On this site I’ll be writing less about photography, and more about World issues, justice issues, Church issues and random bits that interest me.The reason for this is simple. We’ve decided to take our business blog more seriously, and my thoughts and comments on photography will be appearing on the Hoskins Gallery blog instead of here.

I’m hoping that this will in turn help me to be more consistent with my blogging, instead of allowing myself to become overwhelmed with ideas to blog about, I’ll be quite clear about where to blog about specific things. Like, I’ve just published a new blog containing some early musings about Humanitarian Photography on our Hoskins Gallery blog and I’ll be doing a wee bit of blogging about the Church of Scotland General Assembly this week (mostly focused on the World Mission Council).

anyhoo, that’s all I’m going to say on the matter just now, here’s to more blogging!

Peace Out

This challenge has been a CHALLENGE!!! I shall never eat rice in the same way (next time it will be with an Indian I will think of others differently and I hope and pray I will think of my own diet differently. Chris and I have learnt a lot of lessons since starting our business about what we ‘have’. We are so blessed to have a supportive family who have bailed us out when we literally couldn’t afford to eat. Who does that for others that don’t have that support? Or who’s family want to give them everything but can’t? One lot who are part of this are Tearfund. The whole starting point of this challenge began with them and their hard work. They are trying to get people to see for themselves what poverty does to people. What they have to face. Dave and I haven’t even scratched the surface. I encourage you, who feel compelled, to try this challenge. It has changed me and I truly hope it changes you.

When I press the send button on this blog the challenge is off for me on medical advise and I shall celebrate with a muffin! For we are lucky to have them and I would love to give one to everyone else who feels as hungry as me tonight.

Thank you for your support.

Here’s Dave’s last day (by the way I was honest too just we had different things to say)

Day 5, the end is in sight!

Well, it’s nearly over.
Rice and butter beans are cooking on the hob, my last “meal” of the challenge.
Had porridge and rice/red kidney beans today, boring

So what have I learned this week:-
Obviously when I’m hungry, I go into self-preservation mode and can’t think about anyone else!
Eating for enjoyment is much more fun than eating to survive.
I could easily eat half of what I normally eat and be perfectly (more?) healthy.
Hot water doesn’t taste like coffee.

All in all, it’s not had the effect on me that I, or Tearfund, had hoped for but I’ve tried to be honest and not put a spin on it just for print.
Many others will be going through the challenge at the end of the month and I’m sure that we will see a whole spectrum of experiences. I look forward to reading about them, maybe then I’ll be able to look back on this week and empathise with them and the millions of people who live like this every day.
Until then though…………..bring on the cake!!

Dave

I have had a lot of interesting conversations today and I have thought a lot about how we use food to abuse our bodies. Anorexia, bulimia, addition, comfort eating, starvation and the list goes on. Our access to food seems to control us in a way that we end up using food to ‘feed’ our own problems. That may be too much or too little but I have found it interesting that while others starve with no other choice we have an opt in opt out approach to our diets.

So far on this journey I have been pretty consumed by what others think but today I really took time to reflect on how I felt about it. It has been something that (weirdly) I have really enjoyed. It has opened my eyes up to poverty and to far more issues than just  ‘rice and beans’. It hasn’t been about just depriving my food intake but has made me open my eyes to more than that.

I hope for some of you the work of Tearfund has had an impact on you and what they do. My most favourite thing about them is that they equip people to change their own lives not just to give a ‘quick fix’ in times of desperation. I encourage you to read more about them and learn more about what they do and how you could support them at www.tearfund.org.

Here’s Dave’s day:

This afternoon I ended up in Asda for a few thing for work. I was awed by the choice. Just for rice there is a whole aisle! I have never noticed that before. (see facebook photo) I began to notice more:
A child screaming wanting what it wasn’t allowed. A lady looking at several bags of potatoes before making a choice. Another lady picks up a pineapple and goes back for one more. Buy one get one free. Three for Two. A crowd round the reduced section. Even as I get served I asked the guy how his day had been “crazy” he said ” Why I got myself 3 jobs I will never know.” I looked at him and responded “You are lucky then. Some people have none” (Poor man)
What was supposed to be a quick trip to the shops messed with my head.

This 5 days was just meant to be something to do to support Tearfund. It is already, for me, becoming way more than that. By this point you are probably desperate to know more about Tearfund and how you can support them right? Well please go to their website at http://www.tearfund.org/ and ‘See for Yourself’ what they do.

Hungry? Oh yes. I am so thankful for Dave doing this too otherwise I may have not managed But we are two days down. My plan for this evening is to go to sleep as soon as possible to pass the time until breakfast! I will leave you with Dave’s comments….

