$0.46 per day
Amazingly, that's how much a lot of people in Cambodia live on. That's why they say something called "shaky heart syndrome" is so popular there: the condition is basically extreme stress that stems from people not knowing where their next meal will come from or how they can provide for their children. To put it another way, it's irregular heartbeats that come from the stress of not knowing how their basic needs will be met.
Now I hate to start an entry on such a serious note, especially, since I haven't posted in so long but I guess this one simple fact was a real eye-opener for me. You know, usually, I go about living my own little life completely oblivious to saddening fact like this, other than the occasional time when I see it on a CNN headline because they just finished some world-poverty survey or something. And even after I would finish reading the article, the most I would do to act on it is talk about it with a friend.
I guess this weekend was different... actually, very different, now that I think about it. So Per's church had teamed up with two charities: HAGAR and SAGE. Both of these charities deal with human trafficking on a double front, both here with a shelter in the Mission district and in Cambodia, with a shelter, restaurant, and mental health/ re-training facility. The church decided to help the charities by helping to host a charity ball for them. I heard about it and thought it would be too much fun to turn down so me and Per bought tickets.
It turns out, this ball was nothing like a real ball in the sense that everyone dresses up, has dinner, waltzs around for a bit and generally just act upper-crust social. In fact, other than the dressing up part, we did none of this stuff at this ball. It was black and white but the evening started out with appetizers and socializing. It then moved to introducing the two charities and what they did, which was where I learned the facts that I started this entry with.
Although it was nothing like I would've expected, I have to say this is definitely one Saturday night where I learned a lot. I mean, when you normally hear facts like that, it doesn't really sink in. But when you look at your own life, or even when you try to live like them, you begin to realize what it really means to live in poverty. I say try because I really don't think it's humanly possible for someone to live in the US for $0.46 a day. I mean, even a bell pepper from Safeway costs more than that!
But then my mind began to wander and I ran some numbers:
$0.46/ day = $14.26/ month = $167.9 / year
$4.60/ day = $142.60/ month
$46.0/ day = $1426/ month
$460/ month = $14.83 / day
$14.26/ day = $442.06/ month
Now, I'm pretty sure it's impossible for me to live on $0.46/ day and I think even $4.60/ day would be really hard. $46/ day (if I didn't include the cost of housing) would be more than manageable, but what about $460/ month? Could I really live of of $14.83/ day, excluding the cost of housing? I didn't know but if the people of Cambodia can do it for so much less, I think I should at least give it a try. Luckily, this month I've started practicing a lot more financial responsibility (hey, it was financial irresponsibility that got us into this recession so the opposite is the only thing that can save us all!) and thus far, I'm at $383.04. (No cost of housing included.) I've probably actually spent a bit more than that but the bf spotted me for it so I didn't count that either. I've spotted him a couple times before so I guess we're about even at this point. But it does leave $76.96 for the rest of the month... hope I'll make it! Although... maybe if I make it, I should try for $442.06/ month. That's how much I'd be living off of if I had the monthly income of the average Cambodian living in poverty as my daily allowance. Of coarse, I could even try for that this month... but that would mean I'd only have about $59 for the rest of the month. I guess it's do-able but I'd REALLY have to scrimp with this one, since there are still 8 days left in the month.
But going back to the issue of poverty again: to bring this issue home a bit more for me, I recently had lunch with my grandma and the whole family was talking about foods they'd eaten, when my grandma starts talking about eating banana tree. Now, my Chinese isn't exactly fantastic so I thought maybe I misheard her or she meant to say eating bananas but no, she was talking about eating banana tree. So I asked her why would anyone do that. And she said it was because they had nothing else to eat. At their worst, the family was so poor that my uncle would cry from happiness when he had an egg to eat and he would savor it over the coarse of two day's dinner. Interestingly, I was just watching a Food Network show and they said an egg nowadays costs about $0.80. (But that was one of those fertilized eggs that they use for hatching chickens; regular eggs are probably cheaper.) Put into those terms, I can understand how those living in poverty in Cambodia would be so happy to receive something as simple as an egg for dinner.
But back to the ball. So after introducing the charities and hearing what they do, we moved onto an auction. We didn't really bid on anything because there wasn't really anything I liked/ wanted to do (other than the cooking lesson, but even then, I didn't really want that too much) but I did buy a couple raffle tickets. We didn't win anything from the raffle either but at least my money went to support a good cause. Not to mention the added perk of tax write-off for me. Yay it's a win-win situation!
After that, the events continued with a speech by this guy from the South Bay branch of our church. He said that God had told him to go to Cambodia to do what he can to help the people there and that a portion of the funds raised would help him to be able to do that. He said that he would stay there indefinitely, until he felt his work was done. Specifically, he said he would probably help out with the charity's restaurant there, which keeps human trafficking victims off the streets by offering them a decent job. He said he can also do counseling, teaching, and even basic first aid things like dressing wounds, or whatever else the charity needed him to do. It was an interesting story because he was giving up his whole life here: his job, his family, friends, even the church he belonged to, just to go do this.
Then they had a karoke session where people bid on others to go up to the stage and sing a song. It was a gimmick to get more money, I admit, but it was also really clever. And again, the money went toward a good cause so I was gonna have Per and a bunch of other coupled-off guys from the church go up and sing us a love song but they ran out of time. Oh well... probably best not to get all the men annoyed at their SOs (significant others, since some are married/ engaged) =P
The night ended with dancing, but not the Dancing with the Stars kind that I expected. Instead it was just regular clubbing dancing and I was unlucky enough to go to the bathroom during the two songs that I actually wanted to dance to. The rest of the night was just blah rap/ hip-hop/ random oldies that are hard to dance to so me and Per just left early. All-in-all a good night and an even better learning experience.
