Month of TDC : Peruvian Edition
I was lucky enough to be a participant in the Two Dollar Challenge for two years at the University of Mary Washington and wanted to continue the trend, despite the fact I was studying abroad in Peru.The challenge is an educational exercise and a fundraising tool where participants experience the constraints faced by nearly half the world’s population for five consecutive days. To make things more interesting I decided to expand the challenge to a whole month and see what happens. During my experience I wrote about the things I learned from living on such a small amount of money. It is an exposure of contrasts between my daily life and the challenges of poverty. To learn more about the challenge, I suggest visiting the website and getting involved.
My Timeline
March 28th – 30th
Three days without eating to begin the challenge
April 1st – 5th
Participate in TDC during the same week as my classmates at Mary Washington. This meant $2 per day for everything from bus rides to food.
April 6th – 30th
Live on two dollars of food a day that is permitted to be spent in lump sums. Given that I was abroad one would expect me to enjoy such a life experience, hence excursions and hygienics were excused. This allowed me to make the most of Peru while participating and fundraising on two dollars a day. I also volunteered throughout April in rural communities and low-income areas that helped inform this blog.
Jeff Paddock
Suddenly-Human 