Merry Christmas from some very special children!

Love146 operates shelters to protect children vulnerable to trafficking and survivors who have been rescued from slavery.
These children have had a tough start in life, but they love music just as much as any children.
And they can play the beloved Christmas song 'Jingle bells' perfectly.

I wish you all a merry, ethical Christmas,

Photo credit; Ian Muttoo

There's so much to think about at Christmas. "Is this the right gift?" "Am I getting good value for money?" "Should I choose the blue one or the red one?" "What the heck do I get my co-worker?"

I had some other questions on top of those. "Who made this?" "How were they treated?" "Were they a slave?" 

That sounds drastic, but in today's world, it isn't. There are more slaves today than ever before. And I hate to say it, but our need for cheap, junky nick-nacks to give our co-workers is fueling this problem.

And, I hate to say this more, but I can't even tell you how to choose things that weren't made by slaves. It would take months of research, resources and information I don't have access to, I'd have to give you specific brand names, and then I still couldn't be one hundred percent certain. 

But, what I can give you is a list of questions to ask to help you decide if the gift you're looking at is worth buying, plus a few suggestions.

1. Where was this made, and what is the state of human trafficking in that country?

The country of manufacture that's stamped on the back of the box doesn't tell you everything. There've been instances of factories in the United States enslaving workers. The only thing is that if it's made in a country with widespread slave labour, or widespread slave labour, you can put it down, and try to find an alternative. But how do you know if there's widespread slave labour in Moldova? You pull out your smart phone and google it. "Labour trafficking in Moldova" I favour gifts that were made locally. I love buying things off the person who made them. They're not always as expensive as we think, and much more special. However, quite often, buying things from other countries can have a really positive effect on their economy, which can help them grow out of economic problems. This is more effective, however, with fairtrade products, or those produced by a company based in that country. 

2. What was this made with, and where did that come from?

While I was buying jewelry for my sister this year, I asked where it was made. One seller said it was made in Latvia. "Okay," I thought, but then I wondered where the silver was mined. This is quite often impossible to tell, but it's important because in many areas, children drop out of school to mine, and mining often involves climbing down unstable holes, and working with tough chemicals like mercury. If you can find out, and the metal was mined in a place like Australia, it's probably not mined with slave labour. Please stay away from African gold. When you've seen pictures of children playing in mercury, you won't want any. Another option is fair trade and cetified metals, but since at the moment, they're rather expensive and tend to come with really nice jewelry, not the mid range jewelry I'm giving my sister. I didn't find out where the metal in her earings did come from, I resorted to the third question.

3. At this price, am I giving the economy room to grow?

Sometimes even brands that sell pricey clothing have some trafficking problems in their supply chains. It can be disappointing to find out that my label jacket was made in the same place as that cheap one. But what I ask when I feel I don't have better options is, if I'm spending this amount, am I feeding the demand for cheap things, which feeds the demand for unpaid labour? Am I giving the companies excuses to say "People don't want to spend more than $2.50 on a towel." We have to use slave labour to stay afloat."? I'm not suggesting we pay an unreasonable amount of money, I'm saying we think about what is the reasonable amount of money this should be worth relative to how long it could have taken to make, and what it's made out of.

4. Have I let the manufacturer know that I care about ethics?

Every company should be working toward eradicating the use of slave labour anywhere in their supply chain. Sometimes, when we can't find an alternative, then writing to a company and saying that you care about ethics can help. Something along the lines of; "I am a customer, in fact, I bought a soft toy from you, and I hope you are actively working to stop the use of slavery in your supply chain." The person reading your letter or email may or may not know what your talking about. You can give them a link to Made in a Free World, which has software made for busiesses to help them combat the issue. You can also send them to Stop the Traffik for information, and can use Stop The Traffik's website to send emails to many companies. 

Some tips
For those of you who now aren't sure what to get your co-workers since you put down that snowglobe, here are my tips. 

1. Make it yourself. 

If you want an inexpensive gift that's also special, making it yourself is a great option.
Some good gifts to make are

• Fudge, chocolates, or other sweets, -Use organic sugar and ethical chocolate
• A home made Christmas ornament,
• An iced fruit cake, -try to trace which country the fruit was grown in or buy fair trade dried fruit if possible.
• re-pot some seedlings as a gift. -buy several flower seedlings, and place them in second hand pots. Children can help decorate old pots or if you're arty, you could turn them into something really special.
• Build a candy despensor and put fairly traded sweets in it instead of the m&ms in these instructions. (Video also shows how to make some other chocolate gifts. Candy despensor is at the 10 minute mark.)
• knit or sew a clothing item using recycled wool or wool that's made in your country.

2. Fairly traded. 
Several kinds of certification exist, fair trade, ethical choice, ect. These items are not garenteed to be trafficking free, but are usually a better choice than other ones.

Where I live, In New Zealand, there is a brilliant shop chain called Trade Aid. I love to buy gift cards from here and send people in to see what a cool collection of stuff they have. Everything is certified fairtrade, and food products are organic.

3. Vintage.
I actually quite often buy second hand items that are still good to give as gifts. Thrift shops often have jewelry, soft toys, old style plates and cupboard items, and the money usually goes to charity rather than to companies that source items from sweatshops or slave labour using sources.

4. Give to charity.
I feel like this is the ultimate gift for co-workers. In case you're unfamiliar with the concept, some charities sell cards that represent a donation given on a person's behalf instead of getting a gift from them. We can choose what the money is spent on such as livestock, education, or health, and recieve a card representing what can be done with the amount of money that was gifted. This is the one gift on this page that not only doesn't contribute to slavery, but can actually prevent it!

Santa clause needs your help!

Many children living in poverty don't get Christmas presents or any presents at any time of the year. Where is Santa Clause?

Santa Clause needs your help, there are many ways you can help disadvantaged children get Christmas presents. Getting Christmas presents shows children that even though they are poor, they are valuable; shows them that they deserve better than what they have experienced.

1.  Send a box of Christmas presents with Operation Christmas Child.

The concept is, you pack a cardboard shoebox with gifts and write a special letter or Christmas card. A $9 donation enables OCC to transport the box to one of five different countries to be distributed to a poor child. You can even track your box to see which country it went to and if you put your address in the letter or Christmas card, then who knows, you may just receive a thank you letter back. (: How cool would that be?
Want to do this? Go to;
Australia and New Zealand:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org.au/operation-christmas-child/

United States: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/
United Kingdom: https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

2. Compassion Christmas Gift fund:

Compassion sponsored children and children waiting for sponsors get Christmas gifts each year from the Christmas fund. The gift is purchased in the area, improving the local economy, and the children's tutors can choose gifts that will be useful and appreciated by those children. Often these gifts are the only gifts children receive, ever. But not all sponsors give Christmas money, so your donation will be appreciated. If you would like to contribute to this fund, go to:
NZ; http://www.tearfund.org.nz/childgiftfund.html
US; http://www.compassion.com/gift-to-child-in-poverty.htm
(If your country is not listed, but is a Compassion sponsor country, find your country's compassion's website, and locate the correct page, or contact the staff and ask them.)

