing our story with you all.  All the issues below are still here.  I still have two assignments due.  I still have a blanket to finish.  I also have another two assignments due the week after Live Below the Line.  Deep breath, Amy.  It looks like I will be up late, and up early, and very busy in between for the next few months.  My apologies if you are not interested in ending extreme poverty.  You are about to become better aquainted with it, regardless.  The only blog posts likely to appear for the next month are going to be about Live Below the Line.  And there will probably be quite a few!  Hopefully we will all learn something through this process, and be more compassionate people for it.  Amy

I must once again farewell the world of blog-land for a time.  I am annoyed.  I rather like being here.  Study has started again, and I have been landed with two major assignments due in just over two week's time!  ARGHHHHHHH!  Why, oh why do that do that?!?  Of course timetabling is doubly worse in an education degree because we have to fit practicums in (and assignments are not allowed to be due during prac as there's way more than enough requirements involved in prac without anything extra!), so we always seem to end up with a huge pile up of assignments.

Plus I just discovered that my Operation Cover Up Blanket is due for collection by the 15th of August.  GRRR.  I thought I had till the beginning of September.  I think I've got another five squares to do, and then two rows to crochet together.  Do-able, definitely.  But I'm not so sure how much time is going to be available for knitting with those assignments breathing down my neck.  I am determined to get the blanket in this shipment.  Last year's one had to wait and is finally going this year because I didn't have it quite finished.  This one is going.  End of story.  It's just a pity I can't type assignments and knit at one and the same time!  Grin. 


Amy

Square Eyed

More peggy squares for you.  Squared eyed, that's what we'll all be by the time I finally do the last square.  Which needs to happen in the next 6 weeks I think in order to get the blanket in the shipment.  Hmmmm.

Amy

40 Sleeps

The countdown is on!  There's no going back now!

I have registered for Live Below the Line!  Feeling very excited.  And very nervous.  You need to realise, there are a few things I am almost paranoid about.  Being cold, being wet (because I get cold!), not sleeping, and being hungry.  I hate being hungry.  I eat before bed.  Literally right before cleaning my teeth.  I carry food in my bag at all times.  I don't remember if I have actually ever done the 40hour famine.  I think I only ever did 20hours as a kid.  Any time I go to a conference, I spent way too much time worrying over what and when they will feed me.  Then I want to hoard it in case they've forgotten that some of us need afternoon tea!  When I get hungry, I get really hungry.  I feel ill.  It sounds rather strange, but I literally want to vomit.  "I feel like throwing up, please get me something to eat!" really is a bit odd, but there you go.  If I don't feel like chucking, I will at least feel dizzy and faint if I get hungry enough.  You get the picture.  I have a fast metabolism, and am obsessive about food.  The thought of being on a very restricted diet for five days is daunting to say the least.  But raising awareness about the issues surrounding extreme poverty is something I am really passionate about.  This is what I'm made to do.  This is me.  So I'm prepared to be hungry. 

I've already been thinking a lot about it.  About food in general actually.  But specifically I realised today there are some foods I will probably NOT be eating.  They cost too much.  When you've got $2.25NZ to eat a day, you can't afford avocado.  You can't afford much actually.  Here are some of the foods I won't be eating or drinking from 22-27 August:

Chocolate, chocolate, how shall I miss you!

Meat of all sorts are likely out

Drinks cost too much and give too little (energy/nutrition)

Fruit.  A sad day it is when I don't get fruit.

I'm thinking that the diet is going to be very boring.  Something like this:

Oats and rice

Lentils

Beans - at least some protein in there!

Barley

 Because it all costs so much!

Per kilo prices at our local bulk food shop

I'll be keeping you informed as we get closer to the Challenge week regarding what we are doing, why, and how you can be involved with us!  Thanks for coming by today.

Amy

Food (Again)

Please bear with me folks.  I have food on the brain.  Might be something to do with struggling with our grocery bill.  Again.  Still.  Does anyone know of a SINGLE food item that has actually gone DOWN in price over the past year?!?!  I don't.  Up, up, up.  That's all they seems to do.  It's like they are in a competition, seeing which food can reach the highest price in the shortest space of time!

I was reading in the Transition Town Tauranga newsletter about food wastage recently.  Everybody does it, don't we?  Throw out food, I mean.  It's just a fact of life. 

But is it a healthy fact of life?  Apparently the Australian Institute recently did some research into the impact of food wastage in New Zealand.  $458 worth of food is thrown out, per household, per year here.  Doesn't sound too bad.  I mean, it is sad to waste it, but under $500 somehow doesn't seem terribly wasteful.  But then I read the nation-wide total: $751million worth of food is thrown out in New Zealand every year!!!!  That's an awful lot of money being chucked away.  Imagine what we could do in our communities with money like that.  Imagine if every family in NZ were given a cheque for $458 just before Christmas this  year.  ***Later edited to add:  In talking over these figures with Boyo I just feel so sure that they are too low!  I've read so many times that estimates indicate we (in the western, developed world) throw out way more food than that - possibly as much as 30 or 40%!!!!  So for us, spending around $500 a month on food, that would be more like a whopping $1,800NZ a year (at 30%)!!!  But either way, we waste a whole lot of perfectly usable food.

I guess what saddens me most about statistics like this is the knowledge that in a world of great abundance, with a species so intelligent, resourceful, and ingenious (that's us: humans), there are as many as 1billion people starving.  One in six people on planet earth don't have enough of the basics of food, water and hygiene.  While here we are in the developed, western world mostly eating ourselves to death (heart disease, diabetes, obesity: so many link to overeating and poor diet choices).  There's actually enough food in the world to feed us ALL not just once, but one and a half times over. I think my dad even read recently that someone reckons that if everyone in suburban USA started growing food in their backyards, they could feed the whole world!  Just the USA.

