Day 6: Live below the line!

The last day of the challenge and we are so close to our goal of $2000!

Day 5: Living below the line!

The night before we finish the challenge! We're only $268 away from our target!

So on the second last day of the challenge, I fed my self on my morning dose of oats with half of a pear which was eaten at work since I had a 9am start. Later during the day, Mez dropped off my tomato, frozen vegies and tuna pasta and 1 big slab of vanilla cake ( which I ended up sharing with Mez and Tim). It was nice to have some pasta but the tuna was a little metallic tasting but still, I ate it. After all, beggars can't be choosers couldn't be more apt.

I made one last potato, lentil and carrot curry but due to having to rush to ensemble rehearsal, I ate rice pudding with half of a pear for dinner instead. As I was finishing the challenge on Friday at 3pm, I had left some oats for breakfast and decided would eat some of the lentil curry for lunch which meant I had leftover food from the challenge.  This includes: half a cup of rice, two tins of tomatoes, two tins of beans and raw sugar. I feel that I should have given more of my rations to antman since I know that being a 6FT, 90kg giant, he was much more in need of food than I was.

This challenge has been a great eye-opener as to what living with food restrictions would be like. It was hard to process at times that although I had money in the bank, I still couldn't buy any of the foods I was craving, go to the dinners I was invited too or decline any offers from friends or vendors. I'm just so grateful that I did the challenge with some good friends and that my health kept me from feeling overly hungry.

Definitely looking forward to eating some cheese post 3pm and celebrating Mez's dinner with some Chinese hot pot! I think we might eat probably our week's budget of food a couple of times over but one thing I have noticed, my sense of smell for identifying foods has certainly been heightened after this week!

Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,

Katrina

Day 4: Living below the line

With only two days to go, the question still remains, can Team Hakuna Matata raise $2000?

Afraid today my cold or whatever I'm sick with, has kicked in a lot stronger today so not feeling the best. In terms of Living below the line, I enjoyed a delicious bowl of oatmeal with half of a freshly diced pear for brunch today. I'm so glad that we were able to buy the luxuries of milk and pears to share throughout the week. It was such a nice break from lentils, beans and rice. I've still got some of my dinner from last night's left-overs so might eat that later on and if still hungry, whip up some home-made baked beans and rice.

I wasn't feeling well enough to go to uni today, something I believe is unrelated to living below the line so am all nice and rugged up at home doing my uni work. I guess you could say guilt has motivated me slightly for not leaving home in what is now, two days.

I'm still amazed that donations are still trickling in despite their being only two days left of the challenge, or for me, until 3pm Friday. If we can't reach our target of $2000, I'll be so happy if we can at least reach $1500 by Friday. There is something truly satisfying about round numbers when fund raising!

The other team members of Hakuna Matata, well those based in Sydney, met up today to make our last community meal of Tomato and Tuna Pasta. I've been told that it is nice enough and to expect some for lunch tomorrow - delivered to me at work courtesy of Mez! I'm looking forward to eating some pasta but sadly sans cheese.

The challenge so far has made realise a few things:

• It is hard to be surrounded by the smells of delicious food that you are all of a sudden, unable to enjoy and buy. Especially if the food is free!
  
• That although the food may not be as tasty or as exciting as it normally is, there is such a relief to have the feeling of being full.
   
• Then there is also the challenge of planning meals ahead and making sure you have cooked enough food to bring with you throughout the day. The food we have doesn't really lend itself to snacking.

• It's also interesting that at the half-way point of the challenge, I thought I would be more hungrier or craving certain foods more.  What I am craving is the freedom to be able to eat whatever I want, when I want too. Something I've never had to think too hard about before.

Tomorrow should be interesting to see how I go with working from 9am-3pm, a song-writing session with my fellow Jogaroo [see www.myspace.com/jogaroos] and then Northern Beaches Symphonic Wind Ensemble rehearsal. Might need to whip up two bowls of porridge to keep the feeling of being full longer but there will be the pasta! 


Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,


Katrina

An update of our Progress as of Day 3 of Living Below the line!

Team Hakuna Matata has raised a phenomenal amount but still have until Friday 20th May to get to $2000!

Day 3's meals!

Potato, carrot and lentil curry for dinner. Rice pudding with pears for dessert. The best part, there was enough left over to form meals for tomorrow!