Day 2 and the novelty’s wearing off quickly!

Spent last evening / night / this morning with a thumping headache. Whether it’s hunger or spreading from the toothache I’ve got I couldn’t be sure but it hurt all the same!

Being basically very lazy, I thought I’d just go to work this morning and sort something out (we have a big canteen).
Breakfast – 1 scoop of porridge into a take-away tub that would hold probably 4 scoops, yummy!
Lunch – had a good scout around but couldn’t find anything that I could call suitably bland and uninteresting, that’ll teach me to be lazy!
Dinner – 60g brown rice (too lazy to soak any beans last night)

Lesson learned today…. be better prepared tomorrow or at least get more porridge and save half for lunchtime! I’ve already got some portions of beans soaking ready for tomorrow, might cook them tonight and take to work in a very small Tupperware container.

Things I’ve noticed today -
Everyone around me seems to be constantly gorging themselves on fruit, crisps, chocolate and cake!
It doesn’t matter how hard I think, I can’t make hot water taste like coffee!
It’s very difficult to think about anything but food when your hungry.
I’m glad I’ve got an office job and I’m not expected to put in a day’s hard manual graft on those portions.
Disappointingly, I’ve not spent much time thinking about starving people around the globe, I’ve been too busy thinking about the starving office worker in Dyce!

Never mind, this time tomorrow we’ll be more than half-way through!

So far the biggest thing for me has been other people’s reactions to this challenge.  I spoke a little in church this morning about it (In a very tongue tied, probably un-informative way!) and some comments afterwards really surprised me. For me this is all about sacrifice. Today I have already thought about those who live this way, prayed for them and prayed for the work of tearfund more than I probably ever have in one day. For me this is a big deal. I want to be the type of person who is compassionate and who is generous and who is thoughtful and caring. I realise I won’t achieve all of this in 5 days of a challenge but if I even come closer that is good enough for me.

I have realised a lot about myself just in today, how much I nibble on things for no other reason than just because. How much I LOVE fruit and seem to ‘need’ it as part of my day. That with the power of the brain you can make a hot cup of water taste like tea!! I am sure this week will hold a lot more lessons for me, less shallow than these.

So I will leave you now with Dave’s take on the day and will speak to you all tomorrow!

Linda

We’ve started then!
Day one and I’ve survived so far.
First some good news – I went to Asda today and stocked up on rice and beans – brown rice, red kidney beans, butter beans and black-eyed beans – total price for my week’s food £4.75…..result!

So what have I had to eat today?
Breakfast 30g porridge, made with water, no salt.
Lunch 60g brown rice.
Dinner 30g brown rice, 30g butter beans
The back of the rice packet suggests 75g as a single serving accompaniment to a main course so to have 60g as the only food on a plate made it look just a little lost!

Already missing not having any coffee, Diet Coke or chewing gum

Am I hungry? of course I am, but that’s the whole point though. I’m not on a diet, I’m trying to experience what it’s like to have just enough food to keep you going. I do recognise that at any time I can raid the cupboard / fridge / freezer or phone up and get a takeaway delivered, millions of people don’t have that option open to them.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Dave

Starting tomorrow myself and our friend Dave will begin the Tearfund rice and beans challenge.  The basics of this is to bring more awareness to ourselves about those who are going through severe poverty. To relate to them about how they eat, how they possibly feel when hungry, to of course pray for them and to donate any money we would of spent on groceries to the charity of Tearfund.

Chris was hoping to do this challenge also but due to a throat infection he is unable to take part at this stage but will hopefully we doing it in the near future.

I have to say as the day draws closer I am apprehensive about beginning this challenge.  I have treated tonight as if it was my last supper! This probably defeats the point on lots of levels but I am hoping to give this a go and see if I can do it.  I make no promises however. If it turns out I am a mere weakling and need my food too much then shame on me but I guess we will find out…..

Dave will be contributing to these blogs also. I encourage you to follow the blog posts, to pray for us (!) and to try and support us if you either see or hear from us over this next week.

Here’s to the challenge!

Our first day in Karachi ended up being more touristy than we expected – our meetings for the day had to be postponed until the Friday, which gave us a chance to explore the city and orient ourselves to the culture we had just landed in. You can read more about that first day on the Church of Scotland World Mission Council Blog at www.cofswmc.wordpress.com.

Here, I’ll be sharing photos with a few stories:

The Central Brooks Memorial Church compound was our home for our time in Karachi. It was a homely wee place, with a beautiful Church in the centre of it.

Muhammed Ali Jinnah was the founding father of Pakistan, our first stop as "tourists" was to his Mausoleum. A very grand, empty building. Few people around - probrably due to the time we were there at.

