It’s Day 17 of our crowdfunding campaign “Our Quest for Water” and my eyes are sore. Budoy, one of our farm dogs, is beside me watching my tears while chomping on cherry tomatoes and papaya wondering why I’m not dirty and fetching water. I asked Budoy, “what do you say when you see three holes on the ground?” He just barked. The answer: Well, well, well!
I wish it’s as simple as depositing our humanure in our waterless composting toilet. But it took us a year to plan a crowdfunding campaign for a solar powered deep well pump system. After observing the wet and dry season for two years and doing other interventions such as gray water recycling, rainwater harvesting, digging a shallow well, swales and a mini dam, we know we need a deeper well powered by the sun to pump groundwater during the dry spell.
Crowdfunding is not easy. A realization comes to mind inspired by the Moneyless Man – “We live in a culture that values belongings more than belonging… Our culture needs to radically change. Which way it goes depends on what we give our precious lives to, and what we support.” To follow his thread, there are two things being crowdfunded in two different platforms. One has $649,199 pledged towards it with a goal of $100,000 with 39 days to go. The other has $2,351 pledged towards it with a goal of $13,121 with 28 days to go.
One is for a phone app that locks and unlocks your doors wherever you are (that is if you have a home). This is truly convenient and innovative.
The other is for a solar powered deep well pump for a small permaculture farm to thrive, a farm run by women who are investing in nature and giving back to its community. With
access to water it needs, it can be a farm that is productive the whole year round and showcase the potent of the sun as energy source. It can be a farm where people of all ages can come during summer to learn to build natural homes, a farm that can be self-reliant and can have a potential to share its surplus. It can be a farm and a community that can have access to water in the event of drought and a disaster. It can be a farm and an alternative school that aspires to share and learn with others on how to address our needs that doesn’t cost us the earth.
This water from the sun does not cost $100,000 to become a reality, only another $10,770.
So why do I have teary eyes Budoy? Because I realize that this campaign is not just about the water and the well. This is about people and the future we want to build. We now know that our friends, families and whoever they can reach to spread the word will help us dig that well. We continue to have support for the campaign and we’ve gained a lot of new friends and have found many like-minded people and groups around the world. So let’s sleep and rest our weary eyes Budoy .
P.S. Making a pledge is easy and you can do it here.
