Live below the line - the aftermath

So as you may or may not know, I recently spent five days 'living below the poverty line.' According to the Oaktree foundation, people who live in extreme poverty in Australia have only $2 per day to survive which has to pay for food, drinks, a place to stay, electricity, education - and many other things people like us just take for granted. Luckily for me, and the other people taking the challenge, we had $2 per day for food and drink, and our accommodation and other expenses didn't come into the equation.

Despite this, it was still hard. I ate a lot of rice, drank a lot of water, and as my house mates can tell you, I really, really missed having cups of tea! The experience has taught me how difficult it can be to have no choice about what to eat, and how having to survive on very repetitive meals can drive a person insane, especially when we're used to having such varied diets - I'm glad it was only for five days!

The food I bought for the week which came to $9 - I later got some sweet chilli sauce for $1

I'd say the hardest part wasn't a constant feeling of hunger, but a constant feeling of being unfulfilled. Living off a diet of carbohydrates is by no means satisfying, and my body was craving nutrients, so as a result I ate, and ate, and ate until I could physically eat no more.


There were many temptations along the way... All I wanted was a sprinkle of salt on my rice. I started thinking things like "no one will know!" ... but I would know, and I'd feel far too guilty to justify the slight improvement to my meal. The challenge got harder as the week progressed, and some people cracked under the pressure, but most of us stayed strong.

I had this meal probably 7 times over five days Not fun!

We held loads of fundraising events in the lead up to, and during the week to try and raise as much money as we could. Having things like bake sales and barbecues and not being able to eat anything is murderous! But it all paid off... Before the week started, Casey panicked in an interview and said that the Kooloobong team could raise $5000 ... We all thought she was crazy, but the kindness and generosity of our friends, family and the public was overwhelming, and we raised OVER five thousand dollars! This is enough to fund twenty full scholarships for children in Papua New Guinea, and help them break out of the poverty cycle.

Of course, we went to pig out at McDonalds as soon as the event was over

The amount of money we raised also managed to attract the attention of a local news broadcaster who interviewed us after the event - and this interview can by found by following the link below...

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/05/17/3505023.htm 

I'm fantastically proud of the amount of money raised by team KB. I would also like to say a special thank you to Miss Casey Madigan for her manegerial point of view, and for remaining a constant ray of sunshine, optimism, and source of laughter throughout the week even though she was going through the challenge herself :)

Begging for Beggars

Hello everyone! So every year since I started university I've done something that involved raising money for charity. In my first year, I had a great time treasure hunting around Europe for Sheffield RAG with four amazing people, having the best time, and got barked at by French dogs and whipped by a stripper.

Last year, I hitch hiked to Krakow, Poland via Slovenia with Todd and Steph on Bummit - we experienced eastern European chavs throwing rocks at us, and all had an absolute roller coaster of emotions - but at the end of the day I still had an amazing time and would do it again in an instant.

This year, though, I will be "living below the line" between 7th and 11th May - which means living below the national poverty line (that's just $2 per day) to raise awareness of the extreme poverty that goes on in the world. The money raised for this will go towards building schools, finding teachers and providing scholarships for children in Papua New Guinea, one of the southern hemisphere's most poverty stricken countries. I was inspired by a dear friend of mine, Helen Pitman, who went through the ordeal last year, and was further encouraged by several other Kooloobong residents taking part.

Anyone who knows me knows I like my food, and I like a lot of it, so this will definitely not be as much of a treat as my previous charity experiences! So PLEASE sponsor me for this. Maybe you will spend $5 (about £3.50) on charity this week instead of booze. My target is AU$400, which is about £260 - no easy feat with the amount of time I've given myself!

You can sponsor me by clicking the above image ...

... or following this link: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/danjenks

Much love! x

Reggie's Last Stand

Friday the thirteenth of April 2012 saw the passing of a close companion to many. Most of the people in Kooloobong will be able to tell you a story about how they felt unsafe whilst inside of him. We've had a lot of ups and down - sometimes we hated you, sometimes we loved you, but you were always there, and you will remain in our memories forever. This is the story of Reginald's departure from this world.

We had a great day planned. We would head to the seaside town of Kiama (about half an hour south of Wollongong), have a look around, take touristy pictures of the blowhole, pump up the tunes in the van and then move on to the descriptively named Seven Mile Beach. After a shaky start (we had to jump the battery)  we got to Kiama while singing along to many classics courtesy of Beyonce, Shania, Skaira and S Club. 

We lined up along the railings at the blowhole to take touristy pictures (I'm such a tourist that I took pictures of people taking pictures...).

A quick pit stop in Woolworths to grab some lunch, and we were on our way to seven mile beach. About half way there, I started to hear a rattling sound every time I used the accelerator (which, coincidentally, was a lot since I was driving) and that the temperature had sky rocketed. I pulled over next to some B&B and realised that the van was full of smoke and that we should get out. Luckily the woman who owned the B&B was lovely and let us chill out in the gardens to give the van some time to cool down. It definitely wasn't the worst place to break down in the world - such nice views!

A while later, we went back to Reggie to see how he was doing. After looking in the radiator, we saw that we needed to fill it up as all the coolant seemed to have disappeared, but when we filled it to the top, we could see that the water level was dropping quickly. So something in the coolant system was leaking (great news considering we bought a new radiator only three months ago). This didn't quite explain why the engine wouldn't start, though. We decided that we should get it towed to a mechanic, and see what they thought. When the tow truck arrived, I described the situation, and he said it sounded like a blown head gasket. Replacing one of those is a big job - definitely not worth replacing, and so we just called up a scrap yard.

When we got there, we were welcomed by a pack of men smoking and drinking beer in a shed full of spare parts. We unloaded the van, filled out the paperwork, and I asked about the money situation. The alpha male of the group said that on the phone, I implied that I just wanted to drop off the van and didn't want anything for it. I feel like this was categorically incorrect, but once he had the van, he had the power, and we couldn't afford to tow it to any other scrap yards because there wasn't one for miles. And so, the van was legally stolen from us. It actually was daylight robbery. 

As the sun set over Wollongong, so did it set on our hopes and dreams of freedom, convenient transport and not having to rely on the extremely unreliable free shuttle bus. Reggie managed to get us all the way back from Adelaide, and for me, anything after that was an added bonus. He will be missed by many, and remembered by all as one hell of a great van.