Jinnah's Mausoleum is surrounded by extensive grounds, a fine place to go for a walk or grab some shade to hide from the sun!

The mausoleum has a permanent armed guard (although I"m pretty sure the 'arms' date from WWII). A mark of respect for the nations forefather.

The Mausoleum's Architecture is incredibly intricate, a very stunning building. As westerners visiting, we caused a bit of a stir - all curiosity, something we soon got used to walking around the streets!

Mohatta Palace was built by Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, an ambitious self-made businessman from Marwar as his summer home in 1927. The architect of the palace was Agha Ahmed Hussain. However, Mohatta could enjoy this building for only about two decades before independence of Pakistan and he left Karachi for India. He built the Palace in the tradition of stone palaces in Rajasthan, using pink Jodhpur stone in combination with the local yellow stone from Gizri.

The Palace is a beautiful building, as you would expect from a Palace in this area of the world. When we visited there was an exhibition displaying the work of Asim Butt, a local artist.

The streets of Karachi were interesting to drive through. From this sculpture of the word "Allah" to donkeys, intricately decorated buses and Transvestities, you could never be sure what you would see next!

Fiona had a bit of a soft spot for the donkeys we saw, so this photo goes out to her! We spent a lot of time driving around, so numerous photos were taken from moving vehicles - not so easy! Combine the speed, jolting and the reflections coming off the inside of the glass (In Karachi we were advised to always keep out windows up) and any photo that came out vaguely in focus and without a reflection was a huge success!

During rush hour, quite a few motorcyclists and cyclists would use the pavement instead of trying to weave through the traffic!

Delivery options for white goods are slightly different in Pakistan! Riding a bike also requires much more determination, bravery and balance!

This was one of the sadder things we saw whilst out and about in Karachi. We were just leaving a fairtrade shop and I spotted 2 boys, perhaps 8-12 years old, going through a rubbish pile for whatever they could use. :-/

Peace Out

Holy Trinity Cathedral - as most Cathedrals are, is an impressive building. We never went inside (or up the tower as I like to do). But it does give an impressive welcome to the compound as you enter the gate and look up the avenue towards it.

The Bishops Residence - another beautiful building. A warm welcome inside too. There are diocesan offices in the house as well as the Bishop and family. It transpired that I already knew the Bishops daughter and son-in-law from the conference in Nepal last year!

Rev Fiona Gardner, Bishop Saddiq Daniel, Sandy Sneddon and Chris Hoskins

Suniya and Serena-Zoe James - Suniya is one of the friends I made at the SACYN conference in MAY 2010, she also attended the Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly last September.

Bishop Danie took us on a tour of the compound - showing us the various buildings and resources in the compound

IBTIDA means “New Start” and the project works with people who have abused and become addicted to drugs attempts to give the clients just that – a new start in their lives.

Through a process of cold turkey, prayer and counselling, support over a period of several months, 40%-45% of the people who come to IBTIDA stay clean or reduce their dependency to less harmful substances.

Just across the wall from the Bishops Residence lies Trinity Girls School. The Principal, Mrs Irene Pearl, took great pride in telling us about the school and showing us around.

The girls in the school were delighted to see Fiona. In no time at all she was surrounded by a massive throng of pupils, all wanting to say hello and shake her hand.

As with everywhere else in Pakistan, the kids were wonderfully curious!

Instead of playground footie, they were playing playground cricket here! A chair instead of wickets!

We visited the Seminary in the Holy Trinity Compound, it has limited resources and a small staff, but its dedicated

Peace Out!

Leaving before the sun had risen fully, the road was dusty and full of early traveller's. It was during this drive that it occurred to me how beautiful, yet broken, the nation of Pakistan is.

Not that long ago, the flood waters that lie either side of this road covered the road.

When we arrived at the village where the Church of Scotland helps to sponsor a Basic Health Unit (BHU) we were greeted by the men of the village. These men were keen to impress upon us how little help and aid they had received. They were also keen to impress upon us how much the BHU had helped the community.

After meeting with the men of the village, we met with the women and children. They expressed the same concerns and gratitude as the men. They were a beautifully colourful group.

The children of the village we delightfully curious. Especially with regards to our cameras and flashes.

Despite the beauty of the people and their clothes, the sadness, the desperation, the brokenness was evident in their eyes.

After visiting the village of Bchaya Jogo, we returned to Thatta where we visited a Construction Training Program run by Church World Service (CWS) for young men from the area.

The training program runs for young men from the area who have no alternate employment and whose families have been affected by recent flooding in the area.

At the project, the men are taught plumbing, electrical, woodwork, building and metalwork.

