This Day Six. On day Six I was really sick. I'll discuss that in more detail in the second half of this post.
On today's morning stream I went into detail about the The Spring. The Spring is charity: water's monthly giving platform, that allows you to "subscribe" to charity. With an issue like clean water, there is an abundance of work to do, and the necessity of garnering donations does not go away after a year or two of fundraising. In some ways, every year, charity: water has to start at ground zero again. They have to try to find new and creative ways to motivate and inspire people to donate if they hope to continue to make an impact.
The Spring is the course of action that helps alleviate this problem, and guarantees that this problem will be solved. If you donate just $5 a month you will bring clean water to 2 people every year. If 100 million people followed suit, the global water crisis could be solved in 3 to 4 years. With economies of scale, it's reasonable to think that timeline might be even shorter. What kind of sacrifice requires you to donate $5 per month? Getting one less drink at Starbucks? Holding back from that Appetizer at dinner? Drinking tap instead of bottled water for the month?
In my own life I have a number of subscriptions that I maintain that are purely for enjoyment. I use Hulu (no ads), Netflix, and Spotify to name a few. Each of these subscriptions is around $15 a month, and are things I do not need to get by. I've opted to join The Spring, and donate every month as a way of showing my ongoing commitment to charity: water beyond the end of this challenge. I believe so much in the Spring, that I would prefer you commit to a $15/month The Spring donation instead of a larger one-time donation to my campaign. The global water crisis is not about me or my clean water campaign, it is about bringing people clean water.
Onto challenge updates! This was the hardest day yet. I was not feeling well. I have a pending strep throat diagnosis. I wanted to quit. Every time I thought about quitting though, I was brought back to how fortunate I was that I have access to medicine and clean water. Water impacted me in an extremely positive way on Day six. First is the ability to stay hydrated. As you can tell by my 16 or 17 live streams for the day. I had no lack of access to clean water. I've postulated in a few of the livestreams, that consuming contaminated water while sick could have compounding negative effects on unwell individuals. In a state where you immune system is already compromised, drinking water that is full of bacteria and parasites seems like a path to quick demise. I'll need a scientist or doctor to confirm my suspicions, but it was something I thought about.
In addition to hydration, several times throughout the day I was feverish with extreme chills. The kind of chills that have your whole body doubled over and you are trying to regulate your breathing to get a handle on it. I could not get warm. I was equipped with layers of clothing, wool socks, gloves, slippers, and more, all while in a house that was being kept at 73 degrees fahrenheit and sitting in front of a gas fireplace. Good thing I have access to clean hot water! In addition to hot baths and showers, the house we rent has a hot tub in the back. I made use of all three of these options, some multiple times on day six. For these reasons, and more, I did not quit the challenge!
In some ways, I'm grateful I got sick. Helping develop more perspective is a personal goal of this challenge. Having to complete at least a part of the challenge while sick, has helped create more depth in my understanding and empathy of these very real issue. I am blessed to have, and blessed to better understand.
Here is the rest of Day Six live streams for your catch up pleasure. Including a particularly attractive video of my consuming a large bowl of Pho...