On a daily basis I would think, “It’s so irritating to have less daylight. What if my life was really like this everyday?” or “I’m sick of eating potatoes. What if this was really all I could afford?” Even if I couldn’t get an exact experience of poverty, my effort to experience as much as I could made me recognize and think about what life in poverty must really be like. The $2 challenge as is definitely raised my awareness and/or understanding of poverty, but I do wish more people were able to have the same eye opening experience.

Next year, I hope the challenge encourages more people to participate. I understand why such a small number of students were enlisted this year (in order to closly monitor and evaluate our experience) but I believe a larger group would be more effective in raising awareness overall. Even though a larger group will probably not be able to follow such strict rules (boiling water, no electricity past sun-down, etc) if they could just participate to the best of their ability I think it would suffice. So long as people think about and realize the “what if”, I think the challenge should be considered a success.

I’m really looking forward to taking the challenge again next year so I can compare experiences, but I’m optimistic that the $2 challenge will continue to shape my perspective on poverty and hopefully bring new people to new understandings with each challenge.

If I were truly impoverished, living on $2 a day, there would be no potato chip, waiting for me at the end of the tunnel like a bright welcoming light.  But there is no tunnel.  There is no light.  All there is is my whiny bitching, and pretending like I had even a glimpse of the hardships the poor face.  

I cannot say if I’ve been radically altered, or changed forever because of this experiment.  But I do know I realized how just how good I have it.  My life is extremely privileged in comparison.  I’m thankful for that.  

But the only difference between me and them is an accident of birth.  That’s a scary thought.  So, I think about how I can help.  Because I’m not better.  Just once was luckier.

James, Over and out

I’m pretty certain I did change, even if the exact alterations to my being aren’t immediately visible. I appreciate certain aspects of poverty that didn’t occur to me before. The usefulness of dumpsters comes to mind. The psychological effects of being poor and not having “good hygiene” also are a little more clear to me. 

I think the exercize does much to help us realize the trials of domestic poverty and homelessness. I feel more compelled to involve myself in some sort of program for fighting domestic poverty now that I had a very small taste of it.

However, the two dollar challenge is a horribly unrealistic indicator for simulating poverty abroad. So much so that I would completely discontinue association between the challenge and people that live on two dollars a day in other places. The positive externalities from which we benefit must far exceed two dollars, let alone the effort required to obtain food and what little capital can be garnished from labor. In this respect the challenge is a failure for me. I can visualize living on two dollars a day in a developing country no more now than I could before I undertook the challenge. The disconnect is too great. Civil wars, malaria, lack of a reliable police force and all the other issues that plague third world countries are impossible to simulate in the middle of a college campus.

None of us will ever likely experience or even get close to experiencing what the people on the website for the two dollar challenge experience. It’s been said before, but I will also cite it as the reason I deem this a failure. 

On the other hand, the challenge is a success in that it made me appreciate the things I have and the struggle with poverty and homelessness in this country. If I were running the challenge, I would hand it over to an organization that deals specifically with domestic poverty. I would also adopt a new awareness program. An idea for an awareness program might include lectures, video series, slide show presentations or something in that vein of thought. The poverty action conference is definitely works to this end. 

Overall, it was an interesting week. I definitely changed. I just don’t think I changed in the way towards which the challenge was oriented.

- Jonathan Trenary

I found that consuming extra sugar helped with the concentration problems–but only temporarily.  I ate spoonfuls of apple jelly to keep my brain awake.  I also ate more potatoes and rice too, and I’m definitely going to the gym this week to make up for all the extra carbs.

My high school Spanish teacher told me that the poorest people tend to have the highest rates of obesity in our country.  She explained that the unhealthiest foods are the least expensive; buying cookies is cheaper than buying fresh fruit, and the same holds true for so many other types of foods.  I noticed a dip in my health while I was eating on $2 a day.  In development, we discuss the link between health and productivity, and after only 5 days, I felt a decline in my productivity. I can’t imagine what a huge impact that would have on me personally after several weeks, months, or years.

The What-if’s that were brought up were huge. What if Thursday had not been the last day. I was feeling it Thursday the low nutrition and lack of sleep was making all of my muscles sore and I wasn’t touching the weights. What if there had been no bagels. If our Shanty Town was reality would we be able to work together as easy?