The skills the men learn here will qualify them for paid employment, as well as given them the skills to repair and strengthen their homes in Sindh.

Peace Out

Tonight was such a contrast to last night (we’ll blog about today’s experiences on the World Mission Council blog later). We (Sandy, Fiona and myself) went out for dinner with 2 friends we’ve made here in Pakistan. Two incredible women: Ayra Inderyas and Alice Garrick, women whose determination, faith, strength and passion you can read about on the Council blog soon.

They took us to a highly recomended resturant called “Cooco’s Den” (number 2 in Lonely Planet’s list of places to eat in Lahore, number 8 in Pakistan). It truly was an incredible cultural experience. Firstly, it’s sits in the middle of the red light district, although this being Pakistan everything is much less obvious than in UK red light districts. The resturant itself is hosted in a Haveli, a traditional Mansion in this part of the world (often based on Middle East Islamic architecture or Mughal architecture). The owner of the Haveli, Iqbal Hussain, is an artist renowned for portraits of some of the women in the area. Some of his art is very graphic, some is very tasteful, some is very wierd. But it was kept alongside various other Asian art pieces – beautifully carved wood, incredibly vivid cermaic tiling, statues etc A very interesting exhibition to walk through to get to the Resturant.

The whole place had a very…rustic…atmosphere. And I mean that in the most positive way possible! I was enamored by the quaint sight out of the back of the building – an incredible weaving network of building, cables, streets and homes. I was wondering if the night could get any better. Was I in for a pleasant surprise! I was the last to reach the top of the stairs, having stopped to take numerous photos (shocked?). When I reached the top, I was greeted by one of the most magnificent, man-made, sights I’ve ever seen:

Badshahi Mosque

Tonight is the first time since we arrived here that I really wished I’d brought my tripod. I spent the first half an hour of being on the roof terrace finding places to steady my camera – chairs, random bits of wall, notebooks,bags, railings. I was captivated. To add to the stunning view and atmosphere, the food was amazing as well! Good food, good chat, great people and that view. What a night! Fiona kept saying that she expected it to disappear at any moment as if it wasn’t real. I had a very surreal moment thinking “Am I really here? How is this happening to me?”. It all felt so unreal, so incredible.

We were all struck by that contrast tonight. The contrast of 1 night breaking our hearts with a beautiful, but melancholy family, the next night experiencing the direct opposite end of the spectrum in Pakistan. We all felt that it was good to get a bit of a lift after last night, which is great for us, but what about that family? I’m sure their food and their view wasn’t as esquisite as ours. Is it right for us to enjoy such things on this kind of trip? I don’t know. On one hand, it would be a shame to travel this far and not take note of some of the finer, positive, rich parts of the culture (if we make sure to remember the context in which we are experiencing them). On the other hand, there is so much need, so much want, so much injustice, so much inhumanity in this land. It is a dilemma, with no easy answer. Because these cultural experiences do help to enrich our understanding of the whole culture. How? What connection does a 400 year Mosque have to anything else we’ve done? Everything! Set aside the biggest connection – the tension between different faiths – and you have the fact that this is a land with thousands of years of history, rich history, diverse history. The Christian community in Pakistan is a vital part of that history, but to truly start to understand the current context, we must be aware of what went before.

Now I know that what I’ve written sounds an awful lot like I’m trying to over-reason our experience, but it is more than that. Perhaps I am trying to assuage some feeling of guilt for enjoying the experience, not perhaps, I am. I do have some guilt that I can enjoy these beautiful places and experiences whilst others cannot. Is that wrong? One of my great passions is to travel, to explore different cultures, to experience a few of the incredible things this World, this life has to offer. Is that wrong? I am here for a specific purpose, to take pictures, gather stories and encourage council use of social media. I have done that, I think well, is it ok to, when there are no projects to visit, people to meet, that I (we) take advantage of the amazingness of where we are? The official part of the trip is THE most important part of the trip, it is the part that we put most focus on, most effort into. And yes, it is draining, we’re generally on the go from 7/8am until, well now (1am). I don’t know what to think :-/ I know that I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to travel to places like and hear such moving stories directly from the people involved. I am blessed for that, and I pray I have blessed through that.

I’m not sure how to view, to judge,  this evenings experience (ethically). It was an amazing experience, one that a few years ago I would never have dreamed would come to me. One thing that I do know for sure is that it once more brought to mind the beauty and brokenness that exists in Pakistan (in so many countries). So many of our experiences here have been a mixture of beauty and brokenness, some have been pure beauty, some pure brokenness. There is so much that needs done in this World, so much that we have to pray for, to praise for, to persevere through, to have faith for/ through. But prayer is where we must start.

Peace Out