More is Less - Part 1
Wednesday 11 March 2015
For Lent, I am eating for HK$20 per day. (US$2.50/£1.70)
For years now, I have worked with and advocated for those who live below the poverty line. Actually, they live WAY below it. I work with those who live on $0.50 per day. And as much as I have cared for and tried to understand those living in poverty, I have never ever really felt what it might be like to live with hunger, with no choices, with no hope for a future. And I am grateful that I have never had to.
For me, cutting my food budget to a fraction of what it usually is has been a way to start to understand just a tiny bit of what it must be like to live in poverty. I am just over half way through lent now, and I am learning plenty of things that surprise me:
Lent: Lent is not 40 days! It is 46... that was a shock...
Time: I spend a lot more of my day on food: thinking about it, sourcing it cheaply, preparing. Often in Hong Kong, we don’t think about food. I just grab something and a bottle of wine on the way home from work and we eat and drink while we work/talk/watch. But now, I visit several shops to see who has which items at the cheapest prices, I take time to prepare food, and then I plan out how much we have left for this week down to the cent, and what we can buy with that. I don’t worry, because I know that if something serious happened we could just buy what we need. But I am beginning to see how never having enough would place serious trauma’s on one’s life.
Choices: I basically eat the same thing every day. Oats for breakfast, some eggs, rice, and veggies for lunch and dinner. And instant noodles. I try to prepare foods differently, but essentially it’s the same thing. My choices are taken away. And the choice of who I eat with is also taken away - I can’t go out with friends. I am missing my friend’s birthday celebration today because they are eating out and I can’t afford to.
“Social Capital”: This is a term we use in development which basically means the value added to your life because of the people in your community. I have had people buy me lunches and dinners because they wanted to spend time with me. I have had work events where meals are included. There are snacks at the office for me to munch on... basically our network of friends and colleagues have kept me from being hungry. Of course, the poor don’t usually have access to friends who have much more wealth than themselves. But when they do, I can’t blame them for trying to maximise it!
Most of all, so far, I am grateful. Grateful that I am in a position to try this experiment, to talk about it and share the experience. Grateful for the food I do have, and grateful for knowing that it is just for a season. I have already planned out my Easter Sunday meals! And I will share the rest of my experiences then...
Stay tuned!
For years now, I have worked with and advocated for those who live below the poverty line. Actually, they live WAY below it. I work with those who live on $0.50 per day. And as much as I have cared for and tried to understand those living in poverty, I have never ever really felt what it might be like to live with hunger, with no choices, with no hope for a future. And I am grateful that I have never had to.
For me, cutting my food budget to a fraction of what it usually is has been a way to start to understand just a tiny bit of what it must be like to live in poverty. I am just over half way through lent now, and I am learning plenty of things that surprise me:
Lent: Lent is not 40 days! It is 46... that was a shock...
Time: I spend a lot more of my day on food: thinking about it, sourcing it cheaply, preparing. Often in Hong Kong, we don’t think about food. I just grab something and a bottle of wine on the way home from work and we eat and drink while we work/talk/watch. But now, I visit several shops to see who has which items at the cheapest prices, I take time to prepare food, and then I plan out how much we have left for this week down to the cent, and what we can buy with that. I don’t worry, because I know that if something serious happened we could just buy what we need. But I am beginning to see how never having enough would place serious trauma’s on one’s life.
Choices: I basically eat the same thing every day. Oats for breakfast, some eggs, rice, and veggies for lunch and dinner. And instant noodles. I try to prepare foods differently, but essentially it’s the same thing. My choices are taken away. And the choice of who I eat with is also taken away - I can’t go out with friends. I am missing my friend’s birthday celebration today because they are eating out and I can’t afford to.
“Social Capital”: This is a term we use in development which basically means the value added to your life because of the people in your community. I have had people buy me lunches and dinners because they wanted to spend time with me. I have had work events where meals are included. There are snacks at the office for me to munch on... basically our network of friends and colleagues have kept me from being hungry. Of course, the poor don’t usually have access to friends who have much more wealth than themselves. But when they do, I can’t blame them for trying to maximise it!
Most of all, so far, I am grateful. Grateful that I am in a position to try this experiment, to talk about it and share the experience. Grateful for the food I do have, and grateful for knowing that it is just for a season. I have already planned out my Easter Sunday meals! And I will share the rest of my experiences then...
Stay tuned!