Sponsor money raised - sent!

Hello all :) 


It's been too far long since I've posted.... that may be because the water challenge is no longer on ;) but hey, I thought I  would post to put the final, final conclusion up. (I know, I've said that quite a few times haven't I? :))


All the sponsor money collected has been sent through First Class post to Tearfund today! 


Thank-you to all of you, especially Esther and Naomi,
we raised a grand total of £107.51 :D Yay, yay, yay, yay!!!


Thank-you everyone for your support and thank-you for sponsoring us, whether it was online or offline! 


You can still donate to Tearfund & help their amazing work financially by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/hen-waterchallenge :) 
Or alternatively, visit www.tearfund.org  :) 


Thank-you so much again! :) 

News from Tearfund :-)

So... hello again! ;)

The last time I posted, I thought that really would be the end... however, an e-mail from Tearfund  was received today, and thought you may like to see it :) 

Thank-you so much for your support!

I'm yet to send off the money to Tearfund which we raised through offline sponsorships; if you have sponsored us but haven't yet paid us, please do so asap! :) 

Thank-you so much again :) God bless x

Here's the e-mail, with the relevant bits you may want to read, about the difference it's made! :)

Supporter No: 3075644

Supporter Name: Miss HaEun Ji

Dear Miss Ji

You're a star, it's official!

We are writing to say a MASSIVE thank you for raising the fantastic sum of £40.00 by completing the Water Challenge. We're so grateful for your dedication to raise funds for our work with poor communities. You have made such a difference to someone’s life, how amazing is that!

The total we’ve received includes £15.00 given via Just Giving and we gather a further £25.00. The money raised will help our partners, working through the local church, to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene education to some of the world's poorest communities.

More than 500 families in north east Brazil are being helped by a Tearfund partner to overcome serious drought conditions. People from nine municipalities, covering a mainly rural area, are being supported through the construction of cisterns for water storage and irrigation systems. By collecting and storing rain water from roof tops and underground dams, the families can grow many varieties of fruit and vegetables even in the driest conditions. This not only helps the farmers and their families to have better diets, improving their health, but they can generate extra income by selling excess produce.

Maria Lucia has a smallholding at Sitio Alegre, a community in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. With help from Tearfund partner Diaconia she now has a cistern that can hold 16,000 litres of water. Maria said, ‘The difference is huge and I no longer need to worry about having to fetch water for drinking and cooking as I now have water close to my home. Before, it was a real effort to carry water from the local reservoir. I used to be very tired in the evenings because of all that hard work. Now I no longer need to get up at 4am and can sleep longer!’

Diaconia is providing families with toilets too, in many cases for the first time. Enabling people to have secure water supplies in a drought-prone area has other advantageous spin-offs; for example, it means there is less migration now towards the cities in search of work.

[Section abbreviated]

Thank you again for your hard work to bring lasting change to the lives of those living in poverty – what you’ve done will make a huge difference.

Yours in Christ

Allison Liu (Mrs)

Head of Supporter Services

Tel: 0845 355 8355 Email:giving@tearfund.org

Website: www.tearfund.org

The End.... ;)

Haha... so here I am - all rather very clean after completing the Water Challenge!

Waking up this morning, and realising that I could have a full-on 10minute shower, flush the loo, and just generally use water without the help of my measuring jug and various other calculations was just very pleasant! :) Carefully placing all my clothing that I wore during the week into the washing basket was rather a nice feeling too... ;)

Felt really clean this morning, whilst travelling to school in clean clothes & having had a proper shower ;)

Through this week, I guess the main thing I've learnt is that, unlike us, who can use water subconsciously at any time, because of the widely available access we have, there are some people in the world who's main problems and thoughts invading their minds are to do with water... whether they'll have enough to survive on.

This week has challenged me in so many ways; not just the fact that I wasn't able to have a shower, but the fact that I was using the resource I had access to in most places I go to, very carefully and calculating each time, so that I would be able to use it efficiently!

Before I started this challenge, I thought it would be too difficult, and that I just won't be able to do it... it's funny how, the things I thought would take up the most water (general cooking) takes up the least... and flushing the loo... well, takes up literally over half of my daily allowance! :P Haha(:


This I'm guessing will be the last post on this blog, from me... for probably a very long time(: maybe forever, but you never know ;) (not that I have anything in particular in mind in the reason to post again... obviously!)

