Charlotte & Laura's Fortnight Fast Diary WEEK 2

This is Charlotte's Week 2 Fortnight Fast diary entry, with daily menu:

 

.THE HALFWAY POINT.

R4000 raised and counting!

Needless to say I have dreamt more about food, with my sister turning into a professional burger taster. I also imagined a house made out of food: steak for the roof, pizza for the walls... you get the idea. Though, I don’t think I will dream about food again, because in a way I think maybe I have accepted my hot food deprivation?!

This weekend was pretty challenging because our friend who was visiting happens to be a cracking cook. So whilst we were eating our salads, we watched them eat STEAK and a roast dinner. It’s funny how people have noticed that me and Laura are tending to talk more and more about food. I’m sure that as the week progresses, it could get worse. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I appreciate hot food, so much more now. And we certainly have some lovely friends here in Chintsa, with some lekker salads made for us by Kate, bit of chocolate cake at Barefoot and a taastty cold sandwich made for us by Lyn at the Village Bistro.

 

 



Monday: Day 7

B/fast: The last of the Museli

Lunch: Leftover tuna/sweetcorn/tinned tomatoes cold version of a pizza.

Half a peanut butter sandwich. Pineapple/apple and peaches in yoghurt.

Dinner: Mozzarella cheese/normal cheese, gammon, chutney and lettuce sandwich. Followed by: gherkin/cucumber/lettuce/ tomatoes and apple salad. With a side of avocado/ with balsamic vinegar on crackers, hummus on rice cakes. ICE CREAM at barefoot! (They are good to us)

Snacked on cheesy biscuits with Laura, it’s so easy to get very hungry.

Sunday:  Day 6

Breakfast: Coffee

Lunch: I made a cracking salad for me and Laura, if I do say so myself. Lettuce (a really nice kind!) celery and feta salad with a dash of salad dressing, cucumber, gherkins and cubes of cheese. Hummus, cream cheese on the side with a croissant.

Afternoon snack of chocolate cake with tea.

Dinner: Barefoot homemade pizza base, sweetcorn, tuna, onion, tinned tomato, grated cheese. Very tasty, but I couldn’t finish it!

Late night snack of a marmite sandwich

Day 5

Saturday:

Breakfast: Coffee.FED UP OF BREAD so... a bowl of tinned tomatoes and pineapple with yoghurt.

Late lunch: Kate and Nadine invited Laura and I for lunch. The amazingly delicious salads she made ... Beetroot and pineapple salad, coleslaw with raisins, broccoli, lettuce, nuts, apple ( probably some other tasty things), feta cheese, olives. I’m sure I have forgotten one or two other tasty ones. Cheese on crackers with chutney on the top. Followed by a Red cappucino - a cappucino made with Rooibos tea & honey, the best new hot beverage I have ever tried! Me and Laura then popped to Cintsa East store and bought a homemade milk tart for us to eat. Though the cream I bought wasn’t a success, apparently you have to shake it.

Dinner: Cheese and marmite sandwich, yum!

Late night snack of cornflakes and cheese/marmite sandwich.

Day 4

Friday:

Brunch: Muesli and fruit salad.

Dinner: Not one but two salads, made with tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, feta, avocado, salad dressing! A marmite sandwich.

Late night snack of cornflakes and cheese/marmite sandwich.

Day 3:

Thursday: Coffee, muesli and banana.

Mid morning snack: Ham and salami sandwich from Lynn’s next door. A bit of Lou’s carrot cake.

Lunch: Only sushi bought for us by the lovely Karen, it was very delicious!!

Dinner: A cracking salad night out at Lou’s Chintsa Kitchen... so many different types of salad. Asian inspired, prawn and crab, pickled fish, coleslaw, green salad, orange and carrot... and they had apple cake with custard! Very, very tasty.

 

All this talk of food has made me hungry again... bye!

(I ended up popping over to the Bistro and waiting 20 minutes for a scone to cool down so that I could eat it. It was a tricky 20 minutes)

Charlotte & Laura's Fortnight Fast WEEK 1

Good morning Friends of Chintsa!

This morning's blog is a short diary written by Charlotte Whitehead, the volunteer co-ordinator who works next door, who has taken on the Friends Fortnight Fast along with co-co-ordinator Laura Hogbin.  In it she shares her experience of the first few days of eating only cold food, and what was on her menu.  There is also a short video blog taken shortly after.  Charlotte's most interesting finding so far is that her dreams are completely taken up by food.  Have a read:  

"It is day 3 and I have already dreamt of eating one of Kwezi and Owethu’s (cooks at the volunteer house) burgers with melted cheese on top. I woke up so disappointed and a bit hungry! Everyone knows how much I love my food, whatever the weather or day... so it is a commitment for me to actually not eat anything hot. Having worked at Chintsa East school so often, we get to see the positive impact that just one hot lunch has for each student who goes to the school. With around 180 students, it means 400,000 meals a year.

Last night we actually made ourselves a cracking cold pizza... tinned tomatoes and onion, cucumber, onions, cheese, lettuce on a thick burger bun! It didn’t stop the volunteers teasing us with their tasty home-made burgers or wedges.

