Help Blake with Travel Expenses!

Last year, I made the decision to finally do what I've always wanted to do: travel for one year to learn about farming and plant medicine. When I was 19, I spent one month working on a farm, learning to tend to goats, sheep, chickens, and bees and learning about permaculture and sustainable farming. We planted and grew the food we would eat and the herbs we would later process into medicines. While there, I realized many things: one of them being that it was part of my purpose in life to tend to the land and other animals. Here in New Orleans, I helped to start and currently help to run a BIPOC-centered herb and plant medicine garden, Liberation on Agriculture. I've also taken a number of different courses to learn more about plant medicine. I know that if I had the opportunity to return to living and working on farms, I will be able to return to New Orleans with even more knowledge that I can exchange with my community. Of all of the places I dreamed of going to, I knew that I would want to spend my time well and make an impact wherever I went. For this reason, I made a plan to travel to Central and South America so that I may help small farmers achieve their goals and so that I would have the opportunity to learn Spanish fluently so that I may better help my community in the future. With the knowledge I gain from my trip, I hope to be a better community member in New Orleans by sharing what I learned through my travels. I always tell people that I got started with one aloe vera plant at my first apartment and I ventured out from there. Farming and husbandry are things I am very passionate about, and getting the opportunity to improve my relationship to the land is very important to me as a descendant of my enslaved ancestors. They were made to work the land, their knowledge exploited for profits they would never see. I can never undo what happened to them, but I can honor them by tending the land in the ways they wish they could have. Bringing this back to my community in New Orleans and helping others to do the same is just as important. 

I did not have the means to travel (I was broke), but I knew that I could make my dream a reality if I kept believing in it. I'd never had the money to travel this extensively before, but I was finally able to see my plan come into view when I landed a job as a community garden organizer! I was able to save money, and after I sold my car, I was able to make it all the way to $6000! However, I no longer have my job anymore and I am just $3000 away from my goal.

I am starting this GoFundMe so that I may get support getting to my goal of $9,000 before I leave in February 2022. This has always been my dream to travel, learn more about farming and plant medicine, and have an opportunity to finally learn Spanish fluently through practice. If you are able to donate, I would be so grateful! In exchange for your donations, I would love to offer you:

<$10: Thank you card

$10-$30: Tarot reading

$31-$50: Tincture made with herbs from Liberation on Agriculture and an info card about the herb

$51-$70: Air plant mounted on driftwood + one of the other gifts

$71-$100: Custom candle + up to two of the other gifts

>$100: Any of the gifts listed above!