But, one lasting thing...
.
.
.
Esther, Naomi and I did this as a 'challenge' for a week. There are people who do this every single day, without the luxury of free public toilet flushes and having 10L as a definite reserved amount for each day...

Thank-you so much for your on-going support(: & your sponsorships too!

Your support will go towards Tearfund, a charity that's working towards providing this essential need to those who don't have the everyday access to it, like you and I do(:

An idea of how the money raised will be used:
£20 enables Tearfund's church partners to provide year-round clean water, no more than 500 metres from home for one person.
£55 is the cost of enabling a family of EIGHT to achieve safe, adequate sanitation.


Hope this challenge has made you think, as much as it effected us in a lot of ways! :)

Maybe... you could try this out sometime? ;)

Thank-you, so, so, so, so, much, you lovely people :) xxx

HaEun's summary of Day 7... THE last summary! ;)

So, only three hours till this Water Challenge is over... personally, I think it's gone pretty quick, but I'm not sure what you guys thought, reading all these long blog posts of mine ;)

Revision so far has been successful to a certain extent, but I still got a lot to do... I'm afraid this summary is going to have to be rather short! :/  (as it has been for the past couple of days!)

So, water usage so far today, since the last count (i.e. last blog post) is 7.45L... I also drank about 485ml :-)
Haha, part of that was 6L used to flush the loo, and it wasn't accidental this time.... ;) besides, I had quite a lot of water on reserve, so it's okay :-) if it hadn't been for that, I pretty much would've used minimal water tonight too!

Anyhow! :-)

Therefore, total summary of Day 7: 1 Free public toilet flush + 10.75L + 485ml (for drinking) ;)
I probably won't be using any more water tonight... at least, I don't think!

Yesterday, I calculated that, my allowance for today was:
7 Free public toilet flushes... :P
My usual 10L allowance (inc. 1.2L for drinking)
PLUS 11.22L + 5.875L (for drinking)

Therefore, from above, theoretically, if Day 8 had existed, I would have the following left to roll over to tomorrow:
6 Free public toilet flushes... oops ;)
9.27L + 6.59L (for drinking)... haha :')

I guess the conclusion from that is that, I haven't used all the potential free public toilet flushes, and I haven't been drinking much ;) ooooops!

Haha, 'tis a strange feeling, writing the summary for pretty much, the very last time....

Will be back tomorrow though, after my exam, to summarise my experiences during the week! It should be very interesting... ;)

Thank-you so so so much for the support & hope you've enjoyed the blog :) x

Day 7 - How the last day of water challenge began(:

Well, I have a beautiful afternoon/evening planned ahead of me... revision!

But just before I get into it, I thought I would keep a record of how much I used so far on this lovely day(:

Haha, I love how I'm at home for the afternoon(: freedom! Listening to music and writing blog, after getting home on a rather peaceful bus journey straight after an awesome CU session, followed by a walk with two lovely friends(:

Anyhow...

So far, I've used about 3.4litre today... which is quite a lot, but it does include taking about 1 litre to wash this morning, to make my face appear a bit alive, as I'm feeling slightly ill(: and 1 litre was used at school, when I was washing my hands after going to the loo (at main school, before chemistry!)... (1 free public toilet flush used too;)) That's just an estimate, judging by the water that came out :P I didn't even need all of it, but it just showed how much water there is coming out every time it's pressed... wondering whether that's really necessary/needed... I mean, if not all of it is used, how much is being wasted everyday? :P

Oh, and I have drunk 200ml of milk this morning (which doesn't count), and some water (to take paracetamol), which I will count in later... once I've drunk a full 500ml water bottle (I drank if from that, to make it easier to count how much I drank :P) ;)

Think that's enough for now(:

Time for some mechanics... or maybe some tidy up before I get on with revision(; feeling rather motivated with happy music! You know, Switchfoot, Owl City etc. etc. :)

Hope you're all having a lovely lovely day(: xx

HaEun's summary of Day 6 :-) It's not purely about saving water.