Day 5

Sorry for the late post, but here's how I finnished off Live Below The Line.

 The night of day four, I made lunch for day five. Given that I had lived out of a bag of rice for five days, it felt weird emptying the bag. "What will I have for dinner!" a voice in my mind asked. I glanced over at the potato. Yes, I did have a potato. I wouldn't need to skip lunch again and save the rice. But that was what my instinct told me to do. It was a weird thought that the daily rice dinner had come to an end. Now that I'm back onto a health diet, I won't be having any rice for quite a while. In the morning, I made my last Daliya out of all the kibbled rye in the bottom of the bag. I saved some onion "In case I need it" even though I knew I wouldn't, (I did add it to the sauce in the end) saved the end of a carrot, to eat with dinner, and some tomatos for a sauce to go with my anticuchos.

 I felt so full after eating all the daliya I'd had left. I barely got hungry by lunch time. It felt almost as though I wasn't on Live Below The Line. For lunch I had a Peruvian style "garlic rice" which wasn't briliant, because I had to use a dribble of vinegar instead of the lemon juice Peruvians use. ...And also because I put too much water in the rice. But nevermind, it was food and I had the privelege of being able to have three meals. Oh, and my last 1/4 of my dal.

 I brought my dinner to work. I had to go to work at a takeaway shop and cook other people's burgers while I was hungry. But, I'd imagine quite a few people in extreme poverty prepare food for richer people. In other countries where restaraunts don't have minimum wages. I know what they would feel like. I took anticuchos on sticks, with potatoes and carrot in a container, and sauce in another. I cooked the anticuchos at work, seeing as beleive it or not, we have facilities to grill food there. It felt appropriate to think this is quite possably what Aldair's family would have as a treat when (if) they have takeaways, but if they could have takeaways, it would definitely be a treat. Hey, perhaps some people from their community are employed cooking it. I enjoyed it. The anticuchos didn't taste quite as good with white vinegar as they had when I made them with sushi vinegar. But that's how you live below the line in New Zealand.

 Before I took my little box of Peruvian takeaways to work, I put the little box that I had kept my Live Below The Line Food in back in the cupboard; completely empty of food. I felt great eating all my food, actually being full for once, and knowing that the next day I would also be full. But, in the back of my mind was the sad realisation that for 1 billion people, the end of living in extreme poverty hasn't come yet. Each day they struggle to have enough. Each day they are careful not to eat all their food even though they are hungry -They don't know if they'll be able to get any more tomorrow. Likewise for victims of human trafficking, they can't see an end. Let's put an end to living below the line. Let's put an end to slavery. ... I know. We might not ever really be able to rid the world of those two ugly things, but we can definitely end it for one person. That's changing a world. Donate now.

Anticuchos (My Live Below The Line version)

100ml white vinegar,
1/4 tsp cumin seeds,
3 cloves garlic (Or less, I had lots of garlic left so I used it)
Fresh Parsely and oregano, (Or dried herbs for about 1.5 cents per 1/2 tsp)
ground pepper,

100g chicken hearts, (Or other heart meat)
3 kebab skewers (From the bottom of my cupboard, not included in my budget but probably worth a couple cents each)

(Do this in the morning if it's for dinner)
Crush garlic, and place the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Add the chicken hearts. Leave in the fridge. Stir them a bit every now and again (I stirred once before and once after school) to make sure all the hearts get coated in marinade since there won't be enough to cover them.

Just before dinner time, put them on sticks. I used three kebab sticks. Grill for 5-10 minutes ensuring the hearts are heated through but not overcooked.

Serve with potato and a sauce.

Day Four -Almost over

(24th September)
Today, I was running late to school, so I brought my daliya with me in a little plastic container and are it at recess. Having breakfast later didn't make lunch time any easier though. I saw the fruit that New Zealand school children get each day. It's hard not to be able to have any. I set to work making my dinner straight after I got home. I had soaked my beans all day for making Boussan Touba, which my sponsored child, Nouridine might eat. But I had to work out which African sauce recipe to use. I had heard that Burkinabe usually serve meals with a sauce. I found a recipe with meat in it, and just left it out as well as some other ingredients. Here are my recipes followed by the links to the originals.

Bousan Touba with rice and sauce. - Live Below the line version

For the rice:
1/2 cup of rice,
(I just cooked it normally)

For the sauce:
3 tomatos from a tin.
slice of onion,
2 cloves garlic,
1/2 green chilli.
Parsely from our garden.

Chop the veggies, cook the onion and garlic and chilli, then add some water, add the tomato and parsely into that. Once my sauce had cooked a while and everything was mushy, I pure'd it.

For the Bousan Touba (bean cakes)
about 80 grams black eye peas,
One egg,
1/2 a carrot, chopped,
slice of onion,
salt and pepper.
3tsp oil.

Put the bean cake ingredients in a food processor, or in my case a jug with a stick mixer, and pure. This is quite a lot of egg to beans, so in hindsight, I could have scrambled the egg, had some scrambled egg with something else, and used half an egg in the bousan touba. In saying that, mine worked fine. The mixture was runny, but bound well because of the egg.

Spread tablespoons of mixture in the pan with just a little bit of oil. Cook for about a minute and then gently flip, and press down to flatten, and allow the edges to cook more evenly.

Serve Bousan Touba with sauce and rice with the sauce.

Recipes inspired by the more authentic recipes

For Bousan Touba; http://travelbystove.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/recipes-from-burkina-faso.html#.VgZkbPmqpxR

For sauce: http://rw7howto.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/how-to-make-burkina-tomato-sauce.html

Day three- Three meals! Why am I still hungry?

This is day three of Live Below The Line. And today, I managed to have lunch! My stomach is just settling down from the "Tacu tacu" Peruvian rice and bean cakes I had for dinner. How is it that the day when I had three meals is the day I feel more hungry than ever? Before school, My sister and I went on a walk to film the opening, morning scenes of a video we are making which I will post tomorrow. My school was re-opened today. At school, I found it really hard not to have any of the fruit New Zealand school children are having. I found some oranges on the ground. Would it be cheating to have one of those? Our children are obviously unapreciative of their priviledge. Today, my Dad said that he had taken in a lot from what I'm doing. It makes him more aware not to waste food. That's a large part of Live Below The Line. We may be a bunch of whiny, complaining rich people who can barely buy food on what one in seven of the world's population lives on. But we are agents of reality showing our friends and family the state of the world. I myself am now more aware than ever of the way I live.

