Living on One Dollar A Day

It probably sounds like an incredibly easy thing to do.

'Maybe the cereal box in the cupboard will last for three or four days, and then there's still some potatoes or yams somewhere in the store and there's probably some bread in the fridge too, I sighted a few cartons of milk and juice in the fridge the other day and I've always got some garri in reserve. So if I split up each food into respective days and save up the money, I could have enough money for other days that lack food. As easy as that!'

However, we forget about the simplest, but very essential things; like toilet paper, electricity, bus fares, soap and so on... But for over 1.1 BILLION PEOPLE, life as we know it doesn't just go without saying. I just watched the movie, or documentary rather, Living on One Dollar and caught myself wondering if I could ever manage this:

But just this morning, I watched a TV programme about the most popular 5-star hotel in Russia. I'm not going to go into the details, but in the end they showed a woman living in a suite there and she boasted about 2 "paintings" which hung on her wall, that consisted of Dollar notes and Russian Rubles I think and then she said she didn't have any other wishes than to be healthy and happy, so she better spend her money while she is still alive and kicking.

I still wonder how those kind of people can look up to you, chin high and say, "I'm drinking a €24 000 wine and it tastes exquisitely ". I mean, if you don't know what to spend your money on, why don't you give it to people who really need it ??!

With my mere 15 years of age, I was once given the honor to attend a seminar called "TOUCH-STREETWISE: Responding to Street Violence", even though I was just there as a Radio-presenter. I just thought all I would do was interview a few people there, get free lunch and a CD and be on my way, but I never did expect to be moved by anything I would see, hear or feel while I was there.

I came back home and informed my dad that I wanted to be a youth-street worker, thinking that he was going to be as enthusiastic about my sudden change of plans as I was. All he said was, "This is not your fatherland", I stood there waiting to hear more but didn't get the approval I wanted, although I promised myself to do just that when I felt the time had come.

The interviews that changed my life for good ;)

Somehow, after that seminar, there were countless brochures and advertisements of help organisations and programmes for exchange students to help researches and things like that everywhere, or maybe I just suddenly became aware of them, and that only fueled my growing fire even more to want to help!! 

This is just one of the countless brochures I mentioned above ;)

And so with all that said, Obum and I have decided to no longer look away. We have resoluted to take part in one of these programmes and help in any way possible after our final exams in two years time :( 

It is surely going to be a time to remember, I know that already!!

I'm not urging anyone to join in, I'm just saying it doesn't hurt to try, and besides, it's not so bad a way of losing weight ;)

Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!

♛ Ryan Sheckler's Successors ♛

I'm sure you know one of those sunny days where you come back home reaaally motivated and willing to do stuff, doesn't matter what! Well yesterday so happened to be that day for Obum and I. 

So to top it all up, the sun was out! After it had been raining for what seemed like AGES! ( I think it was just two weeks, but still!! ) And it was too tantalizing to resist- even after just eating and wanting to just dose off. 
In this country I say, any opportunity that comes your way, GRAB IT BEFORE IT ESCAPES YOUR REACH! So even the weather becomes a challenge. 

The most preferable options were either jogging or environmental-exploring, so we combined the two, and went skating. Obum on her skateboard and me with my rollerblades and the other way around.

I present to you Obum's pride and glory, 90's board made for children, but for €10 we can always make an exception!!!

It is to be pointed out, that the fact that we aren't wearing any shoes was very much our intention. 

You can tell from our expressions that we don't get this kind of weather very often. 

While exploring the wonders of our surrounding environment, we found these trains that are out of use, now we know where to go camping later when it gets warmer!

After our environmental-exporing on wheels, we decided to take a picture with the two of us in it. Yeaaah, as you probably can imagine that didn't actually turn out to work out after what seemed like a thousand tries.

To be sincere, I'm not sure how this came about!

Yes, the actual plan was to, and I quote, "Take a picture with the two of us in it"

But I've always had a thing for cameras so this result was not surprising at all- except for Obum of course -.-

And just before our motivation had run dry, this picture thankfully accomplished our goal. Though somehow, Obum still had a bit more to take countless selfies O.O 

Since we still had our exploring spirit, we decided to go for a short walk before calling it a day. On our way, we found this:

A memorial for a skater boy named Victor, who was killed by a train, just beside the railway.

R.I.P. Victor

At that point, we were both beat down and agreed to head home.

 This kind of cheered me up though, it's translated: Keep entrance free, or else...  (I bet the owner of the house was a knight in his life before)

Now lemme wrap this up with a collection box! If you ever want to throw any of your old clothes, don't forget to remember those who don't have anything!

Nur im Krieg und in der Liebe ist alles erlaubt!