When I have shifts at Cotswolds, I will almost always walk or cycle the 2.2 miles to work – unless the rain is really nasty or I’m doing the Tearfund Rice and Beans challenge! We also, as a couple, make an effort to walk wherever we can – the city centre is a 40 minute walk from our flat, and our nearest supermarket can be reached in less than 5 minutes walking! We don’t often walk to Church – but that is a 4 mile walk uphill at 8am!

I don’t understand people who drive a walkable distance – it costs more; is often far more stressful; doesn’t always save that much time and just isn’t as enjoyable!!! I urge you, encourage you, walk or cycle as much as possible! It’s great fun, helps keep you fit, and can help the environment! Don’t just do it for the weekend – do it for as long as possible!

Do you walk/ cycle?

Peace Out

For me, I’m hoping to use this 5 day challenge to focus on those in the world who don’t have the luxuries we have here in the west – not just those who are starving or have little food. I want to spent time thinking snd praying about the people I met in Israel/ Palestine, in Nepal and in Pakistan. People who I’ve met and who are real to me.

I know that some people don’t agree with or understand why someone would do this challenge, and thats fine. For me, its about empathy; an attempt (however futile) to put myself in the shoes of others. As Linda and Dave did, I’ve had people tell me that attempting this challenge is unnecesary, stupid, pointless….honestly, I don’t care. I’m not doing this for the pleasure of others, to be overly pious, for any reason other than I was asked to do this challenge and I accepted.

I fully expect this week to be hard, to struggle, to have more moments of selfishness than moments of prayerful focus – I don’t usually do well on little food! But then, if it wasn’t a sacrifice, it wouldn’t be a challenge would it!?

To be honest, I’m already struggling – and I’ve only been going for 22 hours! I’m constantly hungry (being tired from the 24 hour event yesterday isn’t helping). I’m not even following the portion sizes to the letter! I’m eating about 2.5 times the amount suggested in the pack – I can’t see me lasting long in a job where I’m standing 8 hours a day on 140 grams of food – a pathetic excuse? Perhaps? But I’m trying to have a sensible approach to the week.

I can feel myself already starting to think more about the food I could be having instead of the people I’m trying to focus my prayers on – I’m working hard to push past that.

My keys to the week? Determination; prayer; sleep; realism.

Why the last one? Because I’m doing this for 5 days, in that time I’ll consume 1.6kg of food. How many families survive on less? Realism, this is a choice for me, forced upon me by no one but myself. For thousands, millions, there is no choice, no other option….

Peace Out

Day 3′s challenge was: Pass it on. Tell a neighbour or friend about the Carbon Fast and suggest one action they could do. Use the postcards in the booklet to help

This kind of went well for me. On one hand its very much my nature to tell people about things like this
anyway – not in an attention seeking manner, just telling them about it. On the other hand, I failed to make an intentional effort to pass on one of the booklet postcards – but I will yet!

I am trying to spread the word through my blog, facebook and twitter, but the personal touch, face-to-face interaction is always better. I’ve spoken at length to a couple of people at work (as well as Hoskins Gallery I work in an outdoor shop) about the challenge – although they didn’t seem to keen on the challenge! To be fair though, being an outdoor shop, a fair few are already quite environmentally conscious.

Did you tell anyone about the challenge yesterday?

Peace Out

We do have a garden, but we don’t grow anything in it except grass (and weeds!). So we don’t have anything we wish to encourage to grow there. But, we are fortunate here in Aberdeen that our local council help us to recycle food waste. Next to our kitchen sink we have a wee green bin, that comes with biodegradable bags in which to put our food waste. This then goes directly into our brown wheelie bin (same bin as garden waste) to be recycled appropriately by the council. Not a new challenge for me today then, but it did make me wonder what I would do with all the food waste if I didn’t have that bin – and I probably would put it into the general rubbish. for that, I’m glad for the council scheme. I know I wouldn’t recycle anywhere near as much if they didn’t make it so easy! Hopefully, if and when we move house, we will have a similar scheme in our new place – or at the very least I will be more thoughtful about what I do with my waste and why…..

How’s your Carbon Fast going?

Peace Out

Here’s what Tearfund have to say about it:

The Carbon Fast provides  daily actions and prayers for Lent to help you and your church protect poor people from the changing climate and care for God’s good creation.

This year we’re excited that the Carbon Fast has gone global, with churches in Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil, the United States and many more joining in!

Look out for the weekly actions and reflections, each based on a different theme, to get a flavour of how the Carbon Fast is happening around the world and to help you along too.

Our day-to-day lives may not be impacted severely by the changing climate – yet.

But what about people who struggle to feed their families or find a home that won’t get washed away, or who can’t work because the fields have been destroyed by droughts and storms?

And here in the UK, as many people struggle with heating bills we can see how even predictable weather can push us to the edge.

It’s our job to bring hope.

What cost do our energy-intensive lifestyles have…on us…on poor communities…on God’s creation?

Join us in the Carbon Fast this Lent to respond to this challenge, remembering how God has called us to respect and look after his good creation and to protect poor people who we know are suffering the most.

For more details about this campaign, and other Tearfund campaigns, follow this link: http://www.tearfund.org/en/get_involved/campaign/

Will you join me?

Peace Out!

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

When I played before, I played quarterback and cornerback. I’m not sure where I’ll play this time – I certainly don’t have the speed that I used to to play CB, but linebacker might be an option – I’m definitely stronger than I was 11 years ago! I’m hoping though that I’ll be able to get up to scratch to play QB. I loved that role, I love the feeling of throwing a tight spiral and watching it float into the receivers hands, of calling the plays and making sure it happens. My only slight concern is how rusty I might be given how long it is since I played competitively. Who knows though, perhaps I won’t be the only rusty player, or perhaps I won’t be as rusty as I think I am!

It’ll be great to be playing sport again though, I’ve missed that. The banter, being on a team. It’ll be amazing to be a part of that again!

I’m not worried about any part of it – hoping that my good fortune of not breaking anything will continue (especially as I need my hands to take photos!) and that me being a Christian won’t rub anyone up the wrong way – I’m sure it won’t though!

Peace Out

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