Meal One;
Daliya, $0.60, see day one. I also had a sardine with it this morning.

Meal two, Left over 1/2 cup of Babenda, one sardine, and 1/2 of the left over dal, leaving one 1/4 portion of dal for another day.

Meal three, Tacu Tacu total cost (aprox) $0.80

This is the sofrito. Sorry, I kinda ate the tacu tacu before I could take a photo.

Roughly 1 cup cooked beans -$0.30
1/2 cooked rice (About a third of a cup raw) - $0.15
One tomato from a tin, -$0.15aprox
Herbs from the garden
-Oregano, parsely, and coriander would be ideal.
I ended up using Thyme, parsely, and basil.
1/4 tsp ground cumin - 1/5 a cent
Little onion,
3 cloves garlic.
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce.

Make a 'sofrito' by cooking onion, 2 cloves garlic, then adding tomato, herbs, and cumin.
I saved two teaspoons for my next Peruvian inspired meal. Then I rolled the beans in the sofrito. I then mashed the beans with a fork, and mixed them into the rice by hand. I shaped it all into one big patte, and then I fried some onion and the other clove of garlic in a teaspoon of oil. I fried the tacu tacu until the rice on the outside was browned, and served it with a tiny teaspoon of chilli sauce. While I was cooking it, it looked white. I expected it to taste bland. But it didn't! it had a wonderful flavour. My only problem is that there was not quite enough of it. I think this is a problem many people in poverty face.

Inspired by this more authentic recipe; http://www.piscotrail.com/2011/04/06/recipes/tacu-tacu-peruvian-refried-beans-and-rice/

Live Below The Line Day two- Dal Curry and a birthday party.

Today, my sister Amber is turning 8!
I've eaten Indian food all day. I had Daliya for breakfast again (see yesterday's post)
and for dinner, Dal -(Split pulse curry) with rice. It was hard going to a kid's party and being so hungry, but not being able to eat anything. It did make me think though, about all the kids who don't get presents or nice food on their birthdays. That sounds pessimistic. Especially those for whom living to such an age is an achievement. It's not that I'm trying to be pessimistic. It's simply a reality that we usually try to ignore in favour of our own problems. I don't know if we can really afford to ignore our children, the next generation of the earth.

Dal with rice -Aprox cost; 

$1.27 - plus an extra portion of dal.

1/2 cup dried rice -$0.20
(For Dal)
1/2 cup lentils or split peas (I used toor dal) -0.30
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp fenugreek
1/8 tsp turmeric - $0.02 (For all the spices together)
1/2 stem curry leaf -$0.04
3 tinned tomatoes -$0.45
1/3 onion -$0.13
1 clove garlic $0.10
1 teaspoons oil $0.03
(To garnish)
1/4 carrot chopped, $0.05
1 teaspoon chutney, $0.02
Pinch of salt $0.005 (Yes, I'm using half cents)

Cook the lentils until they are mushy. Toast the cumin and mustard seeds in the oil. Add the onion and cook. When it is translucent, add the tomatoes, garlic, and remaining spices. Pour in the mushy lentils, ideally cook until they are more of a paste than lentils. Then serve with rice. I had chopped carrot, and a teaspoon of chutney.

Inspired by the more authentic recipe at: http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/tomato-dal-andhra-tomato-dal/
You might also like to try this one http://onelifetoeat.com/2010/04/23/masoor-dal/

Shopping Day

I made this on Sunday, posted this on You Tube yesterday, and just realised I hadn't put it on my blog yet (Sheesh!)

Live Below The Line day 1 -"Welcome to the third world"

I have now survived the first day of Live Below The Line 2015!

I woke up to a storm that had wiped out our power. We had no running water and no way of heating food.  "Welcome to the third world" I thought. Most people living in extreme poverty don't have electricity. (They'd have to pay the bill from $2.25 per day). Just as I was contemplating the value of cooked food, the power came back on.

Today, I had two meals, and the total food cost for the day was $2.10. I did publish a meal plan last week, but I've had to change that around when I realised that I won't have time to cook tomorrow afternoon since I'm (If weather is better) going to my little sister's birthday party.

For breakfast, I  made my bowl of spicy idian style porridge -vegetable "daliya", except with less vegetables than I'd like. It was okay, which is good because I'm going to have this for breakfast every day. ...I might change which spices I add each day to make it more interesting.

Meal 1 -Daliya -Indian style spicy porridge Aprox meal cost; $0.60

This is sometimes eaten as a healthy breakfast in India. It could also be a dinner. I don't know what my Indian sponsored children eat for breakfast, or if they even have breakfast, but I chose it for it's fibre content, it's cheapness, and the feel of being like a 'real meal' rather than being a simple breakfast.

50g (1/3 cup) kibbled wheat, or rye.
1 tomato from tin
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
teaspoon oil
Sliver of onion, chopped
1 Clove Garlic
1/5 carrot
1/5 of a chilli

Boil the kibbled wheat until it's cooked, you can do this the night before if you like, it takes about 10 minutes. In a seperate pan, toast the cumin seeds, add onion and garlic. Pour in the kibbled wheat, then add chopped carrot and chilli.

Inspired by the more authentic recipe at http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/vegetable-dalia/

Meal 2- Babenda -dish from Burkina Faso.Total cost; 1.50

According to what I read in a diet book, the taste of strong things like mushroom, and strong cheeses is very satisfying because it is similar to the taste of meat. ...Or something like that. If that's true, the people in Burkina Faso have it going on with Babenda. It's apparently one of the staples, so I bet Nouridine eats it.
I substituted their traditional fermented beans with miso paste, and dried fish with tinned fish.
This made a really filling dinner, and I have about 1/2 a cup of Babenda left over!

1/4 cup peanuts -$0.22
A large handful of silverbeat -$0.03 (Cost to grow)
1/2 Tin of Sardines - $0.64 (Saved the other two sardines for a snack later)
1 1/2 Tablespoons of miso paste -$0.42
1/2 cup rice -$0.20

Grind the peanuts and mix well with the sardines and miso paste. Add the raw rice, and grind it a little to break up the grains. Put it in a pot with the silverbeat and 1.5 cups water. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Stir in the silverbeat. Lid off, simmer until the rice is cooked, (About 15 minutes) then cover and let it sit and soak up all the water.

Inspired by the more authentic recipe at http://globaltableadventure.com/recipe/babenda/

Exploitation producing vegetables for the US.

