Of Eating 'Below the Line' and Learning.

Wow - what a week. Trying to eat what I could afford for TT$10/day has been an eye-opening and humbling experience.

I initially saw the website livebelowtheline.com posted in a photography forum looking for photos of what poverty looked like to you - a friend suggested I join because I have a few photos. So I took a look, and saw that there was a challenge beginning May 16th - 20th where people were to eat no more than what US$1.50, or the equivalent - TT$10.00, could buy. Since I've recently become involved in a programme that feeds the homeless, I decided it would be a challenge I would try, approaching it as an exercise in an awareness of how much the money could do - rather than spend it on 'x', I would stop and think that I would have to spend it on 'y' in order to eat and it would make me more aware that while in the ordinary course of life, that is not a life and death decision for me to make, it would actually be one for many people, who not only make those choices for themselves, but for their children. I hoped it would give me a better understanding of what the people I met and spoke to every day were going through.

I got so much more.

I expected I would feel hungry, but that has been manageable - no worse than if I'm just running on fumes for a couple days - but what I didn't expect was the feeling of total isolation I would get when faced with situations where people were eating or snacking, or in places selling food/snacks, or even seeing road signs for various eateries and not having the option of partaking in any of it. It's very demoralising.

I CHOSE to do this for only 5 days and it's been extremely difficult for me - the lack of options I have to eat, the lethargy and extra effort it's taking me to be positive, and having to constantly account for money 'spent' on food. What do people who have no choice and not only have to budget for food, but also health-care, school, transport, living costs DO? It's become very clear to me how a cycle of poverty could just continue, beginning with very little to eat, because it affects your ability to function - yes, you will continue to survive, but existing and thriving are very different.

There's a lot I take for granted - one of the cooks in the feeding programme told me she feeds 100 people her soup for the cost of a manicure. - It cost her $140TT to make a soup that people send messages about how much they loved it back to her about, so it wasn't even to say it was lacking in ingredients. I started doing this for myself, to make myself think more and appreciate more - I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'm going to eradicate poverty or hunger, but I don't think trying to appreciate what someone is going through would be doing me or others any harm either.

It's great to be in the Top 5 for fundraisers globally, but the top 10 thing is purely monetary, and that was never my motivation for doing this - I really just wanted to put myself in the other person's shoes, if even for a little while. Even if me and my team never made any money, I think we've changed our perspective, reached some people and at least made them start to think, or question their own spending, or assumptions, so for me, a monetary reflection isn't accurate as a success marker, because if we never raised a cent, I think we've done what we set out to do, if only for ourselves...

And at the end of the day, it's about making your own journey to where you're going in your own way - be it through pulling other people down or trying to raise them up or just trying to see and understand their point of view, and now more than ever, I think it's a sin that in this super wealthy world we live in, there could be people wanting proper nutrition...

Sar

Ring Around the Rosies

The pic above is one that I really like - taken at a wedding last weekend - fabulous decor - the details practically begged for someone to shoot them. Like the box above, with a pretty charm on top that said 'Thank You' and some YUMMY wedding cake inside (sweets, my kryptonite :D).

I'm really lucky to have hooked up with the photographers I shoot with - they're great people on top of being great photographers. And I'm really lucky they think I'm good enough to shoot with them :p

Here's another one taken at the same wedding - both shot with my 50mm f/1.4 and ambient/available light (window light for the bouquet).



Have a fabulous day!:)

Oh Putz-leeze

(Click on the pic to view video

Some images used Courtesy Ian Farnum)

I'm a putz.

I knew I was beginning what can now only be called a rapid roll downhill (putz-wise) when I used to find myself tearing up every single time, watching the Iams dog food commercial with the little girl and KC her dog. In my defense, I lost my beloved dog Bugsy and have never gotten over it. But still. Crying over a pet food commercial?

So onto this video, which I put together with the most excellent folks at Animoto. You guessed it. Putz City.

I really should stop blogging about what a loser I am...

