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Day 120

Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life’s blood. But everyone has something to give – Barbra Bush.

It’s 6: 48 PM on day 120 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself myself Batura – deep fried bread – for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no donations were made today :(– feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 10 minutes and watch TV

As you may have heard on the news or on the radio Australia is being ravaged by a flood and in the spirit of helping out my fellow men in their time of need I’m calling on all of you to give the people of Australia a hand up because at the end of the day we as human beings rise and fall together. Do you look for an opportunity to serve in the face of every disaster? 🙂

For more information or to make a donation to the flood victims of Queensland visit http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/

Day 119

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Everybody must define for themselves the meaning of greatness – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 08 PM on day 119 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself sweet potatoes for breakfast, wheel myself from the dining room to the sitting room – I am amazed at how easily I can do it now 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours –just when I was about to give-up someone made a $107 donation – I am SO grateful 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, feed myself a banana for dinner and exercise for 10 minutes.

This morning, as I laid in bed making plans for the new day that was ahead of me I overhead my parents talking in the sitting room and at first I ignored it because quite freakily I’m not much for eavesdropping, but then I heard the mention of my name and got curious as to what they were saying about me so against my better judgement I listened in on their conversation and heard my mother say Nisha is a lot smarter than Neethu – my younger sister – imagine how great she could have been if she could walk and with tears in my eyes I thought to myself I thought I was great and after 30 minutes of listening to the echo of my mother’s words I thought to myself my father discriminates against me, my mother feels sorry for me, my siblings resent me and the people I encounter ignore me and in that moment I felt like the only person in the world, but then it dawned on me that our purpose as human beings is to discover our individual greatness. Do you define your greatness or is your greatness defined for you? 🙂

Day 118

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Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great – John L. Motley.

It’s 6: 58 PM on day 118 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Pasta for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – still no luck:( – feed myself rice and curry for lunch and exercise for 20 minutes – my left still feels like it’s on fire – aw 🙁

In a world where fame and fortune take precedence over true greatness we seldom take the opportunity to celebrate those who serve humanity selflessly which is why I would like to introduce you to Sophie Brown – the girl who restored my faith in the youth of today.

I’m a 15 year old school girl who visited Uganda with my mum for the first time in August 2010. Whilst there, I assisted at a school in South-West Uganda set up by a local with the help of funding by Ann McCarthy (a Surrey grandmother) with lessons and games, helped serve the daily helping of porridge to the children (for many of the 150 children this is their only guaranteed meal every day), and basically had a great time learning about a very different culture. During our 2 weeks we also had the opportunity to see the capital city, Kampala, attend a wedding and a funeral in the village (they’re very different to any I’ve ever attended before!), spend a weekend at the beautiful border area of Lake Bunyoni, and went on a memorable 3 day camping safari. The local football team entertained us with a couple of very competitive (mostly barefoot!) league football games and we entertained ourselves in the evenings playing pool and chatting to the locals who visited Uganda Lodge.
All in all, we had an amazing experience with local Ugandan villagers who were very poor in material terms but so very rich in spiritual terms. It was a joyful and humbling experience which will live with us forever.

Since coming back to the UK I’ve been planning my return trip which will take place in summer 2011. I am aiming to raise £250 towards the balance of my travelling costs and £1000 towards building a classroom for village children in rural South-West Uganda which I’ll be able to complete by helping to paint and supply with English and Maths aids to encourage the kids’ learning whilst out in Uganda!

I would be so grateful for ANY support you can give. Please remember to gift aid if you can! It really does make a difference.

For more information about this cause, please visit www.ugandalodge.com or email me at sophiee.brown@live.co.uk or tweet me at www.twitter.com/SophieBrown95

Day 117

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Hypocrite – somebody who pretends to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves otherwise.

It’s 8: 57 PM on day 117 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All-Bran Flakes for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – I have exactly 56 days to raise $2 154 – I need some kind of divine intervention – go to the community barbeque – the most memorable part of the whole event was when I asked this woman for a donation – it was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever see the poor woman looked like a deer caught in the headlights LOL 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for dinner and exercise for 15 minutes

In the nineteen years that I’ve been alive I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter all sorts of people – some good, some bad – but never have I been more disgusted by another human being than I was this morning when I heard that my uncle had called to say that we could leave my grandma with their housekeeper if we didn’t want to take her to the barbeque with us and if that wasn’t bad enough they – my uncle and his family – turned around and went to prayer without even asking my grandma if she wanted to go. Do your actions in everyday life reflect your religious beliefs? 🙂

Day 116

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The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn – Alvin Toffler

It’s 8: 01 PM on day 116 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Appam – bread made of rice batter – and egg curry for breakfast, drink a glass of Coke by myself, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – sometimes you try your best and still don’t achieve the desired result 🙁 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, drink a glass of water by myself, watch TV, exercise for 5 minutes and feed myself grapes for dinner.

