Live below the line | Living off £1 a day for 5 days.

Day Six

Today I return to eating real food! And haven't. I had porriage for breakfast (made with 100% milk) and had a coffee, I had last nights leftovers for lunch with a chocolate biscuit and an orange and tonight I'm going to a friends for dinner. So why am I blogging. Because I'm still feeling the effects of my diet. I'm tired, so tired napping on my books in the library seemed appealing. I'm emotional, I threw a strop at the printer when it refused to let my log on (bottom lip out an all!) But I'm also still very aware of the cost of food. Before heading to campus I went to the Co-op to buy a packet of crisps, and left without them. Why? They cost 75p (I was looking at snack-a-jacks) that was 3/4 of my budget for the last 5 days. On a packet of crisps which would only give me a mild energy boast. I decided that my 75p could be better spent on the helping other people so I decided my revision could do without an extra snack. And do you know, I didn't think about them. I didn't regret buying them, but I do know, if I had bought them I would have felt guilty about spending so much after living off so little. 

Day Five | Time to confess

As you all know, my aim for the week was to live off a budget of £5 for 5 days. I decided this meant all my food and drink, as well as my transport and social arrangements for the week. Unfortunately, I forgot this fact when I booked my tickets for the opening ceremony of the Roses. So, last night I (along with an awful lot of other people) headed off to Huntington Stadium to witness my first ever Rugby match (which York won - woopwoop). Do I feel guilty about this? Well, I am a little, the cost of the ticket was more than my budget for the week, but also it was a once in a lifetime experience-ish. For those of you who don't know what the Roses is, it's a annual sporting event between York and Lancaster Universities (fun trailer here) and each University takes it chance to host it. (This year being York's turn) As I missed out going in first year, this was realistically my one and only chance to watch the opening ceremony whilst being an undegrad so I feel justified in going. The fact I had completely forgotten it was this week also helps to reduce my guilt. 

Bread excitement!

But enough about that. In conclusion (bar the Roses) I have kept within my budget, I have said no to other events (like going to the student cinema.) I've found the repeating of my meals difficult, I'm bored of not having a choice what to eat and having to try and think imaginatively about what I'm going to do with a tin of chopped tomatoes today. But most importantly, I'm glad to have done this, I'm glad that I've had a slight reminder of what poverty feels like, I've been feeling hungry, I'm feeling tired and I'm getting emotional over the slightest thing, but I also feel incredibly lucky that I am able to do this as a challenge, that tomorrow I can revert back to my normal diet and not have such a severe budget controlling my spending. 

On a final note, I headed over to the co-op last night to buy 4 pints of milk for this mornings (Saturdays) breakfast and found an absolute bargain in the reduced section - yes that is right 10p for a loaf of bread. I was so excited at my find I rang two friends to tell them my news, and then told my housemates. Why? Because after this week, a slightly stale loaf of bread is exciting, because it is a novelty, it's a different taste, a different texture. So, yes, even 10p can make a difference to someones life.

Day Four

Eating lunch outside (again)

So, it's now the afternoon of day four, and I'm starting to feel the effects of my diet. I had an afternoon workshop and was feeling rather sleepy throughout. But, it is now over halfway, and I'm mentally counting down to Saturday mornings trip to the Co-op. However, for so many people, this isn't just a challenge, it's a lifestyle. And whilst I can get excited about feeling full on Saturday, so many people can't. For them the luxury of my lifestyle is only obtainable in their dreams. Please, think about your money and how you spend it. I'm not asking for a donation to make me feel great, I'm challenging you to think about your spending and could you chose a charity that you think is doing important work in the world to give a monthly donation to. Because even £1/month could make a difference. 

Yes Jess that sounds great, but I'm currently a poor student.

But are you? Are you really poor, in the world's eyes? Because, I beat even if you just use your student loan you'll be considered rich in the World's eyes. Don't believe me? Check out the global rich list. So yeah, I challenge you, find a charity and set up a direct debit - just £1 a month and help make a difference, because together we can break the chains of poverty.

Day Three | Over Halfway!

Enjoying yesterday's leftovers for todays lunch.

So, today is the end of day 3. And I'm hungry, tired of eating chopped tomatoes and beans and quite frankly want some chocolate.

But, I've still got another 25.5 hours until I'm allowed that, and realistically I'll be asleep then (and more importantly the Co-op will be closed.) Despite sounding all doom and gloom, I'm glad I'm doing this. There is nothing like the gentle reminder of poverty then the rumbling of your own stomach. Whilst I (normally) go to bed with a full belly, 1 in 8 people go to bed on an empty stomach. And if that isn't bad enough 28% of all children in developing countries are thought to be underweight or stunted. So, I'm healthy 21 year old, lucky enough to be born into a family who could feed me, and continue to provide for me so I continue in education not only post-16 but to University. So many children don't get that option because of extreme poverty.

I believe we need to be the generation that breaks that cycle. And if that means I miss out on a few enjoyable meals in a week then that is more than worth it.