Back to food wastage.  I am trying to waste less.  To use more.  To be grateful that we have food to eat, rather than mumbling and complaining about what we don't have.  This requires greater creativity from me.  I can't just decide I 'don't feel like' using something.  It means greater organisation too (I wonder if this is a large part of how much food we waste as a culture - we are too busy doing other things to check what's going on in our fridges?!).  I used some apple in a soup recently.  Felt good about that.  Threw out some casserole and other stuff yesterday.  Did not feel good about that lot at all.  But I'm trying.

So, in the generosity of sharing, what's the weirdest leftover you have ever used (or the strangest way you have ever used it?)?

Amy

Little Cuties

It's blog day!  Yay!!!  I started study for Semester Two yesterday, with the realisation that I have two (large) assignments due in just three week's time.  Don't think I'm going to have much time for blogging.  Or the chook cage.  Or the sewn zipped bags.  Or much else for the next few weeks.  I'm making the most of my afternoon today while Munchkin sleeps!  I am so glad that I decided to allocate days as blog days, study days, and home days.  It does help keep me focused, while providing some outlet for fun...at least until the week those assignments are due at any rate! 

So here I am, sitting in a peacefully quiet house while the wind whips around outside.  Sunlight is filtering through our lounge windows behind me.  I am eating a childhood favourite for lunch:  pasta with tomato sauce and cheese.  Life feels good, despite the continuing occassional cough.

I am feeling pretty chuffed at having found some small soft toys for my Christmas Child shoebox stash in the past few weeks.  They cost $3 or less, and are small enough for shoeboxes.  I found them in three different dollar/discount style stores.  Plus I got a little polarfleece blanket to go in one box in place of something to wear.  Now I only need seven things to wear and the box contents will be complete!

Aren't they cute?!  The little guys actually have magnets in their feet so you can wrap them around your finger.

More cutie-pies!

Amy

Loving that Feeling

I have a cold.  A nasty, lingering, annoying cold.  Not my usual snuffly, snot-ball in the head cold.  Nope.  Just to be different, this time I have a cough.  Hardly any snot to mention (which is odd, as I am usually a snot factory - I know, I know you really didn't want to know, but that's too bad!).  Now, you need to know something about me.  I DO NOT COUGH.  It sounds weird, but I don't.  My beloved Granny died of coughing, you see.  She had a progressive lung disease, so I don't have any real memories of her before she was coughing.  She would cough till choking point.  She actually died of a heart attack, but for me at least, coughing is just something that really hits a sore spot.  I don't like listening to people cough.  And I really don't like coughing myself.  So usually when I get a cold, I suck it up and just grit my teeth and ignore that itching, tickling, raspy feeling.  And I don't cough.  I have worked out that the best cure for a cough is prevention.  Don't start, then you don't need to finish.  Have you ever noticed how raw your throat gets after coughing for a day or two?  Yeah, well that's what mine is like now.  This cough is not your usual run-of-the-mill cough.  It is nasty.  Or at least it has been nasty to me.  My poor immune system just doesn't seem to know what to do.  It started with a sore throat, then I had a few worried days over my tonsils (thanks to garlic, large doses of vitamin C and echinacea, my tonsils are now safe), and now I cough.  I cough, and cough, and cough.  Ugh.  I just can't seem to stop.  I try to talk, and my voice is sometimes there, and sometimes not.  Munchkin has today also started coughing.  Double Ugh.  At least he is sleeping through it and otherwise still a pretty happy chappy.

So this post is not about loving the cough.  Like, whatever!  I don't think so.  Nor is it about loving lemon and honey drinks, although I have had a few of those.  Not about loving my homeopathic kit either (remedies that helped with the tonsilitis and now the coughing).  Or that we had baked beans in the house (easy dinner for Munchkin and I, combined with some fruit and bread for him, and an egg and leftover roast veges for me!).

This post is about loving that I feel SO LOVED by my husband.  Yesterday, Boyo put together a cupboard on his own, so that I could lie on the couch and cough myself into a doze.  A cupboard that I insisted on buying.  It's for Munchkin's room, a temporary storage solution to his books, toys, bedding, etc that are not currently in use...one that I can close a door on to keep little hands off!  So Boyo put the cupboard together while I was completely lazy.  Then, he took Munchy Baby out for a walk that same afternoon while I again lay on the couch and slept.  They apparently had a bit of a blast, as a squall came through just after they left - wind and rain, just what Boyo loves!  Munchkin was safely in under the storm cover so didn't care at all either.  Then this morning, Boyo appeared at 5am.  He was wide awake so sent me back to bed (I'd slept on the couch due to coughing), and he waited for Munchkin to get up and gave him breakfast so I could have a bit longer in bed.  It didn't end up being all that long, as Munchy slept in, but just KNOWING that I didn't have to leap up and get organised first thing in the morning felt SO nice.  Boyo has also been asking me how I am feeling.  He has a tendency to forget to check, as the assumption is generally that I will volunteer information if I am feeling disgusting enough (I am not a very good silent martyr type!).  But I tell you, it makes a huge difference being asked, rather than just volunteering the information. 

So today, I am loving my man.  I am grateful to have him.  I am blessed.  He ROCKS!

Things I'm Loving? Boyo, of course!

Amy