17-19th September (Slum Survivor reflections)

Hey, just got home from Slum Survivor which got put on at Tabor. It was an amazing experience. I think i ended up with tears in my eyes by the end of it because it was over. Still think i don't quite understand poverty and the lengths these people who live like this everyday go through. Though, I know understand that it is SOOO easy to get sick when you live like this. I got a bit dehydrated and a bit heat stroked and threw up once, and had a really bad headache, but other than that it was amazing. sleeping with almost nothing. sleeping on cardboard. eating only 2 meals a day of very basic food (of which i only ate 2 meals in total), got me thinking about the extremity of living like this every day, and being exposed to everything that the weather throws at them, and being able to get sick very easily, and not relying on all the handy little "knick knacks" that consume our savings and consume our lives, that we think we need. I have come to think that what we "need", may not be what we need but rather what we want to make our lives easier, i guess. so, in the future hope to think about things and not just be a shop and buy something because i think i need it, i will refrain from buying it just because i want it. Because i guess i have thought that my house is far far bigger than the slum house we stayed in for those two nights, that i probably thought our slum house was too big for the four people staying in it both nights, that it was too crowded with just even the boxes of food and medical supplies kept in our house. That, by the end, i thought we had way too much, and just walking back home, has been just amazing because i walked into a house so cluttered with stuff, stuff that just gets put on a shelf or a table or wherever it will fit and not get used for a month or two, which makes me think i don't need that item badly enough to keep it, though mum will probably sugest a reason why we still need it. yeah. just my thoughts about it. Will go think about the experience some more.