first. i need to apologize for how badly this blog fizzled near the end of my time in buduburam. i got so busy trying to spend the money i recieved, and trying to make the most of my last few weeks that internet time got the ax.
i've decided to revive the site though, not because my life in kingston is super exciting, but because i seem to have started a bit of a bakery this weekened as a fundraising initiative... so get excited for more posts, and more run on sentances of course.
so, here is what has happened recently that sparked this baking business. basically, for the past two months now, i have been paying to feed 350 kids at the school i worked at over the summer. while i was there, we decided to improve the feeding program initially in place (they were getting a few digestives three times a week). we started giving htem oranges three times a week, bread twice and water every day... we were hoping that by providing food we'd be able to increase the number of students that came to class, and increase the preformance of the kids that were already attending. i had a lot of problems with kids falling asleep, likely because of their diet, and this seemed like a good spot to start. of course oranges won't fix malnutrition, but its better than nothing and is a good boost of vitamin C i suppose.
anyway. after the summer study classes finished, CBW attempted to find an alternate source of funding but, that didn't pan out. a week before school started they told me this, and i felt like i didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. i'm lucky enough that i have tuition and rent covered by pretty great grandparents, and so the money i make waitressing was able to go towards this feeding. i worked with jonah, the local who coordinated the feeding program with me, and we sorted out what would work to feed the 350 enrolled students. we came up with a $200 budget, and have been going with that ever since. it has been working out really well, but as you can imagine, $200 adds up pretty quickly. weeks into it, i have found that i really cant keep doing this by myself. its totally unsustainable and i know that my funding will end the second i graduate and have to leave my student bubble. i want to figure something out so that i dont have to bail on this program, and while this may not be an ultimate solution (i dont know if i can commit to being a charitable baker much more than a constant source of funding) its at least a start.
after thinking about what marketable skills i had, and realizing that i have very few (stick people drawings dont sell well, neither do pinch pot clay pots...) i decided to try out cookies. so, i came up with a list, a little sales pitch and set off to work at windmills to harass the staff there. as many people can attest to, i was really critical and pessemstic about the idea.. i was completely blown away by the generosity of the restaurant. after 2 days, i have managed to sell enough cookies to almost cover an entire week of school, and have had so many offers to help bake and expand the operation. after two nights, we've created an email address and as i said, revived the blog to keep this idea going for awhile, at least.
to start off with, im selling about 7 kinds of baked cookies (a few autumnal choices... felt festive) as well as a couple rolls of frozen dough that can be turned into slice and bakers. 6 cookies is $5, 12 is $10 and 24 is $20.. i sent out my first order today and it seem sto have gone pretty well- as it goes on of course there will be tweaking, but.. so far so good!
i wanted to get this blog going for a few reasons.. first, i wanted people to be able to see what i'd done in buduburam if they hadn't followed this blog while i was there. i also want to be able to let people know how this cookie selling is going, if we're doing new things, etc. if anybody ever wants to contact me, the official email is eat.to.feed.liberians@gmail.com. right now i'm based only in kingston, but i'll be home for all of december and will hopefully (with the willingness of my parents oven) start up in kitchener as well.
the idea behind all of this is pretty simple... since i've been home i'm constantly reminded of how lucky we are here. i'll be in 3 hour lectures thinking about how hungry and cranky i'm getting, and think about the kids i taught who hadn't eaten for days.. i get enough emails in my inbox from camp to remind me that this problem never goes away. while in DEVS we learn about the importance of making structural changes over bandaid solutions, it is a day to day struggle for these kids and i dont know how to make the structural change needed. besides, i really do believe that you need a band aid while you figure out how to solve the problem.. if not only to prevent infection and opening up a cut again. we have the ability to spend a couple dollars on cookies that we probably dont need (my stomach ache after baking today is proof of that), so why not eat the cookies we eat anyway and have the proceeds go towards kids who don't get that chance. every single cent raised from these cookies goes to the liberians.. my contribution from here on in will be the ingrediants, and i will continue to cover the weeks that we fall short.
so. there it is. the begining of my 4th year as a baker (not a belly acher.. westmount PS students and parents will understand the irony behind all that). any support anybody can give is more than appreciated - financial or volunteering.
lets see how this goes!
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