Mean Bean Challenge Day 4, punting and puppies

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 fourth, one starts crying very easily... - Jean Rhys, Hunger

Fortunately, Jean Rhys is wrong. Today I was the furthest from crying all week, unless it was from sheer beauty and happiness. I had to wolf down breakfast before rushing to my supervision - and it is difficult to eat sticky, bland porridge quickly, but I was hungry. In the night, my tummy growled so loudly that it woke me up!

Rosa, Beth, Alex, Mariella and I went punting after lectures, and M, A and I got there early, and so we sat in the sun, listening to Dandelions by the Black Atlantic and watching the punts go by. Today is supposed to be the swan song of this faux summer we've been having, and it didn't disappoint - brilliant blue skies, sun and 23 degree weather.

When Rosa and Beth arrived, we all got into a punt named 'Gruff'. Beth explained that all Trinity's punts have names associated with 'tri', and so we tried to figure out how 'Gruff' made sense - my theory was that it was named after the three billy goats gruff! Rosa punted first, and the rest of us lay in the sun as we slid down the river. A curious duck came up to our punt, and Alex and Mariella had a try at punting too. On the way back up the river, I had a go at punting, which is harder than it looks - that stick is so long! And the steering still confuses me, which resulted in our punt following a rather zig-zaggy pattern. Nearing the end I got the hang of it a little more, and it's immense fun.

Probably the most eventful thing that happened in that lazy dazy punt ride was about three quarters of the way through. It was quite a hot day, and the water looked so inviting and cool, and Rosa had been saying all the while how much she just wished she could jump into the water. At one point, while I was trying to turn the punt round after it had gotten pretty much horizontal, I felt the boat shift, and saw Rosa propel herself off the punt into the water with the most almighty splash!

She swam around for a little before getting back into the punt, and the people on the bank and in boats passing by were thoroughly amused.

 After punting they got ice creams and strawberries and biscuits, and we sat on the bank for a small picnic. I had my rice and beans of course, and it was probably the most romantic rice and beans meal I've had this week. Right beside us was a fellow and two students having a supervision out in the sun on the river bank - only in Cambridge...

After I got back to college, I delivered my new hard disk to the IT support, and then cycled down to Magdelene College because there were puppies there for the afternoon, and students could go in and play with them. It was so wonderful to just sit and stroke a happy, trusting creature. I had an Iyengar Yoga class before my dinner, which I ate while looking over the day's happy photos. Even when you're hungry, your days can still be full of sunshine and blessing, and it reminded me that for the hungry, whilst it is important that we help them and think of them and the injustice that is hunger, at the same time it isn't fair to pity them as I'm very wont to do. Their lives are special and meaningful and have sunshine days too, and the love around you, from friends and from God as He kisses you with His warm sunshine, overcomes any tummy rumblings.