Tag Archives: Charity

Day 184

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. – Mother Teresa

It’s 10: 24 PM on day 184 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and jam for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 5 minutes, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – it was the saddest thing every 30 minutes I would click ‘Refresh’ in the hopes that someone had made a donation only no one did 🙁 – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – butternut and vegetable curry for dinner and watch TV

Today our housekeeper, Nandipha came to me and asked how much it costs to attend the schools that my brother and sister go to and I replied to go to Selborne Primary – the school that my brother goes to – it costs R6 000 per month and to go to Clarendon High – it costs R10 000 per month and after I answered her question I was curious as to why she wanted to know how much it costs to go to a private school because I knew that she had already finished school so I asked why do you ask and she replied my cousin is moving here from Johannesburg and she wanted to go to the best school that there was and since your brother and sister do go to those schools I thought I’d asked you only now that I know how much it costs I’ll have to tell her to look somewhere else because those schools are too expensive and in that moment I knew that I had to help Nandipha’s community in some way so I decided that I would make some bread and jam sandwiches on Saturday and have Nandipha hand them out to her hungry neighbors. In your quest to change the world have you forgotten that the smallest things can make the biggest difference?

Day 183

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If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we’re apart.. I’ll always be with you. – Winnie the Pooh

It’s 9: 04 PM on day 183 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast while watching the Cricket World Cup match: South Africa vs. Ireland – congratulations to The Proteas – our national cricket team – who are officially in the quarterfinals after their victory over Ireland – bring the cup back for Mr. Mandela boys I am sure he’s rooting for you 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – no luck – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and vegetable curry for dinner and continue to tweet about my campaign – still no luck – I’m disappointed but it’s okay I’ll keep trying 🙂

Today I was feeling all kinds of awful my body was sore, my muscles were aching and all I wanted to do was sleep but then I remembered what Will Smith said on Oprah great people do what they do hurt and suddenly I didn’t feel so tired anymore because I could see in my mind’s eye images of children dying of cholera. On a bad day do you give up on yourself or look to harness your inner strength?

Day 182

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Being empty of oneself is to be full of the intelligence of life which can then come to us without hindrance. – Nicole Montineri

It’s 9: 58 PM on day 182 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bun and jam for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – listen to Bollywood music, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and Kadala Curry – made of brown chickpeas – for dinner and watch TV.

Today as I was listening to music feeling content within myself it occurred to me that I made people uncomfortable because I was happy in spite of the fact that I didn’t have any labels attached to me. Are you trying so hard to hold onto ‘yourself’ that you’re inadvertently blocking life’s intelligence?

Day 181

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The heart is a wonderful thing it has the ability to protect itself from getting hurt repeatedly – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 51 PM on day 181 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, go to church – the theme of the sermon was temptation and how we should combat it using the scriptures of the Bible – I could relate to the sermon because every time I feel attacked by someone I say to myself turn thy other check, turn thy other check, turn thy other check – it really works you should try it 🙂 – rest for three hours – there was a power outage and I didn’t have anything else to do LOL 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours –no donations were made via Twitter but another cousin of mine did pitch in with $21.54 earlier in the day – I was SO happy 🙂 – feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – and vegetable curry for lunch, watch TV, feed myself a banana for dinner and tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck –

Today after church we went to the mall and as per usual I was told to stay in the car so I did only this time I didn’t feel angry, sad or disappointed because I knew that the way people treated me said nothing about me. Do you tie your self-worth to what others do or do not do?

Day 180

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Guys are overrated – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 11: 11 PM on day 180 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – vegetable curry for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – @Pitbull1970 (Al) made a $6 – thanks Al 🙂 – start reading book Sea of Miracles by Amy Oscar (@AmyOscar on Twitter) – I haven’t read much of it but I could really relate to the parts I did read 🙂 – watch the Cricket World Cup match: South Africa vs. India – it was a close match but congratulations to The Proteas – our national cricket team – who beat India in India – it was the funniest thing my mother, my father and my brother were supporting India while I was supporting South Africa LOL 🙂 – feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for dinner and watch Aquamarine – a coming-of-age movie about a mermaid – I had watched it about a hundred times before but my sister insisted that we watch it again and I didn’t have the heart to say no – I’m a total pushover when it comes to family 🙂

As you may or may not know I do not date because in my culture dating is prohibited until such a time that you are ready to settle down and have a family and although it used to bother me when I was younger looking back on it now I realize that not being able to date has forced me to love myself from the inside out so I guess that’s one thing my parents did right – thanks mom and dad. Do you seek love from the opposite sex because you don’t love yourself?