So far, during the week and before I started taking part in Water Challenge, I've had various conversations with people, including my parents... all about how me using a 'little more' water wouldn't affect the whole consumption as much, and there's not a really point to 'just saving water'...

But the truth is, as much as we're limiting ourselves to the amount of water we use, this challenge seriously is not about purely saving water... as much as it kind of does in a way, it's about us experiencing personally of the situations which so many people face everyday on the other side of the world, because of lack of water. It is a serious injustice... I've felt this before, whilst in Uganda, but when I came back, I did try and use the resources I often take it for granted more effectively and efficiently, which, being honest, did start to fade away a little. I guess this week has made me think again :-) 

For those who know me, I can get a little bit argumentative... well perhaps a little bit more than that ;)

Alright, I can get very argumentative! But I am trying to make that happen less often... 

Anyhow, Naomi and I were having a conversation with one of our teachers today, and this came up as a subject, because we were talking about our water usage etc. :) The conversation overall was pleasant, but the one little part of the conversation that didn't really sit peacefully at heart was the fact that, on the topic of using microwaves instead, it kind of defeats the point, seen as the people in the developing world don't have that access... which I guess is true, and has a fair point. 

Hmmm, I really don't know what's going on in my mind at the moment, but I just felt kind of necessary to tell you that, even though I'm having an excess water that I can roll over to the next day's limit, and I'm finding it slightly easier than I thought I would, there are just so many supplies of water that I should be applying to my everyday life, but am not, because either it's just too difficult to calculate or any other weird reasons... But the truth is, I, in a way, have the 'luxury' to do that - to 'save' water... but I still have that access, and the choice to whether use more or not. Not a lot of people in the developing countries are in the same position as I am. 

As I've found out, no water = so many health & hygiene problems etc. Oh, I'm not even drinking enough either, as you can probably tell... It's just so much hmm... frustration that 10L really isn't a little amount, but once you start using it freely without a measuring jug, the limit gets filled up pretty quickly... 

Anyhow, moving on :-) Please don't forget that you can visit http://www.justgiving.com/hen-waterchallenge and donate (all money raised goes to Tearfund!) or you can just see one of us :-) Thank-you so much! 

Now, to calculate my water usage so far for today... ;)

I think you guys probably had enough of my long waffles.... so, here's just a sum of what I used today:

Morning before school: 750ml (and drank 250ml of milk, which doesn't count :P)

During school: 1 Free public toilet flush (used antibacterial hand gel afterwards!), 2L (because I bought lunch)

After school (evening!): 4.4L (200ml of milk, which again, doesn't count ;))

Therefore, total water usage for Day 6 is:

7.15L + 1 Free public toilet flush :) 

Haha, I love I haven't drunk any actual water today... ;)

My allowance for today was:
8 Free public toilet flushes ;)
My usual 10L allowance (inc. 1.2L for drinking)
PLUS 8.37L (general use) + 4.675L (for drinking)

From the above, I now have left (for today):

7 Free public toilet flushes ;)

2.85L of my usual allowance (inc. 1.2L for drinking)

PLUS 8.37L (general use) + 4.675L (for drinking)

Therefore, if I don't use any more water tonight, for Day 7 (last day! :D), I will have: 

7 Free public toilet flushes... somehow, I don't think I'll be using all of that :P ;)

My usual 10L allowance (inc. 1.2L for drinking)

PLUS 11.22L + 5.875L (for drinking)

Woah... that's quite a lot saved :P may use some water tonight... maybe :) if I can get a moment off from revision ;)

Right, better be off then ;) au revoir. Probably see you tomorrow(:

(Edited: 8:49pm :P) 

Second to Last Day

I keep forgetting about the loo flushing thing, So i haven't really drunk much recently.

However, good news, I managed to save enough to have a 'shower' type thing twice this week. So its relatively normal. Felix told me that if I hadn't mentioned it, he wouldn't have noticed anything different about my level of smelliness.

Its weird though that little things like flushing the loo use so much water. But also weird how I can save so much and live on so little. (i already knew this from Uganda, but applying it to my life in the UK is so different)

Last day tomorrow.. wooooo :) xxx