Day 2 and 3: Live below the line!

Hey everyone!

I woke up at 11:30am today so that means, yet again, I skipped breakfast. Oops. So a quick re-cap of Day 2 of Live Below the Line.

I awoke with the knowledge that I would be working from 10am-2pm, followed by some campaigning for Let's Go Munro for Union Board and then my Indonesian lecture at 4pm. I decided to eat the legume concoction for both lunch and dinner that day as I did not have much time to prepare any other meals. I also knew that Antman would be bringing out 75c packet cake mix made with olive oil and some milk to class at 4pm - that was going to be the highlight of my day!

Day 2 was a little tough as was not feeling the best health-wise and the result of this, was a bit grouchy at work. My spirits lifted after chatting to people on Eastern Avenue about the campaign or bumping into friends on campus. It didn't help there was a DELICIOUS cake sitting on our campaign desk but the knowledge of my cake's arrival at 4pm kept me from temptation.  My Indonesian lecture was a test of concentration skills or in my case, lacking in concentration skills. I found that I could understand what the guest lecturer was saying but when it came to remembering and translating, I found it a little muddled. I'm sure my marks for that week's summary will be a little flaky.

Later that night, I went to an AMAZING gig of the Cat Empire at the Basement with a special guest appearance of James Morrison! It was so great to hear James Morrison play, he is such a genius and had the most amazing sound! They had the most amazing vibe and played a lot of their newer songs but still threw in some of my old favourites - Two Shoes, Misere.

It was a great gig but halfway through, as a result of being rather sick and in the first day of the challenge, I needed to sit down instead of grooving to the music. That was kind of lame but managed to get back on my feet for the last couple of songs. Such a good gig!

Overall survived Day 2 despite some hurdles of my usual routine and with a cold. So back to Day 3 of the challenge.

When I woke up, I decided I was going to make some pear and oat porridge as my brunch. I figured I needed some vitamins from the fruits and the oats to keep me feeling full. However, I remembered I still had one portion left of the legume concotion that has formed Sunday night's dinner, Monday's lunch and dinner.  So I ate that instead since figured it was better to use up food I have had, rather than cook something. So behold, legume concoction formed 4 meals throughout the challenge! What a bargain!

As I'm writing this, I'm enjoying drinking hot water with 2 tsp of raw sugar - it's a nice reminder of tea! Though, I usually don't have sugar in my tea. 

Dinner tonight will be some sort of potato and lentil curry and some pear rice pudding for dessert. I wish I had more spices to make the curry nicer but alas, salt, pepper and garam masala will have to suffice!

Hakuna Matata has reached $1385 towards our $2000 target. I hope we can get to our $2000 mark by the 20th May. If you would like to see our progress or even make a donation, please check out our website - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata

Cinta dan Damai, Love and Peace,

Katrina

Day 1: Shopping night and first LBL Cook-up!

What $40 will feed 4 people from Sunday 15th May - Friday 20th May. It would probably happily feed only 2 of us though. Talk about food for thought.

Antman, Timmy, Mez and I enjoying our stew concotion of red kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, canneloni beans, rice, lentils, onion, garlic and garam masala... oh and 250g of rice! Delicious and moderately nutritious.. except that it might form not just our dinner for Sunday night but for a few more appearances throughout the week. We need to make this last.

A concoction of legumes potato's and tinned tomatoes. This will be eaten on rice. Yeah, legume concoction on rice for as long as we can get by - Antman

So above are the first photos of our dinner last night and  $40 worth of shopping, with factoring in oil, salt and pepper amounts form our own pantries at home, Team Hakuna Matata has their food for the week!  Each team member has two pears, one carrot, 4-5 potatoes (according to the size), 500ml of milk, 50g of garam masala, 250g of red lentils, 250g of raw sugar, 250g of rolled oats, 250g of white longrain rice and equal portions of two vanilla cakes. We have also the two planned community meals of Tomato Tuna Pasta and Legume Stew which we will share out throughout the week since it was easier to cook the meal together.

It's already starting to dawn on me the issues of food security that our impoverished fellow man and women have to face each day.  It's also a strange feeling of rationalising my meals, rather then my usual motto of "Live to Eat, not eat to Live" - a sentiment I share with my friend Steph whom is taking up the challenge for an ENTIRE MONTH!

