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!

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

“When clouds veil sun
And disaster comes
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rise
And hope takes flight
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Ever faithful
Ever true
You I know
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go

When clouds brought rain
And disaster came
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rose
And hope had flown
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Oh, my soul
Overflows
Oh, what love, oh, what love
Oh, my soul
Fills hope
Perfect love that never lets go

Oh, what love, oh, what love
Oh, what love, oh, what love
In joy and pain
In sun and rain
You’re the same
Oh, You never let go”

By the David Crowder Band, youtube clip embedded below:

Beauty for brokenness, hope for despair,

Lord, in your suffering world this is our prayer.

Bread for the children, justice, joy, peace,

sunrise to sunset, your kingdom increase!

God of the poor, friend of the weak,

give us compassion we pray.

melt our cold hearts, let tears fall like rain;

come, change our love from a spark to a flame.

Shelter for fragile lives, cures for their ills,

work for the craftsman, trade for their skills;

land for the dispossessed, rights for the weak,

voices to plead the cause of those who can’t speak.

Refuge from cruel wars, havens from fear,

cities for sanctuary, freedoms to share.

Peace to the killing fields, scorched earth to green,

Christ for the bitterness, his cross for the pain.

Rest for the ravaged earth, oceans and streams

plundered and poisoned — our future, our dreams.

Lord, end our madness, carelessness, greed;

make us content with the things that we need.

Lighten our darkness, breathe on this flame

until your justice burns brightly again;

until the nations learn of your ways,

seek your salvation and bring you their praise.

(God of the poor, friend of the weak: Graham Kendrick)

“Although Asim Butt used the camera as a tool with which to build the theme and composition construct of his painting, he relished the idea that the camera could see beyond the confines of the apparent and superficial and reach into the realm of inner consciousness”

Askm used his camera sometimes in place of, or to supplement his sketch book. What intrigues me about this statement is last phrase. I’m not sure if I agree with it, if I see that as part of my photography, but it’s most certainly making me think.

The poem is:

“I paint because it allows me to stare shamelessly,
To be able to flesh out an idea, emotion or commit to an image,
a shadow of the world around me.

I paint because there is a spill-over of energy within that must find form or else it will haunt and twist me.

I paint to commit to an act of magic and pleasure,
for myself, for the love of my audience,
and for an abstract notion of my myse’s gaze.

I paint to validate mysrlf
And to discover surprises within and without.

I paint as a penance for my inadeqaucies.

I paint to understand the World around me and to own and disown what I desire and dislike about it.

I paint as a political act:
to express my power over power larger than myself.

I paint to create what it is I want to see,
to fill an absence in the World”

Again, I’m not 100% what I think, but I am provoked to though, perhaps to flesh out my own version of the poem : “I photograph because….”

Art was certainly not a side of Pakistan I expected to see, and perhaps such exhibitions aren’t common, buf this is a nation who are not shy at expressing themselves, especially not with colour! I think art is a window into a society, a culture, so I am glad we were able to experience it to this extent!

salam-o-alekum

Anyway, let’s focus on Pakistan. If you read my blog regularly, or have dug through the archives, you will have noticed 2 major happenings in my life. The first occured in April, when my Wife and I opened a photography and art business together. The Second occured a month later, in May, when I was accepted onto the Church of Scotland World Mission Council.

So how do these 2 occurences add up to me being in Pakistan?

With Hoskins Gallery I am the photographer, we mostly aim to work in Portraiture and Weddings over the initial start up period of the business, but eventually we want the main focus of the photography side of things to be in Humanitarian Photography. Why? It all started 7 years ago at CLAN gathering. It was prophecied over me that I would servevGod with my hands. When this prophecy was spoken, I had barely picked a camera up before, so that being the service was the last thing on my mind. Rather, I thought, assumed it was all to do with sports – specifically American Football, in a Youth Ministry settibg, that would be the outcome of the prophecy. 7 years, a lot if hurt, pain, determination, soul searcjing and travelling later, I find myself inextricably drawn towards Humanitarian Photography. I love photography, love capturing moments in life that are emotive; love photographing a besutiful sunset or a stunning panorama. On top of this, because of my faith(and by this I mean that my sense is derived from my faith, not that without faith you cannot rail against injustice!), I have a strong sense that there is a lot of injustice and need in the world and I feel called, drawn, motivated – whichever word fits best, to use my passion for and skills in photography to document/ highlight/ advocate for the people in the world affected by these issues.