This is a very insightful documentory into the lives of workers in Mexico who grow vegetables for Mexican and US markets. Beware Americans, some of your vegetables are grown by these people. They are subjected to varying degrees of exploitation, bad labour conditions, poor wages, and sometimes, literal slavery.

But you don't really care where vegetables come from. Why should you care?
If you are an American, your country abolished slavery, and is not the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth, but every restaraunt, every high rise building, every clothing store, every accomplishment in America is still built on the backs of slaves.
I wonder, will the US will ever cease to be a land built on the backs of slaves?

If you are human, you are related to these people. These children picking chillies in the feild. The little boys who will never drive their dream car and possably never own a car at all. The little girls who sit in a hot, dark room all day, who can't read or write or go to school. Their mother who hurts every time she leaves them there, but is terified somebody will kidnap or harm them and has no other option. Imagine the shame within her that she can't do any better for her children. That isn't soley her fault, it's societies problem. We allow a situation to exist where these children will never be able to do anything more than pick whatever vegetable and take whatever meagre amount they can get to feed their families if we cannot change their cicumstances.

Planning my Live Below The Line menu, ...What do my sponsored children eat?

With less than a week go until the beginning of Live Below The Line, I have been busy planning my menu.

 In the last post I shared about my very clever, beautiful and hansom sponsored children, who live in areas where it's common to live in extreme poverty. I love to explore the foods of different countries, so I thought it would be a good idea to explore the foods my sponsored children eat, and plan my menu based on their cuisines. This way, I'll be getting an insight into the lives of real people who live in extreme poverty.

I think most Live Below The Line participants eat three meals a day for about 80c per meal. I did that three years ago, but this time, I've decided to cut back to two meals per day. At first, I was going to do lunch and dinner, but actually, if I don't eat anything in the morning, I don't feel well. So, I decided on a breakfast, and an afternoon meal at about 4pm. Funny enough, when I was doing research on Burkina Faso, I found out that's pretty much what they do.

Manthasha (6, India) and Nouridine (5, Burkina Faso) have both sent me letters and told me their favourite foods.Nouridine's favourite food is rice. Manthasha's favourite food is rice and dal. Dal is split beans or lentils, usually curried, although there are endless styles of cooking dal and endless flavours of curry) Aldair (12, Peru) and Susantho (13, India) haven't told me their favourite foods yet. (It's okay, you guys are teenagers, we get it.)

Having been to India, I have a grasp on their style of cooking. I often make my favourite Indian dishes at home, but India is a huge country, with very different styles of cooking from one region to another, so there will always be more to try. Knowing that Manthasha lives in a community of ethnic North Indians who migrated to Mumbai, I set out to find some North Indian recipes. And, specifically, I wanted breakfast. In India, we usually cooked our own breakfast, so I didn't try many the foods Indian people had for breakfast. I do remember trying what I think was Idli. Perhaps in a hotel in Delhi, but this is a distant memory.

On the internet, I found several breakfast ideas, but it was easier to find ones that were most common in South India. Eventually, I settled on a porridge made of kibbled wheat that is called Daliya in Northern India (Although Daliya means any porridge in Southern India). This is good for me because it has a resonable amount of fibre, which I hope can keep me full during the day until my four o clock meal. Kibbled wheat is also avaliable and very cheap. So, if my calculations are correct, I can buy enough for five days for under a dollar. I'm going to put some tomatoes and spices with it (Yes, Indian savoury porridge) And if I'm really lucky, I might even have a small amount of chopped carrot or something in it. Since I like having the same breakfast every day, I'm going to have Daliya every morning of Live Below The Line, and then each afternoon I will have food from a different country.

I also decided to hail to Manthasha's favourite meal for my first dinner. Since I'll already have a big tin of tomatos, and dal is cheap enough. I'm not sure which dal recipe I'll use, though. Maybe something from Susantho's home state if I can find a good recipe. My advice for anyone who wants to try Indian food for Live Below The Line, or just to try authentic Indian food, is find an Indian recipe website or blog, there are plenty of them. I'll put some links to my favourites in the bottom. Being mostly vegetarian, authentic Indian food is cheap to make. Note that for Live Below the Line, you can calculate the cost of 'condiments' like spices per gram that you use. That way you don't have to go into the bulk shop and buy two teaspoons of Garam Masala for one portion of curry.

So, that brought me to Peruvian food. I hadn't really known anything about Peruvian food until I googled it. What I found was very interesting. The first website I found, Lima Easy, was great. It's about Lima, which is fine because Aldair lives near Lima. I was really happy when I saw some recipes involving offal. Ahh, Last time I tried to go without meat for Live Below The Line, but I really missed it. I 'sold' other ingredients half way through to 'buy' some meat. Offal, being cheap, is a good solution. It might put people off, but to me, most offals are just meat. For the Maori audience, think boil up. It's a kind of food developed by people who only had access to cheap meats, and it's good.

So, I found two Peruvian boil ups, Cau Cau, which is traditionally made with Tripe and potato. I made a trial batch, and it was ediable. I'm not quite sure if I will actually do this for Live Below The Line, because you have to buy about 300grams of tripe at a time, and I don't want to eat Cau Cau every day. But, when I was looking at a recipe for Cau cau, I found a link to another Peruvian offal dish; Anticuchos. It's marinated meat on a skewer. You can basically use any meat, but it's generally made of Ox heart. I couldn't actually find any ox heart, but I got a portion of sheep's heart for $1.24. I made the recipe up just to see what it was like, and honestly, it was beautiful. I could feed it to my little sisters, well, I wouldn't because I'd eat it all myself, but I know they would eat it.

If you want to try Peruvian food for Live Below the Line, but offal isn't for you, may I reccomend
Tacu Tacu - a bean and rice dish.
Salchipapas - A style of Sausage and chips.
If I opt out of cau cau, for Live Below The Line, which I probably will, I'll be having Tacu Tacu. But it does depend on what happens when I go shopping.

However, I admit Tacu Tacu is kind of similar to a Burkinabe (Burkina Faso) dish that I will also be making; Boussan Touba. It's a rice and bean pancake. I want to serve it with a home made African style Hot sauce costed out gram for gram. (Or otherwise, sweet chilli sauce) The other Burkinabe dish I want to use is Babenda, which is a cooked rice dish with spinach or silverbeat, peanuts, dried fish, and fermented beans. My only problem is getting dried fish and fermented beans. I have to get my ingredients with $2.25 per day in New Zealand, despite the fact that they would be much cheaper in Burkina Faso where they are staple foods. I remember buying dried fish for another African dish when I was about 8, and living in Nelson and had a school project to research Chad. (I made it for some friends, and I was the only one who ate it). But now I live in Gisborne. I've decided the next best thing is tinned fish. I could use anchovies and work out the cost by gram because they are usually a condiment. But I think I'm more likely to buy a tin of sardines with my budget and add some extra salt, because it's more valuable meat in my diet. But for a whole tin of Sardines -Wish me luck. For the fermented beans, I think miso paste would be a good substitute, and it costs about $7 for a 500g tub, so per tablespoon will be about 28 cents. The other option would be to use some dried beans with a splash of soy sauce for that fermented taste.