The Challenge:

So, last year as a fundraiser for Uganda I did the 5 Day Bean and Rice Challenge,  this year I'm stepping up the mark and have signed up to live below the extreme poverty line.

Yes, that's right for 5 days (29th April - 3rd May) I will live off £1 per day. 

Do get an idea of the how the challenge works, check out their website by clicking here! And if you'd like to sponsor me that would be lovely, I'd like to raise £100 for Tearfund; the Christian Charity I went out to Uganda with. So any donations would be most welcome, you can donate online (click here) or give me the money in person.

Creation, Evolution and the Atomic Theory.

I'm meant to be revising, so attempt to reduce my distraction I'm playing the first episode of David Attenborough's First Life: Arrival. As I'm now blogging you can see it has been a wonderful revision aid.....But, it's got me thinking again about the Origin's of Life. If you've read my previous blog, God, Dinosaurs and Kangaroos don't worry I'm aiming this one to be slightly different (and more geeky). 

Creation and Evolution. 

They're both theories. And I'm a chemist and we study A LOT of theories. But, what exactly is a theory? According to google it is:

A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something. esp. one based on general principles independent of the thing to be....."Darwin's theory of evolution.

Which strikes me at being a bit useless as a theory. I see a theory of being a plausible explanation of an unknown thing. In Chemistry, we get told theories a lot, and then get told pretty soon after that they're wrong. I'm going to use this idea to explain how I think creation and evolution are two theories that help to explain one another.

Anyone who did GSCE Science will have probably studied the 'Plum Pudding Model.' The idea is that the atomic is spherical, is mainly composed of positive charge, but also has areas of negative charge.

You then get told that is a lie, leading to the Rutherford Atomic model (another lie) and then to the Bohr Atomic Model. Here the atomic is still spherical, but now the positive charge is grouped together in the centre, and the electrons (negative charge) go around in nice spherical rings (called shells) surrounding the nucleus. There is also rules to how many atoms are in each of these shells.

If anyone made it to A-Level, you promptly discover that shells aren't as nice as you initially thought and you learn a new term orbital. Which leads to diagrams like this.

Which not surprising get more complex when you reach Uni, but I won't bore you with that (code for I don't understand it!)

But the point I'm making is, that all three diagrams look different. Why? They're trying to understand what they've learnt through experiments  But, they all have similarities (spherical, areas of positive and negative charge.) And Creationism and Evolution also have similarities:

- they go from 'nothing' to life today (obvious point Jess)

- time phase (yes this leads to many arguments but the point I'm making is that neither say it was instantaneous. Even if you go very conservative Christian it still takes 6 days. 

- the development of the sun, then land and sea, then life.

And they also have differences. If you look at the later two atomic theories, you may ask why not teach the second model straight off. Why? Because it's too complex. In the same why, now we have science we can understand the more complex beginnings of life - the how. But before then did we need to know the 'how'? Or was the 'why' more important? I think both creation and evolution explain how life came into being but by answering two different questions. Creationism answers the why , whilst evolution the how. Which may explain why we have two very different answers. 

Why did Earth becoming into being? Because, according to the creation theory God could. If you read the creation story, it's about the power of God's word. He spoke and it came into being.

But How Earth developed? We have theories, like Evolution but I can not tell you the actually how, mainly because Scientists are still bickering. But, what we can be sure is that time played an important process and that life developed gradually from a small life species in the Sea (according to Attenborough's Arrival episode)

The Future

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God"

Carrie ten Boom

As I'm in my penultimate year of Uni, the future seems frightening. I don't know what I'm going to do when I finish, I don't know whether I want to stay in Science or go into teaching or do something more radical - like travel.

I'm currently on holiday, and as I had a spare hour or so I decided to listen to a talk from Momentum 2012 called: Knowing God's Will and our Calling. The talk was very useful and made me think of things I hadn't considered about my future.

First off, when I pray about it, my questions is this (if God's lucky): What are your plans for MY life. God, is the Creator of the Universe, he designed me and you, and I'm asking him what he has planned for me as if he's my secretary and has my life written up in a diary. Instead, the speaker suggests we should ask God: How can my life fit into YOUR plans. Now, we're acknowledging that God is the more powerful and influential member of our relationship and that our lives should be about serving him (rather than him serving us as our secretary)

Second point the speaker made was that our twenties are a time to discover who we are. I know I often think that once I finish Uni I'll be old, but realistically in the scale of things, if I live to be 80 I'll only have lived a quarter of my life. And that's not so long at all. So, she suggested that our twenties should be a period of learning how we are, what makes us tick and what frustrates us. Because God has designed us so we are all different and all different things make us tick, so we can all serve God in different ways, but ways we enjoy. So, we need to learn more about ourselves to get a better idea how we can best serve God.

And the third point I took from her talk, and the one that speaks to me the most is that we are all on our own personalised discipleship programme. We're all going to learn different things at different times, go through periods of uncertainty and disbelief, so it doesn't matter if people already know what they're going to do in their future because it doesn't make them a holier Christian, God just teaching you different things at different times.