Day 179

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Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation – Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love.

It’s 8: 16 PM on day 179 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and jam for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, go to physiotherapy, tweet about my campaign some more – my new friend from Finland @ptarkkonen (Petteri) made a donation of $53.85 – thanks for donating even though you didn’t know me 🙂 – what I LOVE most about my campaign is that it’s truly a global effort from Australia to India everybody has helped out – feed myself rice and curry for dinner, spend time with my cousin and tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck but I suppose $53 is better than nothing 🙂

Today as I was staring at the circular-patterned curtains hanging in my room I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the earthquake in Japan and life and I thought to myself Japan has one of two choices either they will raise out of the rumble or they will stay exactly where they are and having met someone from Japan I knew that the people of Japan would most likely choose the former. Do you equate ruin with devastation or transformation?

Want to raise money for Japan Disaster Relief? Log onto the website below and click ‘Get Started’

http://www.firstgiving.com/japan-disaster-relief

Day 178

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Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. – Leo Buscaglia

It’s 9: 57 PM on day 178 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself fish fingers and fries for breakfast – my mother didn’t know that I had also given up fish for lent and since I couldn’t make myself anything else I just ate it but that’s okay I know God forgives me and now that my mom and I are on the same page I doubt it will happen again :)– tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – feed myself a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner and watch TV.

As you may know I am not one for living in what could’ve been because I believe that when you live in all that could’ve been you miss all that is but today I was really having a hard time with the fact that from the moment I got up in the morning to the time I went to bed at night I needed help with something so just this once I allowed myself to write about my fantasy rather than my reality take a look:

5 Things I would do if I could walk

Bungee jump
Skydive
Abseil
Ride on horseback
Shark cage dive

Day 176

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The worst thing in the world is not rejection it’s lack of validation – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 9: 13 PM on day 176 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken polony sandwich for a snack – it turns out that lent starts on Ash Wednesday for everybody and I just got the date wrong LOL 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – feed myself butternut for dinner and watch TV.

Today as I was sitting in front of my laptop raising awareness about my campaign I couldn’t help but remember all the people in my life who didn’t even bother to reply to my donation requests and in that moment I realized that I would rather hear a no than get no response at all because I believe that even when you say nothing you’re saying something and what those people were saying to me was you’re not even worth 5 minutes of my time. Do you ignore people because rejecting them would be too uncomfortable? 🙂

Day 175

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Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. – Dr. Seuss

It’s 9: 30 PM on day 175 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and jam for a snack, fix my WordPress email notification problems – the team at WordPress are the best they walked me through what I needed to do step-by-step – thanks guys 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and vegetable curry for dinner and watch TV.

Today lying on my bed waiting to fall asleep I had a breakdown of sorts as I thought about all the people who were no longer in my life but then I realized that the chapter of my life where everybody revolved around me was coming to a close and strangely enough I was fine with that because I knew that this was the beginning of my finest hour. Do you mourn for experiences gone by or celebrate great things yet to come? 🙂

Day 174

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A hero is somebody who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible and help people. A hero to me is someone who saves people and who really deeply cares. –
Debi Mazar

It’s 4: 15 PM on day 174 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for breakfast while watching the Cricket World Cup match: South Africa vs. England – we lost by 6 runs but it’s okay we’ll get’em next time 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – vegetable curry for dinner – I am taking part in lent – the period of 40 weekdays before Easter observed in some Christian churches as a period of prayer, penance, fasting, and self-denial. (Note: my community goes according to what is done in the Eastern churches so we will be fasting for 49 days and not 40) – for the second consecutive year 🙂 – tweet about my campaign some more – I guess third time was the charm because @Dyan_Can (Diane) donated $10 –it was a pleasure meeting you Diane thank you for your donation 🙂 –and send two emails: the first to Brian’s mom, Lisa to see how she was doing (if you have no idea what I am talking about refer to End bullying for Brian) – Lisa and I have never meet in person but I know that if something ever happened to me I would want someone to do for my mom what I’m doing for Lisa – and the second was to the WordPress support team – my email notifications were being sent to two different email accounts and I asked them if they could help me fix it.

Yesterday I was watching The Showbiz Report – an entertainment magazine show – and heard that Angelina Jolie had stopped filming on her directorial debut to visit Afghanistan and meet refugees and I remember being so awestruck by the fact that she was so willing to drop everything in her life to go and help others with that said I would like this opportunity to applaud Angelina for all her philanthropic efforts – people may forget all the awards you’ve won but they’ll never forget all the good you’ve done you’re officially my new hero. Is there an Angelina Jolie in you? 🙂