Day 16: Wind in my sails!

Some news I'm very excited to share is that a reader of this blog felt compelled to donate $5,000 toward my goal! This is a huge step forward--bringing our total way up to 13 scholarships now funded! And we lack just $85 to reach the 14th scholarship! I feel a boost of wind in my sails that I really needed. This is what makes this challenge so worth it to me--together, we're gaining awareness for an important cause, and children's lives will be forever changed!

I'm asking you to consider chipping in $5, $10 or $15 to help us knock out this $85! Please follow this link to give whatever you can afford toward rescuing another child from child labor, to give her a bright future full of hope! Thank you so much for your support.

I'm dedicating day 16 to this boy who takes care of his little brother while his parents are away seeking day labor jobs. I met him in the Thapathali colony of Kathmandu, where we're in the process of starting a new Children's Hope Center. I really believe that with your help, he and his little brother will have a chance at a bright future through our program.

Here's what I was able to cook up today, using just $1 worth of ingredients...

Breakfast. Re-fried beans & rice with scrambled egg, breakfast taco. ▼

Lunch. It was "bonus egg day" (with 48 eggs, I get an extra egg almost every other day during the 30 days), so I made egg fried rice with carrots and cabbage. ▼

Dinner. I'm really getting some mileage out of the Vegetarian Texas Chili I previously wrote about. This is a new variation with ramen noodles. Good stuff. Unbelievably inexpensive, maybe around 25 cents to make. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

Day 12: Hunger

I'll be honest again today. I have in the past tried to glaze over some of the more challenging parts of the "challenge" in the interest of promoting simplicity. But tonight the mask is off. For a higher reason. I want to just admit, this is hard, and I feel the pit of hunger in my stomach throughout the challenge, and I embrace it as a part of empathizing with the struggle I see in those I've met in the slums. This kind of hunger is their daily reality. They have no day 31. 

This is a photo of a boy and his home in a squatter's colony in Kathmandu, Nepal. There is something deeply moving about this image that tells a thousand words. Do you feel it?

And this is a mother and daughter who enthusiastically invited me into their makeshift home and fed me the small snack they had available; likely sacrificing what small calorie count they had to survive off of, in the interest of hospitality. True humility! I warmly and gratefully accepted their hospitality and sat and spoke with them using the little broken English we could exchange. It was a moment I'll never easily forget.

It's in this colony we've just recently begun an outreach to the 200+ children who call this place home. Most have no access to an education and very little to eat. We aim to change that for them, with your help.

Great news! Today we saw $250 come in through some very generous donations, to help us fund scholarships for the children of this colony and others like it where we work, in Manila, Philippines; Hyderabad, India, and Kampala, Uganda! This means we're just $110 away from funding our 4th scholarship on this challenge! Way to go! We can do this! Together, we can make a difference!

Would you consider chipping in anything you can afford toward our goal? Learn more and donate using this link! 

A quick overview on what I was able to come up with for day 12, living on just $1 worth of food...

Breakfast. 1/3 cup of oatmeal, with 2 slices from my frozen banana ration, a few raisins and a dash of cinnamon! And a variation on the breakfast taco! Stir fried the rice with beans, a splash of canola oil and soy sauce, with a scrambled egg and a tablespoon of pasta sauce! The variety makes all the difference and I savored every bite! ▼

Lunch. Cabbage/pasta/ramen salad! Thanks to the suggestion of a reader, I tried this chilled pasta salad today. In the Houston heat of 97F/35C it was a welcome change to my previous hot soup lunches of the past few days! You can see the ingredients in the photo, so I won't bother to name them all, but the technique was worthy of mentioning--I placed everything but the stir-fried ramen in the freezer for 15 minutes! Topped with a touch of oil & vinegar from my oils/seasonings allowance, and this was an extremely refreshing variety-changer! ▼

Dinner. I enjoyed the "Vegetarian Texas Chili" from the other night so much that I had to do a repeat. This is so utterly simple yet so delicious, you cannot go wrong with this concoction. Basic ingredients are mashed pinto beans and corn tortilla strips, coupled with various but light seasonings like salt, pepper, vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar, corn meal, ground cumin seed and of course, a bit of chili powder. Delicious and filling, but very low on the calorie count. ▼

I am so very grateful for your support. This is not an easy challenge, but with your encouragement, and with the results that will come about from your donations, it's not so bad at all. It's all about the result, and with the lives I know we'll be able to change together, it's all worth it.

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

Day 8: Speak up!

No matter how loud he shouts, his voice cannot be heard, unless someone with a louder voice speaks up on his behalf. That's where you and I come in.

More great news today. Thanks to your awareness-raising efforts, the blog continues to receive a growing amount of traffic, up to about 150 visits a day. And as a result, we're getting closer to our goal of 20 scholarships for children of the slums! Yesterday our total jumped up to $1,505! Thank you for all of your support!

So we're now at 3 scholarships sponsored! That's 3 of these kids' lives that will be forever changed by the opportunity to escape child labor and receive proper nutrition and education!

Please chip in whatever you can afford--it all adds up! The result is priceless. These are girls enrolled at our "Children's Hope Center" just a few minute's walk from where the above photo was taken, in Hyderabad, India. Once in seemingly hopeless situations, now they are full of hope, with drastically improved better chances at success in life.

They have a chance because someone cared! And because I know you care (you've read this far), please take action for the kids who have not yet had a chance at an education. Speak up on their behalf by sharing this blog, or by donating whatever you can afford (even if it's just $5--it all counts and makes an exponential impact). Every effort, no matter how small, counts!

On to what I was able to put together for today's meals, using just $1 worth of ingredients. Hunger motivates you to creativity and improvisation with limited resources, and makes anything that's fresh and hot taste like a feast. In our culture of excess, we often lose this sensation.

Breakfast. Basic oatmeal and raisins with seasoned salt, and a breakfast taco made of brown rice, pinto beans, boiled potatoes and one hard boiled egg, served on a corn tortilla. ▼

Lunch. Needed a quick lunch so I just threw together a very basic ramen noodle / pasta soup with potatoes, carrots and pinto beans. Although limited in overall calorie count, this soup had a hearty texture and thanks to the right seasonings, it was delicious. ▼

Dinner. Another breakthrough dish, coming from the inspiration of a reader, thank you again to all who are sending in recipe ideas! Vegetarian Texas Chili. I used a very quick-and-dirty adaptation of this recipe. I "bought" a few teaspoons of seasonings and some cornmeal from my existing stock, and believe I stayed well within my allotted budget for the day. I used only mashed pinto beans for the stock, and two corn tortillas for added substance. This was absolutely divine! And all for under 35 cents! I hope these meals inspire you to experiment with simplicity in your diet, for better health and saving you money so that you can be more generous to those in need. ▼

Thanks so much for your continued support! I'm holding steady at the end of day 8!

Please take action on one or all of the following points!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!