Now I hate to start an entry on such a serious note, especially, since I haven't posted in so long but I guess this one simple fact was a real eye-opener for me. You know, usually, I go about living my own little life completely oblivious to saddening fact like this, other than the occasional time when I see it on a CNN headline because they just finished some world-poverty survey or something. And even after I would finish reading the article, the most I would do to act on it is talk about it with a friend.
I guess this weekend was different... actually, very different, now that I think about it. So Per's church had teamed up with two charities: HAGAR and SAGE. Both of these charities deal with human trafficking on a double front, both here with a shelter in the Mission district and in Cambodia, with a shelter, restaurant, and mental health/ re-training facility. The church decided to help the charities by helping to host a charity ball for them. I heard about it and thought it would be too much fun to turn down so me and Per bought tickets.
It turns out, this ball was nothing like a real ball in the sense that everyone dresses up, has dinner, waltzs around for a bit and generally just act upper-crust social. In fact, other than the dressing up part, we did none of this stuff at this ball. It was black and white but the evening started out with appetizers and socializing. It then moved to introducing the two charities and what they did, which was where I learned the facts that I started this entry with.
Although it was nothing like I would've expected, I have to say this is definitely one Saturday night where I learned a lot. I mean, when you normally hear facts like that, it doesn't really sink in. But when you look at your own life, or even when you try to live like them, you begin to realize what it really means to live in poverty. I say try because I really don't think it's humanly possible for someone to live in the US for $0.46 a day. I mean, even a bell pepper from Safeway costs more than that!
But then my mind began to wander and I ran some numbers:
$0.46/ day = $14.26/ month = $167.9 / year
$4.60/ day = $142.60/ month
$46.0/ day = $1426/ month
$460/ month = $14.83 / day
$14.26/ day = $442.06/ month
Now, I'm pretty sure it's impossible for me to live on $0.46/ day and I think even $4.60/ day would be really hard. $46/ day (if I didn't include the cost of housing) would be more than manageable, but what about $460/ month? Could I really live of of $14.83/ day, excluding the cost of housing? I didn't know but if the people of Cambodia can do it for so much less, I think I should at least give it a try. Luckily, this month I've started practicing a lot more financial responsibility (hey, it was financial irresponsibility that got us into this recession so the opposite is the only thing that can save us all!) and thus far, I'm at $383.04. (No cost of housing included.) I've probably actually spent a bit more than that but the bf spotted me for it so I didn't count that either. I've spotted him a couple times before so I guess we're about even at this point. But it does leave $76.96 for the rest of the month... hope I'll make it! Although... maybe if I make it, I should try for $442.06/ month. That's how much I'd be living off of if I had the monthly income of the average Cambodian living in poverty as my daily allowance. Of coarse, I could even try for that this month... but that would mean I'd only have about $59 for the rest of the month. I guess it's do-able but I'd REALLY have to scrimp with this one, since there are still 8 days left in the month.
But going back to the issue of poverty again: to bring this issue home a bit more for me, I recently had lunch with my grandma and the whole family was talking about foods they'd eaten, when my grandma starts talking about eating banana tree. Now, my Chinese isn't exactly fantastic so I thought maybe I misheard her or she meant to say eating bananas but no, she was talking about eating banana tree. So I asked her why would anyone do that. And she said it was because they had nothing else to eat. At their worst, the family was so poor that my uncle would cry from happiness when he had an egg to eat and he would savor it over the coarse of two day's dinner. Interestingly, I was just watching a Food Network show and they said an egg nowadays costs about $0.80. (But that was one of those fertilized eggs that they use for hatching chickens; regular eggs are probably cheaper.) Put into those terms, I can understand how those living in poverty in Cambodia would be so happy to receive something as simple as an egg for dinner.
But back to the ball. So after introducing the charities and hearing what they do, we moved onto an auction. We didn't really bid on anything because there wasn't really anything I liked/ wanted to do (other than the cooking lesson, but even then, I didn't really want that too much) but I did buy a couple raffle tickets. We didn't win anything from the raffle either but at least my money went to support a good cause. Not to mention the added perk of tax write-off for me. Yay it's a win-win situation!
After that, the events continued with a speech by this guy from the South Bay branch of our church. He said that God had told him to go to Cambodia to do what he can to help the people there and that a portion of the funds raised would help him to be able to do that. He said that he would stay there indefinitely, until he felt his work was done. Specifically, he said he would probably help out with the charity's restaurant there, which keeps human trafficking victims off the streets by offering them a decent job. He said he can also do counseling, teaching, and even basic first aid things like dressing wounds, or whatever else the charity needed him to do. It was an interesting story because he was giving up his whole life here: his job, his family, friends, even the church he belonged to, just to go do this.
Then they had a karoke session where people bid on others to go up to the stage and sing a song. It was a gimmick to get more money, I admit, but it was also really clever. And again, the money went toward a good cause so I was gonna have Per and a bunch of other coupled-off guys from the church go up and sing us a love song but they ran out of time. Oh well... probably best not to get all the men annoyed at their SOs (significant others, since some are married/ engaged) =P
The night ended with dancing, but not the Dancing with the Stars kind that I expected. Instead it was just regular clubbing dancing and I was unlucky enough to go to the bathroom during the two songs that I actually wanted to dance to. The rest of the night was just blah rap/ hip-hop/ random oldies that are hard to dance to so me and Per just left early. All-in-all a good night and an even better learning experience.