Mean Bean Challenge Day 2

The Tearfund Mean Bean Challenge is 5 days of eating what many people in the throws of food poverty eat daily - rice and beans, to stand in solidarity with the hungry and say 'You are not forgotten', as well as to raise money for Tearfunds efforts to relieve food poverty.

On the second day you have a bad headache. You feel pugnacious. You argue all day with an invisible and skeptical listener.

I tell you it is not my fault...It happened suddenly, and I have been ill. I had no time to make plans. Can you not see that one needs money to fight? Even with a hundred francs clear one could make plans. - Jean Rhys, Hunger

My prayer for the physically hungry this morning turned into a prayer for the spiritually hungry, because hunger takes so many shapes and forms, and all have the tinge of despair.

I actually measured my breakfast today, and had more than yesterday. Halfway through my breakfast, however, I felt rather sick of plain porridge so I decided to add some coconut sugar and cinnamon but I kept eating it although I knew I had the means of making it taste a lot better. So many people don't have those means.

I keep checking the donation page, and I'm so proud that we've raised £115 so far. £5 is enough to feed a child in Chad for a whole month. So that's almost 2 years worth of food for one child. We want to raise at least £500 pounds as a team.

Our second lecturer didn't show up today, and I stayed quite alert in the first one, perhaps the result of the bigger breakfast. On the way back it was raining, the sort of rain that falls in swirls and makes you blink rapidly, but for once, it was warm rain. I'm prolonging lunch now by looking for a new hard drive (which is a necessity something that would make my life a lot easier now) I worry over the differences of £20 pounds between one hard disk and another, since in my head now that automatically translates to 4 months of food for a child.

I was reading an article for my essay, and within the first two paragraphs the word 'fruit' has appeared twice. Fruit is definitely what I miss most of all. I've been writing down what I will eat when this is over, and a big banana smoothie is top of my list.

At about 5.30pm I discovered I am on my period, which is when I always feel extra hungry. So this makes things a little more difficult. Although on a side note I am just thankful I have my period - women who don't have enough nutrition often lose fertility. Also, random thought - I don't think I've every heard a guy I know say the word period (meaning menstruation as opposed to 'period of time'.)

Whilst dreaming about the Great European Gallivanting Adventure that Nat and I are embarking on in just 30 days time (!!!) I started looking up good food places to go to in London while we're there, and chanced upon Cookies and Scream, which made my tummy growl just from reading the descriptions of their cookies and super cool cookies. I couldn't go on to the brownies and other products, because I was afraid my resolve would crumble! I decided to distract myself with yoga.

Halfway through a vinyasa sequence, I was shaking. Usually Yoga isn't strenuous at all, in fact, I use it on my 'down days' when I don't want to exert myself. It was definitely tough to finish this sequence, and during one of the warrior poses I gave up and sat down to collect my breath before continuing. When the statistics say that the hungry don't have enough food for a healthy, active life, I think I'm beginning to see what they mean.

Dear God, Please give life in the limbs of the hungry today, strengthen their steps as they make it through a day at a time. Lord you once fasted for forty days in the desert, and you know how difficult the experience of hunger is. Thank you for being a God who empathises with our suffering. Thank you for not being so high up in heaven that you don't care about us on earth. Your humanity makes me love You more because in that humanity is an understanding that is so kind.