The Dollar a Day Challenge

  Banjul, Gambia
Thursday, May 3, 2007

Recently, I along with several of my friends decided to participate in the "dollar a day" challenge. This involved attempting to spend less 25 dalasi (about 50p) each day on living costs. It wasn't an officially organised activity, nor a 'fundraising for a good cause' initiative - much more simply and selfishly, a personal challenge that sprung out of a discussion about the fact the all over the world, including the Gambia, more than a billion people have to live off this or less. According to the world bank, this amount is the minimum level for survival.

It doesn't last long...

Whilst here, I get paid a volunteer's allowance - a tiny fraction of what I was earning in the UK but a sizable amount by Gambian standards. This, I am ashamed to admit does not actually cover my living costs - if I truly wanted to it could do, but I have too many faults - try as I might I cannot bring myself to only eat rice every day, I'm prone to flagging down a vehicle to get to the market rather than walking for an hour in the hot sun, and every so often I like to socialize in the evening with friends. Not to mention Toubab costs such as phone calls or internet costs that send the cost of living skyrocketing. If I take a hard look at myself, I probably waste more in a day than many people here have to survive on.

So attempting this (for 5 days only) was to be a challenging experiment. This is a summary of the diary I kept.

Day 1

First decision of the challenge- a close friend of mine from home has a birthday. Texting her would eat into my food allowance and require me to forgo lunch. I consider pretending to get the date wrong and calling next week instead, but remember this is the friend that has posted me the entire series of the x-factor, and decide this is unfortunately a non-negotiable.

Bread

Breakfast is as normal a potato sandwich (a Gambian specialty that would see Dr Atkins turning in his grave) but aware it's the only sustenance I'm going to get for the rest of daylight hours I decline to breakfast as usual with the rest of my colleagues and instead hold out for as long as I can and dine alone. My colleagues after learning the reasons for my apparent snub are amused - cue much talk of the strange things that Toubabs do for 'fun'.

Day 2

I am forced to argue with the person who works in the local bittique (shed-shop) when he overcharges me for my sandwich.

Even in Gambia Arsenal graffiti is inescapable

The offender is a young boy whose family have kept at home to run the shop rather than attend school. He is a sweet kid with a horrible grasp of arithmetic and usually I let the random charges for items pass but today I cannot afford to. In doing so I embarrass him, humiliate myself and astonish the crowd of onlookers who are not used to seeing me act so petty over small change. I slink off in shame.

Day 3

The aforementioned friend from home texts me to tell me she has been accepted onto the VSO programme she applied for. This is again a must-respond message that will again eliminate a meal and I egotistically consider the thought that this is a conspiracy. Why this week of all weeks?

I look on enviously as my cat scoffs her way through her lunch. She is currently eating better than I do. But then to think about it, she probably eats better than most Gambians. This thought makes me feel terrible.

Potato

Between guilt and irritability generated by 3 days of rice and bread, I am now dangerously bad company. Which is fine because I have no money to go out and do anything anyway. Hmmph.


Day 4

Rumours abound of a sale of packets of instant noodles at the local supermarket which would make them just within my cost bracket and a welcome change in diet, but I am thwarted from buying any by the beggars outside the store. Begging is a common phenomenon in the Gambia thanks to the levels of poverty. It's a Muslim custom to never turn away someone who asks for your help and consequently, even the poorest of people will find some coins when approached by a beggar.

Rice

Outside the supermarket are permanently lodged a trio of beggars, each with physical disabilities who sociably greet all that enter and collect loose change from those leaving. Normally, I give gladly as I pass. Today however I cannot afford to do so and rather than risk the loss of honour of being unable to share, I instead opt to avoid the supermarket all together.

Day 5

The last day of the challenge and I am now seriously fed up of my lack of options. I've been invited to a friend's compound but have to decline as I cannot afford the fare to travel there. I have a permanent headache and grumbling stomach in reaction to the monotony of my diet and absence of caffeine. If I ever see a potato sandwich again I will shoot it. My house has run out of toilet paper so I am restricted to bathroom visits only within office hours.

To make matters worse, one of my colleagues has brought in breakfast for us all - a sizzling pot of nebe (a sauce of mixed beans). In order not to seem rude, I join them and watch longingly as they wolf down the delicious food. I cannot for the life of me remember why I began this stupid competition.

On the last night of the experiment we end the challenge in a local restaurant. The celebrations probably cost more than anything I've saved over the last few days.


Navel-gazing

Despite all my self-denial, I didn't even coming close to actually living off 25 dalasi a day. The budget didn't take into account the more general costs I was running up such as rent, utilities, insurance, etc etc. Yet still I found the challenge incredibly hard, much harder than I had naively imagined.

I have never really understood before now that it is not 'things' that money buys you, but choices. Without it, you have none. I've gone my whole life without ever really being without choices. Oh sure, sometimes I've denied myself things I've wanted in order to save money, but only because it's going to enable me to do something else I want instead. I've never had to consider every penny, just in order to ensure I make it through the day. And I was only playing at doing this for just under 5 days. For other people, real people, that I actually know and like here, this is no game, this is actual life.

This challenge hasn't changed my life or anything so dramatically Dawson's Creek. But it has made me think a little differently. The arrogant self-congratulation that sometimes crosses my mind about being a volunteer in Africa helping save the world, is blown out of the water. Mine is not a hard life.