Settling into the challenge

Day 2

Feeling quite exhausted today, walking 20km yesterday and just over 12kms today. My muscles are sore, I am fatigued, dehydrated and my mood is down. It was much more difficult to concentrate on work today, which is becoming more challenging as I need to continue to break and get enough walking in.

I thought my long day of walking yesterday would have allowed me a quick shower, but after a bit of research I found I would basically have to trade in all my kilometers for a very brief a shower. According to a study conducted in the UK, the average person took about an 8-minute shower which equated to using 62 litres of water. That's nearly 8L per minute, so I would have to walk 6km to take a 1 minute shower. Things started to sink in (pun intended) further, especially when drawing those comparisons about how big of an inequality it is. 

I found this infographic to visualize this stark difference between a European country and an African country.

Reference

With this challenge I still have many advantages, such as I am not carrying the massive jugs of water while collecting water for myself and others, which on generally weighs about 40lbs (18kg). For a small child it's even less weight that can be carried, therefore less water. For street children who may not have any family members present, this task cannot be shifted or rotated to someone else.

I will write more tomorrow, for now I am off to bed to conserve my energy and water consumption.

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*Register your interest at: http://inequalityquestion.com/challenge/ to undertake a challenge in your community, or donate to participants around the world fundraising this month for S.A.L.V.E. International: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/InequalityQuestion