Slum Survivor - Clare Richards

 

One billion people in the world live in slums. Basically, we spent a weekend living just like one sixth of the world does. I was never really sure what I was getting myself into. No showers? No makeup? Rice and lentils for every meal? Living in a slum is completely different to the comfortable life we’re used to.

We built our slum the first day, which was good. The next day, it got demolished. We weren’t impressed. This happens a lot to slum dwellers though, as they are forced to build illegally on land they don’t own. The first time we ate rice and lentils, it didn’t seem too bad. The second time, it started to get boring. The third time - horrible. And a bit of advice - Chinese five spice is NOT a good flavouring. Sleeping on a concrete floor just isn’t the same as a comfy mattress. There’s no central heating in slums either, surprisingly enough.

The second night it started chucking it down. And guess what, our slum started leaking. With no books, computers or iPods, it’s easy to get bored. Although this may not seem like the ideal way to spend a weekend, it was actually really fun. It’s crazy how badly people will want to win a game of football for a quarter of a snickers bar when you’ve been living off rice and lentils. One of the highlights was being visited by a fire engine, as one of the neighbours must have thought the church was on fire (it was just a campfire). Most importantly though, we had the chance to find out what it’s like for all those living in slums. As well as this, we raised a lot of money for those people who really need it.

It really made me appreciate the things we do have. I’ve never been as thankful for food as when we all had an amazing meal given to us!