'News'papers

I stopped reading newspapers regularly a while ago. It seemed like a pointless and mostly depressing thing to do, given that all news centered on death, rape, robbery and kidnappings, with the occasional road accident thrown in (only if grievous bodily harm or dismemberment was occasioned and death likely). Not the most cheery way to start your day.

But I have to tell you, I'd rather crack a paper open onto news like the above any day, than be subjected to front page news like which government minister (ex or no) knows about the location of an MIA grand piano. Not to mention the riveting saga of another minister who may or may not have been driving a government vehicle drunk but who definitely owns a jag and doesn't need the prestige of a prado.

Oh.My.God. Just deposit me in front of that Prado and end my misery.

From SAR's (Suspicious Activity Reports - not the flu) to outstanding public transport expenses, the list goes on, designed, I am now sure, to elicit from me the same incredulously resigned 'wha?'

I think I understand what it is they're trying to do. After all, someone blowing their brains out while sitting in front of an online newspaper and a scribbled note containing only one word ('Nah.' 'Nah!' 'Nah...' 'Nahnahnah.') in varying degrees of disbelief must make for at least 4th page fodder...

Carnival is WHAT?!?

2 months away?!?

Crap. What happened to 'enough time to get in shape'?

Crap.

It astounds me how consistently I find myself in this situation. With over 10lbs. to lose in record time, in order to get on the road in a skimpy getup and not die of both embarrassment and a heart attack. Last year I managed it in 2 WEEKS - Red Bull has nothing on pure fright to give you wings. Not only did I manage it - I got so fit that my eating binge afterward had no effect on me whatsoever. So much so that I tempted fate and aging and decided to eat like it was my last meal for 6 months. Then my metabolism remembered that I'm actually quite old and conked out.

Fabulous. Now I have less than 2 months to do it all again. And what am I doing instead of exercising? Writing this online. If only finger presses on the keyboard used up calories...

 

What a Wonderful World...

 



"I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom, for me and you, and I think to myself..."

I was going to write about the horror of seeing the people you love lose everything they have in a house fire. About their tears and pain and disbelief that their lives could change so drastically, literally in under an hour. But the theme, and what I'll instead tell you about, running through the past 2 days (it seems like a week...) is one of friendship and generosity. Of strangers appearing with offers to help and bringing food and clothes. Of the best of people coming out in a time of need.

I went from relaxing poolside, listening to Louis Armstrong rasping about wonders in the world, to receiving a call that my younger cousin's house was on fire. I won't go into too much detail about the negatives of the next few hours - hearing dull 'whoomp's as things exploded and collapsed inside, or the many times the firemen thought the flames were extinguished, only to have them ignite elsewhere in the house. What I will talk about, is the stellar performance of many of the firemen, who risked their lives trying to contain the blaze - every so often a wall or part of the ceiling would collapse and hoarse voices would yell each fireman's name to make sure no one was trapped inside or underneath. I will also tell you about the admiration I have for my little cousin, who recovered from her shock enough to be able to laugh at my dumb jokes about roasting marshmallows so as not to let the fire go to waste (I've always had an inappropriate sense of humour). And about her 23yr. old sister, who, newly married with an active toddler, opened her small, 1 bathroom apartment next door to her invalid grandmother, aunt and 4 dogs, her mother and sister and whatever waterlogged, smoke soaked clothing we managed to fish out of the house at 3 am. with no complaint at all. I can tell you about my cousin's friend, who stayed throughout the night and was on hand to fight the flare ups that the firemen were sure wouldn't happen, with a garden hose, crawling up a ladder (he's afraid of heights) to be able to soak the burning walls with water so it wouldn't spread further, and who refused to let my cousin and aunt near enough to be hurt if anything were to happen. Who didn't leave until 9pm last night, over 24hrs later.

I don't know what caused the fire, but I do know what it caused. It caused me to reevaluate the things that I attach so much importance to. It caused me to remember how much to value the things that cannot be replaced - family, friendship, good health and common human compassion, and to be grateful for 'small' things. It caused me to be a little less selfish with my emotions and my time and made me, hopefully, more available to those who need me. Because there are worse things in life than having people who need you.

"...what a wonderful world"...

(What a Wonderful World -Louis Armstrong)