I haven't costed out this menu yet because I live 30 minutes away from the shops and I don't know the exact cost of everything so it's not set in stone. I've 'guestimated' the breakfasts to be about 50 cents per day, and the dinners about $1.75 on average. On Shopping day I'll post a video of what I got (Possably of me shopping as well) and the actual cost of each meal. I'd really love it if I don't have to give up tea, but I suppose I'll have to. :(

Indian recipe sorces:
www.padhuskitchen.com
http://sinfullyspicy.com/

My first video, with 19 day days to go!

Faces of the poor. They have names, they have stories. What I call a challenge they call life.

From the 21st of September until the 25th, I'll spend five days simulating living below the extreme poverty line.

I'm making a big deal about it because I want to raise money and educate people. But, part of me feels bad about the fact that I have to make a big deal about this. Because millions of people live in worse conditions every day of their lives.

Let me introduce you to three of these people; Aldair, Manthasha, and Nouridine.

This is Aldair. He is twelve and a half years old, and he lives in Peru. Aldair likes football, art, and ball games. He's a normal pre-teen. He lives with his parents and four siblings. His parents get short term employment in an area where the average adult wage is about $115 per month. Parents battle daily to bring food home.

Employment opportunities are scarce in Aldair's community. Multiple families can shelter into one house. They have major problems with crime, gangs, and drug addiction. Children and teenagers like Aldair often don't feel safe. This is often another problem caused by poverty, by the lack of hope.

But there is hope for Aldair's community. Aldair has been attending a Compassion 'child development centre'. I became a correspondent sponsor for Aldair (Meaning I write him letters while somebody else pays his sponsorship) a couple of months ago. I believe young people like Aldair can make an impact on their communities, and on society as a whole, but they need a helping hand.

This is Manthasha. I have sponsored Manthasha for about a year and a half now. In September, she will turn six. Manthasha plays hide and seek, and plays with dolls. She has many friends, and draws some really lovely colourings.

She lives in a slum in Mumbai, India. I've been told about 99% of people in her area are uneducated, but Manthasha goes to school! People there earn around $60 per month from manual jobs. It's taboo for women to work, so most families have to survive on this one income. Water is also still a problem for them. Children get diarrhea from drinking dirty water. Human trafficking occurs near Manthasha's community. There have been some raids on brothels in her area.

But since Manthasha is sponsored, she has seen a doctor, gets a meal each day, school resources, and she attends lessons in her compassion centre to as well as going to school. Mothers of the sponsored children are also attending classes in literacy and sewing, and some of them have started to earn an income from that.

This is Nouridine. He lives in Burkina Faso. Nouridine likes football and outdoor games, he especially loves to play builder with mud. His favourite food is rice. He is turning six in October. Adults in his community grow crops. They earn the equivelent of $25 per month. I think this estimate was made by deviding the money they would make selling the autumn crops over the entire year.

Right now it is September, which is hungry season. The crops from last year are running low, and people are eating very little until October when they will be able to harvest their crops.

I know at least Nouridine gets a meal each time he goes to the Compassion centre. I know Nouridine and his classmates also get their medical costs, tutoring and help to learn. I hope that he can grow up to be strong and healthy, so that he can create change in his community.


I got a letter from the pastor of Manthasha's church the other day. That letter broke my heart. This little girl who I love so much, lives in such a place. I knew I was sponsoring a child in poverty, but I didn't realise it was this bad. I wish nobody had to live in those conditions. The sponsorship work of Compassion/Tear Fund in their communities is obviously the silver lining. It is the one thing that offers hope to Aldair, Manthasha, and Nouridine. Please help to raise money to offer more hope to more people who have lived below the line every day. This year fundraising from Live Below the Line is going specifically toward freeing people enslaved in sexual slavery, which adds another thick layer of hopelesness. We can break through that. Sponsor me in Live Below the Line, donate, or sign up to do the challenge yourself today!

Help combat human trafficking - Live Below the Line with me!

Here's a way you can help to combat human trafficking - live below the line.
Live below the line is a challenge where first world people buy all our food for the equivelent of the extreme poverty line. It used to have an acronim of LBL which is quite unfortunately associated with something else. (Google it).
Let us not use that.

The extreme poverty line (Thanks year 12 social studies) is an amount of money; whatever is trading at the equivelent of $1.25 USD.  People below the line live in many different countries and circumstances, but people who have less than this to pay for their living expenses per day, are living below the line. The problem is that currencies are not all worth the same amount of money, and the cost of living varies a lot from place to place, which is why I don't like defining poverty by how much money you have. I've seen that poverty is more than the lack of money. Poverty is the lack appropriate living conditions, and, too often, the lack of hope.

But, I do like 'live below the line' because it gives us a taste of what a struggle life is for these people.

I did live below the line, I think about three years ago. Now I'm doing it again.
I'll be blogging my experience, videos, information, and my menu, here, and on my live below the line page.

A way to prevent slavery- Sponsor a child.

You feel appalled at slavery and want to help combat it? Great! keep your eye on this blog because over the coming weeks I will be posting a series of ways you can do just that.

Prevent slavery- Sponsor a child!

Believe it or not, sponsoring a child can really help to prevent slavery.

Say, for example that there is a seven year old boy called Johny, and the government of India pays for him to go to school, and provides a small meal there. This helps, because at home, money is tight. Johny's father is a labourer and is lucky enough to earn about $2 per day. Johny's parents find it almost imposable to buy food and pay the rent. Johny is growing out of the uniform the bought him when he started school, which is the only clothing he has, and Johny's sister is almost about to start school. The family may have to go without food for a couple of days to buy the school books and uniforms they need. Then, they're offered a solution. Johny can work in a cigarette factory.

Now you can see why this kind of offer is tempting to parents, but you can also see what they can't see. If the child is a bit older, and is working after school for a few hours a week, and getting paid, it's not so bad, but Johny's job could be dangerous. Many children who work in cigarette and other factories aren't given proper safety equipment, and are exposed to chemicals no child should be exposed to. It's not an everyday after school job. Sometimes children in this situation are pulled out of school to work. But even those who work after school sometimes work soo much that they are tired in class and fall behind. And worst of all, of course, some children are taken away from their homes to "work" and their parents don't hear from them again.