I was feeling myself become more disparring for somereason even though there were no problems but hope seemed to be draining by the moment, but there was nothing I could do.

Although Thursday was good, was great because I had planned it so I was able to wear my other set of clothes for the first time and I had enough for 2 double cheese burgers for lunch at McDonald’s. It almost didn’t feel real. I was much cleaner and actually full for what seemed like forever.

As most people know I grew up in a poverty stricken home, and yet I would say this challenge opened my eyes to the plight of the most extreme poor who have no home. There is a huge difference between those who live on the streets and those just making under the poverty line. Most including myself would have instantly condemned the first as being lazy, but to fight on when you have no hope is almost impossible.

The moral, if we see our fellow man or woman down than we should try as individuals, and try as a society to help them because it could just as easily be you or I.

Over and Out,

-Mike-

I had never begged before.  Probably because I had no reason to.

So, I carved out a sign saying “donations,” and I plopped myself down on campus walk near a flowed bed.  It was 1:30 in the afternoon.  Not much traffic.

People walked by. sometimes, they’d completely ignore me.  Sometimes they’d stare at me in awe.  Some just laughed, as if I were a spectacle.  My favorites were the people who tried hard to avert their gaze, but I could see one I staring at the sideshow freak who was me. They were ashamed to walk by, stare coldly at me, and donate nothing, so instead they feigned obliviousness.

 I had a cup I had scavenged and was previously using to drink from.  I just held it out silently for a while.  No alms.

So I took to a mantra that I repeated over and over.  ”Tired, poor, and hungry” I chanted as I shook my empty cup.  The first girl to come by stopped by me and asked me if I was doing two dollar a day challenge.  I did’t want to deny it, so I said yes.  She pulled out $2 from her wallet and put it in my cup, and silently walked away.  I was very grateful, and I said so.  But even more so I was astonished.  Very charitable girl.  

The next person gave me a penny.  

“That’s more like what I was expecting”, I said to myself. 

As classes got out, more people came by, and my palty cup began filling.  I was surprised by the amount I was getting.  I had to sadly inform many of my friends that they could not donate to me because they were not strangers.

I later found out, upon reading the rules more carefully, that i had to donate all the money (which had been a suspicion all along). 

After 40 minutes, i stopped.  I counted my cash.  I had amassed $8.38.  I was overjoyed.  I couldn’t believe it.  As many TDC  colleagues pointed out to me, I made, on average, better than most jobs pay for our age group.    

I donated the money to La Ceiba.  But instead of money, I myself got valuable experience, and a learned a great truth:

Homeless people must make bank

I clunk when I walk, thanks to my dirty pot I’m carrying around.

I get some weird looks.  It’s not surprising though.

In my opinion America can be summed up in 3 words.  Greed/consumerism, individualism, and innovation.

It is ok in America for everyone to be an island to themselves.  We just negotiate with the people around us to get what we want but our interest in getting along with everyone else is motivated by our own greed.  And to give a little more detail to that thought.  Social Darwinism is very apparent in America because we are the top dog.  We are so rich that our national GDP is greater than two continents combined.  However, even with all that money we can’t fix our own poverty.  I don’t think it is because we lack money or ideas.  We have plenty of both.  If you can fly to the bloody moon, you can fix poverty.  We just don’t care to.  It is too easy to say it is someone else’s fault and be accepted for it in this country.  Ok that ends my bitching rant.

A possible solution.  As your mother always said.  If you can’t change something, change the way you think about it.  We can’t beat poverty when eighty percent of the country doesn’t care.  So a possible first step is to make everyone see what social Darwinism really is and the failures it creates in capitalism.  We need to provide realistic alternatives to social Darwinism as an ideology and mindset.

So in short, we brainwash people.  When people see things our way, they will do it willingly.  And yes I was trying to sound like an evil dictator there.  But seriously, look at Muslim countries for instance.  They are dirt poor but the poverty line by comparison to us is better.  They take care of their poor willingly and as a duty to their faith.  While in America when a homeless person asks you for money, you question their intentions, there they give money in the form of alms.  Give it a thought.  Though I’m sure everyone reading this, has plenty of those already.

That’s all for me folks.  I’m off to chill before JADE.