My being on the CofS World Mission Council allows me to become more educated in, and in turn educate others in, the nature of the need and injustices so many face. It also allows me a place to offer up my photography (and also my social media skills) in order to advance the work of both the World Mission Council and myself in this field.

Whilst we are in Pakistan, we will visit places and projects that will test me like I have never been tested before – photographically, spiritually and mentally. I will meet people (indeed I already have) who have been through unimaginable terror and horror.

One place in particular we will visit where I know I will be stretched is Badin. A town in the Sindh Province that has bedn devestated, again, by flooding this year. I know I will see and meet people in incredibly desperate situations, knowing that there us nothing I can do to help them, except for my job. To document, through photography and recording (writing) their testimony, the story of how they came to be where they are. Hos does that help someone whose home, whose life, has been devestated by flood, disease and starvation I hear yoy ask? Because stories capture peoples attention, their emotions, their compassion. By listeninv to storues told to me and photigraphing those affected, I can bring back raw materials that can be developed into resources to encourage prayer, action, advocacy and many other things.

That is why I’m in Pakistan, that is why I feel so drawn to Humanitarian photography. It is the small differenxe that I can make.

salam-o-alekum

One of the things that always strikes me is the bravery that so many showed that day: firefighters who selflessly ran into the burning towers to save people, civilians in the towers who risked their own lives to make sure fellow office workers made it out, police officers who risked everything to help people onnthe sites, the crew and passengers of flight 93 who refused to allow the hijackers on their plane complete their mission, the military personal at thr Pentagon who ran into the flames and confusion of what had happened those the could from there.

I’ve never been to any of the locations where people were killed that day, perhaps one day I will. I would be interested in especially visiting Ground Zero one day, I don’t think I would enjoy the experience and I’m not sure what draws me there; some peculiar sense of the macabre, or some weird voyeurism perhaps. It just seems like an important place to visit. I didn’t personally know anyone who was lost or who lost a loved one that day, but it the most visible site of an act, an event, a day that has shaped the decade since.

I know that some people don’t understand why we should make a bigger deal about this, the 10th anniversary, than any other anniversary or why we should remember this one day above all the other days when people have died in terrorist attacks. I think it’s because no (that I can think of) other terrorist attack has shaped the World so much. The last decade would have been very, very different if 9/11 had not happened. Would there have been so much war? Would we live in such a security conscious society? It is important to commemorate such events, to remind ourselves of what people have gone through and of what people are capable of – acts of evil and acts of incredible goodness. How many of the people who died that day died in thr act of trying to save others? The firefighters, the police officers, civilians. It is right that we remember them especially, to remember the lengths that people can and will go too to try and save people they have never met. So many people who witnessed the events of that day, whether in person or on TV have commented that they knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

A question we often hear on TV programs commemorating the event is “can you remember where you were when you heard about the attacks on 9/11?”. Most people I’ve spoken to can. I can still remember it as if it was yesterday. I was standing in my parents living room with 2/3 friends; we were about to go out for the day. Just as we were about to leave one of our other friends, Andy Simpson, phoned and told us that a plane had crashed into the twin towers and that we should turn on the news. We immediatley assumed that he was talking about a light aircraft, I remember theorising out loud that it must have been a Cessna. We then watched in disbelief for the next few hours and the tragedy of that day played out before our eyes and was then repeated over and over of the news. I remember watching the live film of the second plane hitting the towers, feeling scared and sad for those caught up in all of the terror. I remember one of my friends, Colin, turning to me and wondering out loud if we would be called up by the army to fight in the war we knew was about to start. I’ve seen those images replayed in TV time and time again, everytime it takes me back to that day watching in disbelief in my parents living room.

Watching that kind of event happen and watching all the programs that come after exploring some of the individual stories from the day makes you wonder about how you would react under the circumstances. I’ve often wondered if I would have had the courage that so many showed that day, or if I would have lost hope or frozen and let the events of the day happen to me. I pray I’ll never know! One thing I do know is that we should never forget that day, the people who suffered because of it, the atrocities committed, the acts of bravery and heroism shown by so many. It has influenced so much in the world, so many lives have been touched by what happened that day. It was a hugely emotional event that displayed, live on TV, the worst that people will do to each other and the best that people will do for each other.

Peace Out