There is an alternate ending to Johny's story. He and his sister could enrol in a sponsorship program, which will pay for a uniform each year, a meal each day, food to take home where it's most needed, and literacy night classes for their parents, which in the long term could get their father a better job. The children will also receive extra tuition after school, which will enable them to excel in school and get themselves better jobs. I think I know which ending would be better, and I'd like this ending to be passable for every child in poverty, but that can't happen without our support.

Groups you can sponsor through;

Several groups exist through which you can sponsor a child. They offer different things to the children, but all the groups listed here work with some children who are at risk of exploitation. Any charity that relieves desperate poverty protects people from exploitation.

Compassion (TEAR Fund) - Children attend tuition programmes, get nutritious meals, medical and dental care, clothes, and other benefits depending on the particular need in that area. All of this is run through a Christian Church, but families from other religions also benefit. The funds you give are concentrated on your child alone, but their family will also recieve benifits. View profiles of children at risk of exploitation. 

World Vision - Works to help to improve many aspects of their lives, including educating children and protecting their rights, food, income generation, sanitation, and access to health care. Funds are spread out to help a whole community, but the focus is on improving life for the children. Sponsor a World Vision child NZ, International

Destiny Rescue (Freedom Founders) - A charity specifically focused on rescuing children from sexual exploitation. Sponsor a child in slavery prevention, or a child who has been rescued.

Win Our Nations - You can sponsor an orphan in India or Cameroon. I've visited the children's home in India (Read about my trips to India) and met most of the Indian children. Unprotected orphans are especially vulnerable to exploitation, so being in these homes protects them.

Aids Orphans and Street children - With the aim of providing for as many orphans as passable, Units provide food and medicine to orphans who live in their area, as well as educational help and camps. They children sleep in other places and are raised by their own people. Funds are pooled to your sponsored child's unit. Sponsor International  Australia

Write letters to encourage your child;

Sponsor letters can have a huge impact on children because they let them know that someone far away cares about them. Letters help develop their literacy skills, give them confidence, and add to their small number of possessions. Children usually keep their sponsor's letters and read them over and over again.

Children also love getting stickers and colourings and pictures of their sponsors. Start a relationship with a beautiful child today.

Trapped

A collection of poetry for those who are trapped

Domestic slave.

I am in a room, with a mop, and a broom.
I sleep, on the floor, till they unlock the door.
Alone, and afraid. I am their maid.
Abused and unpaid, I am their slave.
I must prepare breakfast. But I may not eat.
I must bathe their children, and wash their feet.
I must clean their clothes, but I’m dressed in rags.
I must clean their whole house, and pack their bags.
I don’t speak their language,
I don’t know my way,
Anywhere outside,
That locked gate.
My life, for years, has been in this house.
Confined to these walls. I cannot go out.
Can’t talk to my family, they don’t know,
that I’m even alive, in here all alone.
I’ve no passport, no money, to travel home.
Even if I were free, where could I go?

Prostitute slave

I shiver and yawn, in the night time air.
In the blink of an eye, cry my forbidden tear.
Red light reflecting off of my hair.
I don’t want to be out here, but please don’t take me in.
… If one more man uses me, my heart may cave in.
If I don’t make money, I’ll be beaten.
But If somebody uses me, Oh, I’m torn.
I’m tired and afraid. I want to go home.
For somebody to help me, for somebody to save me, for somebody to love me,
I used to wish,
But now I know.
love doesn’t exist.


Child slave

Why do I have to do this? This is no fun!
Carrying heavy stones,
in the heat of the sun.
I want to go and play.
It’s my seventh birthday!
I wanna have fun!
I used to play football.
I wish I could now.
But I have to work.
And I don’t know how
I’m gonna learn to read
If I can’t go to school.
My dad works here too.
As my whole family do.
Will I have to be here
My whole life too?

Another child slave

Mummy, Daddy, I wish I was home.
Why can’t you come and find me?
Why did you have to send me away?
With grown ups who don’t even like me?
They lied that they'd take me to go to that school far away.
They’re making me work really hard ALL DAY!
I don’t understand why I can’t be at home,
I wish I was with you,
And wasn’t alone.

Write to your sponsored child! Seriously!

I've been moved today to write a blog post about the importance of writing to your sponsored child.
I don't remember exactly how, but this morning I stumbled across a few blog posts describing just how much sponsored children love our letters.

"This year, I had the privilege of working on a project where I read letters from the pastors of Compassion’s church partners and child development centers all over the world. Reading those letters really opened my eyes to the effects our letters have on the children.

Almost every single pastor mentioned how excited and joyful the children were when they received letters from their sponsors. Their eyes lit up, and their smiles widened. They also spoke of how sad children were if a letter didn’t come.

The pastors had to reassure those children that, even though they didn’t get a letter, their sponsors truly cared about them and loved them."                                                                                        Courtesy of Compassion International: http://blog.compassion.com/how-to-write-a-letter-from-the-new-compassion-app/#ixzz3dZNsHTyB

"Poverty tells children, “You don’t matter!” But that is a lie. Your letters shine light into the darkness. They say: “You do matter Suzana.” “I care about you Renato.” “Jesus loves you Lerionga.”
Courtesy of Compassion International: http://blog.compassion.com/write-to-a-child/#ixzz3dZNJm8h9

"But it was heartbreaking to hear that some sponsored kids never get letters from their sponsors.  In fact, our new friend Alejandro told us he was sponsored for ten years and NEVER got one letter from his sponsor. He spoke about it a few times, and he always choked up. All those years the mail came, and his friends got letters. As a child he wondered what was wrong with him?"
http://susanisaacs.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/be-compassion-correspondence-sponsor.html

https://vimeo.com/74308291

If you sponsor a child, write to them. A child may understand that you are sending money for their education, food, and activities, and that has a profound impact on them. But, to a little child in poverty, getting letters from a person in a far away country -who cares about them- is by far the coolest part of sponsorship.

I didn't realise until recently how cool they though it was. I enjoyed writing letters, sending post cards, and stickers, to my little girl, Manthsha, and the other children I sponsored before that, but I wondered if she really could appreciate the letters. -She's only 5 at the moment. She can't read. Do they read them to her? Does she even understand who I am?

When I was in India working with an orphanage where some children are sponsored, I asked the pastor if the children liked getting letters from their sponsors. He looked like he was surprised I asked. "Oh Yes." He said. "Especially because sometimes they get stickers." Before Christmas last year, the pastor of Manthsha's church sent a christmas notice to us sponsors. In it, he requested for sponsors to write more.