This morning as I remembered that we had to attend a community barbeque tomorrow my heart was suddenly filled with dread because I knew that all I would see when people looked at me was undeserved pity and in that moment I realized that I could use the pity that people felt for me to get them to make donations to my campaign – the people at that barbeque are going to be in for a HUGE surprise LOL 🙂 Do you use the fact that people underestimate you to your advantage? 🙂

Day 115

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One does evil enough when one does nothing good. – German Proverb.

It’s 8: 24 PM on day 115 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All-Bran Flakes for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – someone made a $10 to my campaign and I added $31 of my own money to that that total in the hopes that it would encourage more people to donate but unfortunately for me it wasn’t to be 🙁 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 15 minutes, watch TV and feed myself Batura – deep fried bread –and baked beans for dinner.

Today as I was sitting in front of my laptop, tweeting about my campaign I made a vow never to stop working towards a world where everybody has access to clean water because at the end of the day we are all responsible for our fellow human beings. Are you your sister’s keeper? 🙂

Day 114

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You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. – Wayne Gretzky.

It’s 8: 43 PM on day 114 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – and beef curry for bunch, write a motivation letter to get into the SA Writers’ College – I took me five hours but I think I FINALLY got it just right 🙂 –tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few minutes –I didn’t get much time to tweet today because I was busy with my motivation letter :(– feed myself grapes for dinner and exercise for 5 minutes.

Today as I was writing my motivation letter (see below ) I caught myself thinking what if I don’t get in, what if I get in and then flunk out and that’s when I remembered something that Elbert Hubbard had once said ”There is no failure except in no longer trying.” Have your thoughts ever conspired against you?

Dear Sir/Madam

My name is Nisha; I am a 19-year-old girl whose passion for writing began on an ordinary day, just like this one. I was sitting in front of the computer, bored out of my mind when I remembered the story that I heard on the news the previous day, about a homeless boy who didn’t smile anymore because all the people he approached for money refused to look him in the eye and in my quest to see life from his point of view I started writing, and two hours later when I took a step back and read the short story back to myself I realized that I had truly found my bliss.

Three years and twenty-three short stories later, I was slowly but surely losing my passion for writing and I knew I couldn’t go back to the person I used to be before I started writing, so I did a variety of different things to reignite my passion for writing. But it wasn’t until I read the book H.R.H by Danielle Steel that I realized that I could make people feel less alone just by what I wrote, that is when I knew I was meant to be a novelist and although I am confident in my abilities as a writer I truly believe that once I’ve completed this course all aspects of my writing will improve.

Yours sincerely,

Nisha Varghese

Day 113

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“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing” – Aristotle

It’s 8: 44 PM on day 113 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day – I went above and beyond today – I am SO proud of myself 🙂 – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry for bunch, watch the 3^rd Test between India and South Africa – today was India’s day but we’ll do better tomorrow I just KNOW it 🙂 – feed myself Fish fingers for dinner and exercise for 5 minutes.

Yesterday we were at my uncle’s house and I was telling my cousin about something that someone had said to me on Twitter and he said why are you always on Twitter don’t you have anything better to do and even though what he said stung a little bit I realized that nothing he or anybody else said about me mattered because I knew who I was. Do you crumble in the face of criticism? 🙂

Day 112

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You can die years before your heart stops beating – that’s what I figured out today 🙁

It’s 8: 40 PM on day 112 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, research college writing courses – I am thinking about enrolling for a ‘Write A Novel’ course with the SA Writers’ College – an online college that offers a variety of writing courses – feed myself Custard for brunch, , wheel myself from the centre of the sitting room to its door – I originally indented to wheel myself to my bedroom but after 15 minutes of attempting to get myself unstuck from the doorway I finally gave up and asked my mother to wheel me to my bedroom 🙁 – go and visit my cousins – this place is never going to me the same – all of them are going to college – feed myself a KFC Twister – a wrap consisting of chicken strips, salad and sweet-chili sauce – and exercise for 10 minutes

This morning as I watched my grandma cry over the fact that my father had accused her of bed-wetting I realized that the woman sitting in front of me was just a mere shell of the woman that my grandma used to be and that just made me want to drop to my knees and cry 🙁 Have you ever witnessed the systematic destruction of another human being? 🙁

Day 111

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Envy – the resentful or unhappy feeling of wanting somebody else’s success, good fortune, qualities, or possessions.

It’s 7: 15 PM on day 111 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a homemade Wrap consisting of beef strips, vegetables and sweet-chili sauce for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day – I must have sent out at least 50 donations requests and FINALLY someone agreed to make a donation – I am nothing if not persistent LOL 🙂 – feed myself Malva Pudding for lunch, exercise for 15 minutes, wheel myself from my bedroom to the end of the corridor – I was just 2 meters away from the dining when my mother had insisted on pushing me the rest of the way because my dinner was getting cold – I was SO mad – and feed myself Fish fingers for dinner.

I am the eldest of three children and although my sister has always been the golden child I have never been envious of her because I knew that she had worked hard for everything that she got but today as I watched her walk from our bedroom to the dining room in less than 30 seconds I felt an unmistakable surge of envy coarse through me because I knew that she hadn’t worked for her ability to walk. Have you ever been envious of somebody that you loved? 🙁