Harnessing Student Potential In Microfinance

Two Dollar Challenge- Day 3

I'm actually in a surprisingly good mood this morning. Woke up around 8 this morning, but I could easily have slept longer-- it was more of a choice to wake up then. And washing my hair, even in a sink with cold water and hand soap, felt wonderful (my hair is no longer disgustingly greasy, even if it's not particularly clean), as did putting on my second outfit. When I walked out of the bathroom, people commented on how refreshed I looked, which probably says more for how bad I looked last night than for how good I look now. We then started sitting on campus walk, soliciting donations from passerby, but Students Helping Honduras set up a bake sale table across the way from us, and they're definitely louder than we are. Perhaps our Quaker strategy doesn't work as well as we had hoped. Ben and I then did some sun salutations, which was a really nice start to the day. Though I'm a little hungry, I've been eating frozen peas all day and it actually hasn't been bad-- I feel like I bought good food (pasta, ramen, peas, peanut butter, and carrots) that fills me up pretty well, although it's a little tasteless. The hunger was worse earlier in the week-- I hardly feel it anymore. However, I plan on going to lunch with my non-challenge friends today which could be a struggle.

Which leads me to what I've been thinking a lot about recently: how I tell people about the challenge. I sort of have two conflicting urges when people ask me how it's going: on one hand, I don't want to seem like I'm whining or make them think that I'm starving, because I'm not, and I don't really want their pity for myself because I'm not eating like normal. On the other hand, I don't want to make it seem like no big deal, because poverty is a huge issue, and if we weren't on a college campus or I had to do this for more than a week it would be terrible. Living like this? I don't know if I could do it. And I have been using my pre-existing wealth more than I know: going to the library to do my homework, going in to my dorm to cook my dinner (some of the food I accidentally leave there), being able to trust people not to steal my stuff. So part of me wants to exaggerate how bad it is and how hungry and dirty I feel, because I want to raise awareness and hopefully elicit donations. The thing is, I often go camping, and that's honestly a lot like what this is, especially because I'm a picky eater and so I don't eat much of what my family fixes on campouts. I do sort of crave a fire and marshmallows though...

I'm hoping that other people will blog about the food situation. People on campus have been giving us food-- everything from half-finished sodas to whole pizzas and boxes of cereal. We've gotten more food than I normally eat in a week-- if I wanted to, I wouldn't be hungry at all. However, I chose to live on two dollars a day to experience in some small part what living in poverty is like. I'm doing it for myself-- it's an act of self-denial for a cause. I don't feel that just not buying food really counts, because that's not experiencing poverty. The fact that we live on a college campus where food is a surplus (I know I normally treat food here as essentially free) means that people can donate their extra food with essentially no costs to them, and think that they're helping. The thing is, we don't need your food. I have a meal plan that if I were really starving I could go use. I'm choosing to do this for me personally, and for Mary and Priscilla in Kenya, and your leftovers aren't going to help any of us with what we're trying to do.

Tags: challenge, communication, dollar, food, two

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Comment by Stephanie Jones on April 15, 2010 at 9:15am: I actually indulged in the food we were given, and you're %100 right. It wasn't in the spirit of the Challenge, even if it wasn't bought. In the developing world, there isn't a constant stream of wealthy and generous kids traveling by your shelter every day. During the week, I was anything but hungry, if a bit malnourished (the nutritional value of the food was definitely lacking). I realized that although I was well fed, the lack of fruits and vegetables was really affecting my energy levels/alertness. And that thought led me to realize that if I feel this way after three or four days, how would it be if I had grown up without proper nutrition? Not only would there be discomfort (which I may not be aware of, since I'd never felt any different) daily, but I would also -most likely- be underdeveloped mentally/physically.
So although I should have abstained from the food donations, I honestly don't think I would have gone hungry anyway. The food I got (an endless supply of ramen and crackers/granola) was more than enough for a week. The problem I ran into was quality, not quantity, and that was not solved by the donations we received on campus.

Comment by Megan Higgs on April 11, 2010 at 7:33pm: The food donations became quite the issue. I really believe that the only reason we got so many random food donations were 1) Because of the way the meal plans were set up this year (with essentially somebody being able to use as many meals as they want at any one time), and 2) because it was just easter weekend, where everybody went home, and upon coming back to school had probably 6+ extra meals. Honestly, I feel like we became a sort of portal where kids could dump off their extra meals and still get their feel-good moment of the day. It was slightly offensive when a girl asked me earlier if this (the two dollar challenge) was a "for-real challenge" and then proceeded hastily give me some extra food. I agree that receiving so many random food donations is completely not what we are here for, what we want to experience, the image we are trying to portray or the message we are trying to deliver.

Comment by Theophe Love on April 8, 2010 at 5:18pm: Day three was a good day for me, mostly because I slept until 1, and then only had one class, after which I napped. Also, we eat a lot more on Day 3 than we had the previous days because we had eaten so little on days 1 and 2. We had a meal of corn and beans and I swear, it made me so happy. Also, because my appearance had gotten so bad and I had had to let so much of my pride go, I was much bolder in asking strangers for rides (I was walking back to campus from a friend's house and asked someone I had seen on campus!) or other things, even when not in front of the hut surrounded by a bunch of signs and people pointing to the fact that I was not always like this. I just kind winged it, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but I was feeling a little less humiliated, although I still will not look at some people in the face ever again. Also, group morale seems pretty good and we had two people join late, which really kind of reminded me of the enthusiasm of the first day and made me feel more committed. Overall, not having class meant I was far less mentally exhausted at the end of the day. However, cigarettes had become a serious problem.

Comment by Ehren Guzman on April 7, 2010 at 8:52pm: What we have decided to do is donate any sealed foods (cereals, grain bars, sealed water bottles, cookies,...) to the local homeless shelter or hospitality house. Our group concluded that, even if those on campus don't realize who they really need to help, then the least we could do is provide their assistance to us as indirect assistance to others.

Comment by Maureen Hennessy on April 7, 2010 at 7:49pm: I think feeling dirty is more difficult then the hunger. People are just trying to get the warm fuzzy feelings by donating lazily. At the same time it feels weird to me to discourage any sort of generosity. Even the lazy and inconsiderate kind.