Yet, only after reading these blog posts I get that it's a big deal. When I was about 4 years old, I remember somebody at church giving me stickers. I was so excited and happy that I ran off immediately to show my Mum. If you give a sheet of colourful stickers to and 5 year old,  Imagine the excitement of kids when the mail comes. Getting a packet from their sponsors, maybe having the translation read to them, maybe being able to make out the letters of their native language themself. Being told simple messages like "You're special". Getting stickers, photos, colouring books, knowing somebody far away cares. What kid wouldn't love that?

I really feel for the kids who don't get letters. As seen in the quotes above. Their freinds get letters, they know someone somewhere is matched to them and could send them letters, but they don't get any.

So, just a reminder, if you sponsor a child, please write to them. If you aren't going to write to them, maybe find a friend who can. If you sponsor through Compassion (who work through Tear Fund in New Zealand), they a programe finding people to write to children called correspondents, who don't sponsor financially, but write letters to the kids as normal sponsors would. I've just asked if I can become one. How about you?

Slavery?

Slavery.

When you think of slavery, maybe you imagine the "black" slaves of historical America. Or the people in movies, beaten with stock whips and forced to work long hours for stale bread and some ragged clothing. The skinny men who lived in your history books at school, pulling chariots wearing only ragged cloths.

Or, perhaps, like I do, you think of modern day slavery.

Who are these slaves?

"Slavery; - a condition of having to work very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation." -Google definition

In our Western societies, historically, our ancestors had slaves. But because the practice of slavery has been made illegal, we no longer see our slaves. A wealthy family will no longer leave slaves to the next generation in their will. It's illegal to beat and mentally abuse our slaves to get more production out of them. We don't buy and sell people. It's highly illegal! And we are a society which believes it is wrong.

So how come slaves had to sew your clothes, and grow and weave the cotton? Slaves had to mine the minerals that went into your make up and the metals that went into your phone. Slaves had to pick the tea and process the coffee and harvest the cocoa you drink. Slaves living at your house are illegal. If you were found to have people working at your house who were paid less than the minimum wage, especially if you were coercing them and forcing them to stay there, you could go to prison for it. But, strangely, it's legal to import items made by slaves. You have slaves, who just happen to live in different countries.

How do people become slaves? -Scams that cost lives.

People become slaves in a few different ways.

Quite commonly, slaves start out as teenagers living in impoverished and rural areas of the world. 'Agents' come to them offering jobs in large, exciting cities and even other abroad. Young people the world over long to explore the world and have adventures. These teenagers are often (although not always) in situations where they couldn't otherwise afford an OE. Another attraction of course, is being able to have money, and send some back to their parents. The teenagers don't know that these jobs will not be paid, and that they will be mistreated and intimidated to believe they cannot leave.

A 14 year old girl named Radhika who worked selling vegetables in Kathmandu, Nepal, was told by a man she had come to trust that he could get her a better job as a housekeeper for a rich family across town. The family told her to come on "holiday" with them, and that was the beginning of several years of trafficking and slavery for Radhika. Her story is told in full in "Radhika's Story" by Sharon Hendry. 

It's also common in some countries, for the parents to be the targets of these scams. Told their child will be taken to schools, or to a legitimate job, and that they will receive a commission for sending them. Some of these situations are described in the 2010 documentary "Stacey Dooley investigates Sex trafficking in Cambodia". Sometimes loan sharks will ask for a person as security for a loan, and will kidnap the person if the loan cannot be repaid.

I'd like to point out that this trafficking of people into slavery doesn't exclusively happen in developing countries, doesn't exclusively happen to young people, and doesn't exclusively happen to women. Anyone can be a target. Europe and the USA have seen numerous cases of human trafficking (See the example in the next paragraph). “Worldwide, almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children. However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority (up to 100% in parts of West Africa).” -United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime article.

How are people kept slaves?

Slaves can be physically locked up, but a more powerful way of keeping people slaves is by physical violence and threats. "Nichole's Story" a three minute video you can watch on the A21 website, is about an American woman, who was a slave in America. She tells in the video of how her captor "brutally beat" another victim in front of her and threatened her that "If I ran off and left him, he would hunt me down, and murder me, and murder my family." He wouldn't let her have a cell phone, or call her family without him being in the room. 

Many slaves are bonded into labour; after their coercion, they are told they owe money; "recruitment fees" and "accommodation costs" are common, and must work to pay it off. The traffickers ensure that the slaves will never pay their fees by not providing enough income.

When slaves are transported across cultures, they often don't speak the language of the people around them, and don't know the laws of the country and so are isolated enough to keep them in captivity.

How can we create freedom?

One way is by boycotting. We all have the ability to walk into a shop, take something from a shelf, and pay for it, without thinking about where it might have come from, and I think we should. 

When I have a good reason to believe something has been made by slaves, and I don't really need it, I try not to buy it. If many people are vegans to avoid the exploitation of animals, I wonder why there aren't many people who will do the same thing to avoid exploitation of people.

Since I started boycotting certain products, I've had to find substitutes for the things I used to buy. Often these substitutes are Fair Trade or otherwise certified, which means the producers at the bottoms of supply chains in other countries get a fair price. Often the money made purchases also goes toward establishing things like schools to better their communities. Another solution I like is to buy things second hand. The items may have been made by slaves, but their original purchasers no longer need them. I'm recycling them, they are often still in good condition, and I don't have to pay too much. I like to think the money I save at the second hand shop, I can spend on fair trade products.

Sometimes Boycotting isn't practical. There might not be an ethical substitute that is readily available, and it might not be a product we can just live without. So, we can sign petitions, and write letters, and emails, and to the companies making the products, asking them to make an ethical substitute available. This re-channelling of demand shows companies the need to find better supply chains. A group working to establish ethical supply chains is made in a free world. 

You can also support an organisation working to help victims.

Luckily, Many organisations that work hard to help people get out of slavery, and there are many ways to help. Some groups help by providing a safe place for newly freed slaves to recover. Some groups help prosecute traffickers. Some groups run community awareness programmes telling people about the dangers of falling victim to scams, or provide education, and relieve poverty to prevent trafficking. 

Because many of these groups are not for profit, by donating money, or organising a fundraiser, you enable them to keep doing what they're doing. You may even be able to volunteer to help them yourself. There is a need for different kinds of workers, with many different kinds of skills to go as volunteers.

Or raise awareness.

Tell other people about slavery, and they can make a difference too. Share this article and blog with your friends. Share charities and ways to help with your friends, or ask everyone you know to write to a company with you.

Or pray for the victims, and the work to combat modern day slavery.

"You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know." -William Wilberforce

A (SORT OF) Fair Trade Easter

My mother and I walked into the Warehouse. She was going to buy the easter eggs for my younger sisters.

"I was going to make some Easter eggs though."

"Okay, so I'll just get a couple."

