Missions Week Challenges

This past week Riëtte and I underwent the 4 challenges leading up to the Missions Week.
It really was an eye-opening experience to see what we have become so accustomed to and also so easily take for granted...

Day 1 - Monday
No running water in the house

This is the bucket of water I went to fetch from our neighbours. It was also an opportunity to share with them what we are doing this week and why we are doing it. At the end of the week he came over just to hear how the rest of the challenged went. Progress =)

The challenges we faced were basics like flushing the toilet, cleaning your hands, brushing your teeth and taking a bath (which both of us had to do from that bucket). We only went a day without running water and it stretched us a lot. Knowing that you don't have running water in the house makes you use it a lot more sparingly...

Day 2 - Tuesday
Public transport

I have taken taxi's before. But today was a bit different as I had to take it from my house. I ended up walking 3-4 km's to find a taxi and the 20min drive with my car took me 1hr+...


What I learnt is that it's better to just wait for the taxi to come to you than to keep on walking. I missed one because of that. One taxi drove past me probably because he didn't understand the white man waving his hand around. You also have to get started A LOT earlier to be on time and it only cost me R7 to travel from Pierre van Ryneveld to Southdowns!!!

Day 3 - Wednesday
Feed the family with R20

 This was really a fun challenge! It is incredible what you can achieve when your budget is only R20!!! Riëtte, being the amazing woman she is, worked out our "meal plan" for the day.
Breakfast : 70g Mieliepap @ R0.50
Lunch : 2 slices of bread with Marmite @ R1.14
Supper : Spinach, beans and noodle soup @ R8.53

The supper was enough to easily feed 4 people and it was yummy!!

In total it worked out to R10.17 per person so that adds up to R20.34 (the 34c we found lying around in the house hehe). We have learnt that you can do A LOT with A LITTLE! Recipe available at request =)

Day 4 - Thursday
No electricity

Thursdays are normally our "date night" so why not make it a candle light dinner!
The irony is that when I got home our electricity was really off so all this was not make believe!
What I learned is that you have to be geared for it!! A headlamp is really a MUST!

Luckily we have a gas braai so we could do most of our cooking on it. What I really like the most about not having power is the "quietness". Just because you cant spend time in front of the computer or the TV means that there is suddenly just so much more time available in the evening.

After doing it for one evening I think we might just make every date night a "non-electricity" night as well!!







Doing the challenges this week was really a fun experience, but also a reality check to realize how much we have to be thankful for. In our own city there are people who live like this every day...