Laura is taking to the Fortnight Fast pretty well, but I seem to forget that we can’t eat hot food. I have stopped to think twice, a fair few times already: Toast? Porridge? Eggs? That’s the problem when I first wake up and I haven’t had any coffee!

I remember the weekend before we started our Fast and we went to town.  We started with a tasty fry-up at Lynne’s Village Bistro, lunch burger at The Barefoot Cafe, followed up a favourite of mine, Spag Bol!! 

Nine days to go. The children’s smiles keep us going every day."

Day 1

B/fast: Oats and Branflakes. Banana. Two coffees.

Apple

Lunch: Cheese/marmite/salad on white bread. Half a peanut butter sandwich. A few cheese crackers.

Dinner: Tuna salad/cornflakes and a biscuit.

Day 2

B/fast: Oats and Branflakes. Banana. Two coffees.

Lunch: Half a slice of Lou Billet’s carrot cake! Cheese and salad sandwich, half a peanut butter sandwich. Strawberry yoghurt.

Dinner: Big white bap with tomato and onion mix, cucmber, onion, tomato, lettuce and cheese. Chocolate cupcake and a cracker!

Day 3:

B/fast: Branflakes and Weet-bix. Two coffees.

Apple

 short video of Charlotte, taken by Laura

Charlotte and Laura have raised R3,500 (SA Rand) towards the Feeding Scheme in just a few short days.  They made a point of going to local businesses, talking to local residents, informing friends and family and co-workers of their intention to do the Fortnight Fast to raise funds for the Friends Feeding Scheme at Chintsa East Primary.  This is no small feat!  They are partaking in the 'Difficult Fast', which means they have to consciously go without any hot food for the entire duration.  Though there are guidelines and instructions within the Fortnight Fast fundraiser packs that are handed out before commencement of the Fast, there are often moments in a daily eating ritual in which the participant has to literally interpret the meaning of 'No Hot Food' for themselves.  This can mean no pre-cooked food at all, as this aids in prohibiting the participant from, say, simply waiting an hour for a hot meal to become cold.

Since the start of the Friends Fortnight Fast it has been so incredibly interesting for me to see the change a fast can make on an individual.  In the tradition of the Islamic Ramadan, or the Christian Lent, the ideal of the fast is to create a moment of awareness and shift the everyday consciousness of the faster into a place where gratitude for one's food and even one's very existence can be more clearly and concretely felt.  This is done by physically depriving oneself in many ways of the things one is used to, or takes for granted, for e.g. a full three meals a day, in an attempt to experience what it may be like for those less fortunate - in other words, trying to mimic the everyday existence of those less privileged in order to feel closer to them, or create a feeling of solidarity and unity with them.  Every single local participant I have spoken to here has conveyed the astounding alteration in thinking, planning and outlook that they have experienced through the Fortnight Fast.  Quite a spiritual undertaking! What better way to raise awareness of a people's plight, and raise funds towards an initiative to help provide proper nutrition to them!

Well done Charlotte and Laura - just one more week to go!

Please follow our blog next week for more personal updates and insights from these two ladies. 

Let's Hear It For The Girls!

It has been a long time coming but we are getting closer to the story...

These are just a couple of snap shots we got of the Chintsa East girls' rugby team at practice this week.  We were down at the Chintsa East Community Sportsfield for the twice-weekly afternoon sports activities and decided to hang back until 5pm when the girls came down for evening practice.  We've arranged an interview with the coaches Zing and Apila as well as the team itself, so as soon as we have that we will write it up and share the story with you!

Our discovery of the team was quite by accident: one evening, as I was leaving home, a trio of shy girls approached my gate with a slip of paper, asking for donations.  I asked what they were raising money for and that was when I heard about the one and only girls' rugby team of our village.  They were asking for donations toward equipment, but after a bit of questioning and conversation I realised that Chintsa was sitting on an unheard of gem!  Two of the girls were Nokuphumla's daughters, Tina (19) and Neziswa (14) (see our 22 June post) and after asking around in Chintsa it seemed no one was even aware that the girls were playing rugby, nevermind that it was happening on a regular basis with two professional and dedicated coaches.   That is why we are investigating this story: with the advent of the Chintsa sportsfield and the netball court just completed, we want to raise more awareness around the empowerment of the girls in our community.  What we can tell you so far is that the girls' rugby team is Official with a capital 'O': The Mighty Warriors Women's Rugby Club have a uniform, practice every evening at 5pm, and compete in local games on a regular basis.  Tina Pakamile, the #10 on the team, has also been selected for the Border Women's Rugby Team and is, this very weekend, taking part in a rugby match in East London with this team.  That's quite an amazing feat for a young woman from this small community!

As for the netball court, well it's not at all short of action!  The girls have access to the court whenever they want, and the twice-weekly afternoon sports sessions are proving to be a huge encouragement to the girls to come out and get their game on.  

Well done girls!  We are proud of you, and proud that we could have a hand in providing you with these much-needed sports facilities.  GAME ON!!