"I'll be impressed if you can even buy 'FairTrade' chocolate."

"Okay."

But I knew that there is only one 'FairTrade' easter egg avaliable in New Zealand stores. There are no organic eggs. There are no eggs that are verifiably made from non West African cocoa beans. This is why it is really hard to be ethical in New Zealand.

As you can read about on my other posts, even if chocolate is marked "Fair Trade" it is not necessarally produced ethically, but there are some ways in which that is better. 

When Mum realisd that, she brought some of the Cadbury FairTrade Dairymilk eggs. Then she brought some "white chocolate" with little cocoa content, and a few packets of other eggs.

If you want to try buying white chocolate as a slightly better solution over buying regular uncertified chocolate, look at the ingredients on the packet. Some white 'chocolate' contains no actual cocoa content. It is simply a chocolate style confectionary with sugar and solid vegetable fat. Unlike other kinds of chocolate, there usually won't be any cocoa powder, but if the ingredients say "cocoa fat" "Theobroma oil" or "cocoa butter" then the chocolate definately contains cocoa. If the ingredients say "vegetable fats" it's possible that there is some cocoa fat in but more likely it's just a mixture of other cheaper fats. 

I used the Trade Aid recipe that I posted below. I found it more convienient to make small egg shaped balls of ganache and then dip them in chocolate, and set them on a plate, rather than to leave them setting on spoons. The result had a flat bottom but were still great tasting easter eggs and were fins once wrapped in foil. I also made marshemellow eggs which I loved. To make them, fill a dish with flour, make indents into the flour with a tablespoon, make some marshmellow (by adding gelatine to hot sugar and beating it until it's frothy. If you can't find a recipe, comment below and I'll find one to put on here) and spoon marshmellow into the spoon indents. Leave them until they set, them scoop them out, coat them in chocolate, and join two together to make two halves of a marshemellow egg with a thick crunchy bit of chocolate in the middle -YUM- Trade Aid dark chocolate really has a good effect with the sweetness of the marshemellow.

Trade Aid one-minute recipe: Home crafted chocolate eggs

My second trip to India.

Hello, welcome to my blog. If you are new and came just to read about my recent visit to India, this blog is all about my commitment to contribute as little as possible to human exploitation and poverty. Today I'm writing about my second short term mission trip to India.

I was signed up to a Cambodia Philippines team since the beginning of the year, but I switched teams at the last minute to a Sri Lanka team. I didn't truly want to go to Sri Lanka, but I believed God wanted me to switch to that team. About a week before I was supposed to leave home, I was told the Sri Lanka team had been cancelled due to political problems and the missionary pulling out. The three leaders and seven teenage girls including myself were to be sent to India instead. I was ecstatic about going back to the country I had fallen in love with the year before.

Before going to India, my team trained in the lord's boots camp and learned some basic building and ministry skills. If you are not familiar with Teen Missions' programme, you can read about it at http://www.teenmissions.org/about/

We got to Vijayawada, India late at night after two and a half days of traveling. The next day, we set up our living space and looked around the Teen Missions base. It had developed a lot since my visit eleven months before. 

Jan 2014, we made the concrete foundation for a duck pond.

Dec 2014, the completed duck pond next to the ready to harvest paddies

Jan 2014, Hanging out on a bench by the palm oil trees.

Dec 2014, Hanging out on the same bench.

Soon, we began our main project, building a wall around Teen Missions India. This would help them to meet new regulations and ultimately keep their ministry of training young Indian Christians going.

We arrived and it looked like this. Just a trail of concrete with half done steels sticking out of it. We would have to put moulds over the steels, and pour concrete into them to create pillars. Some of the steels needed to be tied first. Then we would be able to start laying bricks in the gaps between the pillars.

 Most of the time someone was working in the kitchen helping our cook leader, and someone was on prayer duty, or someone was sick, and we sometimes had only four team members on the worksite, but we stuck to our work constantly. We seemed to get a lot done quickly.

And then we learned -I  re-learned, the art of laying bricks "Indian style". The method was not quite the same as the one we practiced every day of bootcamp, because we had different tools and a different kind of brick. This photo was taken shortly before we finished. We finished all the lower level concrete pillars of the wall, half of the upper level pillars, and layed four half sections and a quarter section of bricks. We didn't have enough time or people to finish the entire wall, but we got a good start on it. This wall needs to be eight feet high. Other people in India are finishing it now.

In break times and during our evening devotion sessions, and when they helped us with our work, we got to know the Indian BMW students. BMW stands for Bible, Missions, and Work. These girls and boys went through a Teen Missions summer programme just like ours; their teams travel within India rather than overseas, so they got to help their own people. And now they are studying

In our last week, we got to visit the WON church again. (My other team had worked with them for a week last time) We helped them to level out the rubble of a building they had demolished ready to build the foundations of a new church, and to move some firewood, and to straighten out fence posts and pull weeds. I was really excited to see that they are now running their orphanage out of the sight that we did a lot of work on last year.

We played games with these children and performed a puppet show play for them, telling them a shepherd story Jesus told. Then we gave them each of them some special presents, a pair of slip on shoes, and some writing books and pens, and a wordless bracelet or small gift. They seemed thrilled with their present.

We also visited the leprosy colony, where I had also worked last year. It was set up many years ago as a place to house those effected by the terrible skin disease, leprosy, away from society. Today, there are still a few people living there who have the scars and deformation of leprosy, but their children also live there. We were told this was a begging supported community. Teen Missions has been trying to build relationships with this community. The children performed a little song for us.

We spent a day in Hyderabad before we left, and met some of our awesome brothers and sisters in Christ there. It was really great fellowship. I will always remember the little music session we had in a corner of their church hall where they taught us a song in Telugu, and we jammed, in English, in Telugu, in Spanish, in Maori, and in some other languages, knowing God heard all of it the same.

We also got to do some last minute tourism, taking one last look around the country we had mysteriously fallen in love with along the way.

Following a long wait in Hyderabad airport as our flight was delayed, and trying to stay awake until boarding just before midnight, and a really uncomfortable nap on the plane, and a meal at about 2am, I found myself at Singapore airport trying to work out why everyone didn't look Indian. I was tired. Cut me some slack. We met up with the South Africa Teen Missions team, who were travelling back on the same flight to Australia.  We spent five days in Tewantin, Australia, listening to more sermons and thinking about keeping our commitments and relationships with God once we returned home. This is one reason why Teen Missions is a unique experience that changes people. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about this trip. Last year my post about my missions trip got more views than any other post on this blog, but I'd really like it if you look at some of my other posts. I'd love it even more if you followed my blog or left comments. But what would be even more wonderful is if you used the information on it to influence the things you buy. That could have a really lasting effect on other people.