On the World Race your lifestyle changes. And while we live well on the wonderful support we get, We have learned how to make the dollar stretch as far as possible.
The first thing you learn about stretching the dollar is that you can make a lot of things yourself if you just have the time. Time is something we have. Back in Swaziland we needed flashcards for teacher training day. Instead of buying them, my teammates spent days coloring letters of the alphabet.
Something else you learn is that common household objects can be used for many purposes when the need arises. For example, Dental floss can be used to tie balloons.
Something else you learn is that you can reinvent left overs to make them into a new exciting meal. For example, Left over noodles and salad can be combined into a yummy Pasta Salad.
Yesterday, I think I went a little too far in my innovation.
I had made iced coffee. When I was done drinking my coffee, I noticed that I still had ice in my cup. Without really thinking about it, I rinsed the ice cubes and put them back in the freezer. I was able to justify this by claiming that rising the cubes melted the outside contaminated layer of ice.
Then some boys from the orphanage came over for pizza and a movie. In order to save money on pizza, we made spaghetti to supplement their meal. The spaghetti is cheaper than pizza. We were able to buy less pizza, and we spent less money.
Some of the boys wanted seconds, and first we had so much spaghetti I was afraid that we would be eating pasta salad again, but suddenly we started running low. Then we started running very low. But then one of my teammates noticed that some of the younger boys weren’t eating all their noodles, so they started a scrap bowl. The leftover noodles from the younger boys went into this bowl, and then I served from this bowl to the older boys. Not a single noodle was wasted.
I’m not sure that I really have a point in sharing this. Maybe the point is that I’m surprised that the idea of recycling spaghetti really doesn’t bother me anymore. Maybe the point it that little things like this make me feel like I’m a different person. Maybe I’m just going a little bit crazy, and I need to find a mailing address so that I can be sent some really fun Christmas presents. I’m not really sure.