I am loving the fact that we can have as many cups of warm water and cold water but it is no substitute for tea. I would really love some tea but we couldn't afford such a luxury for the week.

I'm amazed that as a group, we have raised already $1295 towards the Global Poverty Project to help fund education programs in Papua New Guinea. 

Keep tuned and don't forget to check out www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata

Day 7: 46% down, only 54% to go!

Hey everyone!

Team Hakuna Matata has had a phenomenal week of collecting donations from our awesome friends and families! We've also had two new members to the team - Lana and Timmy. It's great to see that not only do we have a Sydney and Melbourne faction but we've also got 4 of us who studied together in Jogja, Indonesia on the team!

We're hoping to reach our target of $1000 before May, 20th as it would be so great to reach our target, especially whilst undertaking the challenge.

Next Sunday, Team Hakuna Matata will be shopping with our individual $10 budget of food for the week and since we are a team, we can put our money or ingredients together to cook some meagre meals!

Photos will be uploaded of our Sunday cooking adventure!

Thank you again to all of those who have supported this fantastic cause!

Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Kat

Day 7 - we're 46% of the way to our $1000 target.
Only one week until we begin to live below the line!

18% down, 82% to go!

Hey everyone!

Team Hakuna Matata is in Day 2 of promoting that we will be living below the line during 16th-20th May. We're stoked to see that our friend and families think this is worth supporting and have already raised $180 towards our $1000 target! Truly amazed by the generosity!

Our team motto, is the Swahili phrase made famous by the Lion King but we like to mix it up with the Javanese version - ora apa apa. As Antman and I are ex-Jogjkartans, we love to govern life with no worries but are passionate to enhance the lives of others though Education. We've both lived in Jogjakarta, Indonesia for 6months where we, although at different times, were volunteer P.E teachers for a community school, SALAM. We saw first hand how schools can be improved by training local teachers is something that worth supporting, as it's one way to the break the poverty cycle and empower local people.


Education is a gift and our donations will go towards the Global Poverty Project to keep giving the life-long gift of education.


Please check out our page - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata and if financially able, please donate :)


For everyone taking on the challenge - Stay strong and know that your symbolic gesture sets you apart from the status quo.

Now it's time to get creative with our $2 a day for food!


 Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,

 Katrina

Day 2: May 3, 2011
18% Achieved

16% in one day, only 84% to go!

Hey everyone!

It's been Day 1 of promoting that Team Hakuna Matata will be living below the line come 16th-20th May and we've already raised $155 towards our $1000 target! That's only from the generous donations from Antman's and I's family and friends - So delighted by the speedy generosity!

If you can donate to us, please check out www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata

Besides, the Lion King made it a hit phrase and Swahili couldn't say it any better - no worries! Or as us Javanese-favouring folk too say - ora apa-apa!

Day 1: May 2nd, 2011
Achieved 16% of our target!

Live below the line - Tackling poverty one bite at a time!

Hey everyone!

So I still haven't gotten around to posting my last four chapters of my Indonesian adventure but it's two weeks to go until I start a new adventure - Oaktree Foundation's "Live below the line"!

From the 16th May - 20th May, myself and my friend's will be aiming to raise $1000 as Team Hakuna Matata!

Please help us by donating to our team page - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata

So you might be wondering, what on Earth it means to live below the line? Well for that one week in May, we each will only be eating as much food as we can buy for $2 each day. So that means no coffee. No cheese (a pretty big deal for me, just ask me about the time I was so ill that I had to go Vegan for a month after catching some virus that affected my liver from Kalimantan, the Indo part of Borneo).

My team, Hakuna Matata are aiming to raise $1000 and awareness for the 1.4 billion people who have to live like this every day - and who have to make $2 cover a lot more than food!Please donate to support me, and your dontations will be donated to empower sustainable development in Papua New Guinea in training local people to become teachers in their community. Education is so critical and something I truly believe in, especially as a University student.

Please dig deep and remember, this week is tackling poverty one bite at a time!

I'll be keeping a blog of our journey, particularly our food planning for the week! Hello Lentils, rice and pasta! and maybe goodbye to nutrition for the week.

Do you think you have what it takes to live on $2 per day? If not, sponsor us - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata!

This is Katrina signing out!