Pizza and Poverty

My roommates and I decided to make pizza together tonight, as we knew that most of us would be doing homework this evening and it'd be a fun break. Well, it has been a really long week and I'm just not thinking straight. Unfortunately, I accidently doubled the amount of salt the pizza dough recipe called for. We tried to compensate by adding more flour, planning on just doubling the recipe. Too bad I lost count of how much flour I added. So, I decided I measure out the flour in the bowls to see how many cups we had. But, I forgot I put water in the measuring cup, so I accidently poured that into the flour bowl. We finally decided it'd be best to start over. Thankfully, the pizzas turned out really well and were delicious.

After dinner I started reading my homework for my developing world class. The readings have been about poverty throughout the world. Here are some statistics:
•More than one billion people in the world live on less than US$1 a day
•2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than US$2 per day
•More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, including 300 million children
•Every 3.6 seconds a person dies of starvation, and most of those who die are children under age of 5
•Every year 6 million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday
Source: IFAD
Aren't those numbers heartbreaking?

As I've been reading in greater detail about specific areas of the world that are dealing with the horrible epidemic of poverty, I've been filled with gratitude for what I have. Too often we take what we have for granted. We are blessed to have 3+ meals a day and water available to us whenever we need it. I sometimes feel like a "struggling student," but really, in comparision I have SO much. I think this fast Sunday I am going to be a little more grateful when I go without food and water for just a few hours.
(P.S. I was feeling guilty about all that flour gone to waste, but my roommates were able to use it to make tortillas!)