I just drank my first cup of coffee in 40 days. Yum. I’ve been part of a group of people involved in 40 Days of Water. How did it work? You only drink tap-water for the 40 days. You keep a tally of how much money you saved by eliminating other drinks. You give that money toward providing clean drinking water in Africa.
It’s been a hard time to do it. It’s the middle of summer. I’ve hung out for a week in Clovelly with all its trendy cafes, no coffee allowed. I’ve hung out for a week in Bellingen with all its hippie cafes, no coffee allowed. I’ve been down to Terrigal a stack of times, no coffee allowed. And I’ve been offered countless coffees from friends and family, no coffee allowed.
It was a very useful exercise. I don’t really need coffee, but I did miss drinking it. Three things happened regularly for me when saying no to non-water drinks:
- I realised how rich I am. I have access to whatever I want to drink, whenever I want to drink it. I have so much money that I can spend $4 on a coffee without it making too much of a financial impact!
- I am so rich, such that, even when I don’t buy drinks, I have beautiful, clean, tasty water flowing like a teeming river form 6 taps in my house. What privilege.
- It’s not that hard to be generous with even a few dollars to make a big difference in the lives of those in need.
Respect for the effort Dave!
Do you mind sharing how much you reckon you saved over 40 days?
cheers big ears.
i didn’t monitor it tightly. and i wasn’t sure if to count everytime someone offered one at their place or not… (some friends the other night offered me one every 5 minutes trying to increase the cash!!!)
so i went for $100. i think that’s pretty accurate. that’s $2.5 a day. i don’t have a coffee everyday
peaceout
Another thing you learnt over the 40 days is how kind and generous your wife is offering you countless coffees everyday as she regularly (and genuinely) would forget about your coffee diet!!
Coffee adds up!
@ row – haha!
@ calum – true that.
Hey Dave
Well done on the 40days of water. Did it too, good experience (except for Australia Day with 60 friends on our new deck and too much peer pressure… I can’t have a beer till the 8th of March!) and scary how much we spend on unnecessary “stuff” I figure I need to donate about $230 (with the whole family in for about $500 total.
Enjoyed your posts re Vanuatu too. I am taking another group there with SU in July. I heard from the gang what a great Schoolies group you had. Thanks for your part in it
God Bless
Dave H
hey dave,
good work on (almost) making the 40 days too!!
it is crazy how easy it is to spend money when we’re so rich.
glad you enjoyed the vanuatu posts. i have about 5 more to come… i’ve been doing some research on early mission in vanuatu – incredible stuff… really looking forward to sharing it soon. we did have a great crew.
have a good time there in july. how many times have you been now?
keep trusting Jesus