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!

That's a wrap for FIB!

It's 1:19am and I've just completed my speech for my mata kuliah Sejarah Indonesia. This means, until my exam for this subject on the 6th of January, 2011, 3/4 classes in FIB ( Falkutas Ilmu Budaya) are officially finished! Yay!

The past two weeks have been absolutely chaotic! I've had the opportunity to visit Dieng Plateau, attend a World Class Conference free of charge (Thanks to ACICIS) called WISDOM, 5-8th December, performed in PSM UGM Konser Kecil, a photography excursion using an analogue camera with black and white film, 3 final exams in a row: Terjemahan Inggris - Indonesia, Karawitan dan Basa Jawa and Friday officially marks the end of INCULS(Indonesian Culture and Language Services), where I'll be the MC of the Closing Ceremony and then the ACICIS Christmas/Farewell Party. So naturally, I've been keeping out of trouble but it is definitely a lot more difficult to juggle a few commitments in a day here, which has made me realise I need to stop over-committing myself. Who would have thought I would FINALLY click onto this apparently well-known fact of life?


I'm a little sad to say that my time as an FIB student is coming to a close, especially since that faculty was home to my favourite subject here  - Basa Jawa! Or to say in Javanese, kula remen sanget sinau basa Jawa wonten ing UGM!


It's also hard to believe that it is less than 10 days to Christmas and this also means that I'll be heading to Bali soon to meet up with Ari, Mez and my mum - very excited! A whole group of us ACICIS kids will be heading to Bali too so I think it is safe to say, it will be an awesome Christmas/New Years!

So here are a few snapshots of the things that have been keeping me busy. Enjoy!

Danau Warna di Dieng Plateau on a rainy day!

My photo-hunting partner in crime - Dita! My first attempt at capturing the beauty of film.

A silhouette captured at Taman Sari. Despite the beauty of the shadows, I can't help but laugh at how defined my nose is!

The banner at my first and last choir concert with PSM UGM!

A few pictures to fill the blanks!

Hey all!

So I'm still being super slack in posting a decent length entry. I should tell you all about: a fantastic 21st spent in both Singapore and Bali, returning home to Jogja with my family, going to Semarang for a night and staying at the very posh Novotel, visiting the Royal Cemetary at Imogiri, teaching some English at an evacuation centre, joining and recording with the band - Jogaroos! Or perhaps, moving into a new home and being fed various Indonesian cakes by my Ibu Kos, making traditional dishes for Idul Adha with my Pencak Silat friends and the final month of semester at UGM :(. I also should fill in the missing chunk of my life that includes Pencak Silat, Choir, Krakal Beach, Pagar Alam and Palembang, Sumatra, Dimas, Ina's and Putri's graduation and the multitude of other things that seem to be lost in time!

I'll post up some pictures since a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

ACICIS Semester 31 + some friends - the male ACICIS students at Imogiri, the royal cemetary. We are all wearing traditional Javanese dress. 27th November, 2010

The close to 400+ stairs we had to climb to reach the top of the entrance of the cemetery. We were then told the cemetery was closed. Sigh. 27th November, 2010

Alex and Fikri - Contenders for Javanese traditional dress models of the year? 27th November, 2010

Dad eating some delicious Roti Canai in Little India, Singapore. 7th November, 2010

Singapore City by night! Glen, Tude, Alit and I rode the Singapore Flyer - was a perfect way to see Singapore city in her glory. 8th November, 2010

Still the same old Katrina! I might of just turned 21 but I'm still really good at losing things! This instance, my ring fell into the grates of a water fountain on Clarke Quay. 9th November, 2010

So there's a teaser of what's to be told in my next post or if I'm super slack still, an a-bridged version of the tales of Katrina. As I am now in my last few weeks of studying here at UGM, Yogyakarta, I already know that it is going to be so difficult to leave but I am looking forward to doing some travel in the other islands of Indonesia :)