Hello,

I am a 25 year old, Mexican Student, I was born in Mazatlan, Mexico on November 21 of 1985, in a
middle class family. At the age of 18, I went to Monterrey to Study in a public University (Universidad
Autonoma de Nuevo Leon), where I started my undergrad studies in Chemical Engineering (2004).

After two years of studying and still as an undergraduate student I won a DAAD-Scholarship to
Germany, and went to Munich for one year (Technische Universität München 2006-2007) as an
Exchange Student, to take some chemical engineering courses. After that I went back to Monterrey,
studied for another 2 years, and at the age of 23 I got an Honours degree in Chemical Engineering
(2009) with the 2nd highest score on my generation.

Right after that on August 2009, I went to Mexico City and started studing a Masters in Chemical
Engineering at UNAM, which I droped due to motivation issues with the research projects, since they
where all petroleum based. Luckyly after droping out of my masters, I got a “very good” job offer in
Toluca, Mexico, where I started working as a Process Engineer in the R&D area in TEVA Pharma (an
Israeli Pharmaceutical Company) during 2010. I quoted very good, because despite the fact that the
salary was very good (about twice the money that any of my fellow chemical engineers was making)
and despite the fact that the R&D area was a really challenging area (a lot creativity was required), I
really was not that motivated with what I was achieving (The hole Idea of getting in the “hamster
wheel” and running as fast as you can, working like crazy for some one else, leaving happyness aside).

Back in 2005, when I arrived in Monterrey, and was about 18 years old , I met a group of friends (also
chemical engineers, that went to germany with me), and we always said that we would love to build a
society, a new way, separated from capitalism, governed by a policy of “sharing” (rather than by
money), using technology and knowledge to set free the real human potential (rather than using it to
make him “run on the hamster wheel”) and all those ideals...thinking (as young idealist people tend to
do), that everything was going to be easy.

As time passed we started realizing how much work, how much effort, how much LOVE, knowledge
and preparation it would take to achieve a goal like this... and we started getting REAL, but never
really gave up to the essence of what we wanted. We set a more modest plan: Instead of building a
society on our own, we would take part of a movement which had already started, by Building an
Ecovillage in the west/northwest part of mexico (Possibly in the zone of Jalisco or Sinaloa) and trying
to contribute with what we can, to the applied sustainability area.

And we started taking some real meassures. The first thing we did, was structuring the hole thing, If we
really want to be independent, we need 3 basic things: Water, Food & Shelther. After that we could start
thinking in other priorities (like an Energy system, a Health system with a medic in the village, maybe
learn some local herbolary , and so on...)

I realized that having a renewable source of clean water was the issue with the highest priority to make
this Ecovillage a reality. Since in the zone of Culiacan and Mazatlan, there are a lot of agricultural
activities involving the use of pesticies and herbicides (these Chemicals tend to have aromatic rings in
their structure which makes them highly stable) and are hard to destroy by chemical or biological
means.

After some research I realized that the kind of technology I would need to solve this problem was
“Photocatalytic Reaction Engineering” (it's main application is remediation of water and air).
Photocatalytic Reaction Eng. involves the design of recipients in which a reaction (that requires a lot
of energy) is promoted by light to take place. I also found Dr. Hugo de Lasa from Canada, one of the
leading researchers in the field and started to get in touch with him.

In May 2010, I went to meet Dr. Hugo de Lasa at a conference he held in Zacatecas, Mexico, about
Global Warming Technologies (CO2 Trapping techniques, and environmental friendly fuels), since
there where some date conflicts between the conference and a work trip to Israel, I had to resign to my
Job, just to be able to get to the conference in time. Luckily Everything worked out, and In September
2010, I started studing a PhD in Chemical Engineering with a research project that involves the Scale-
up of a New Photocatalytic Reactor for Water Treatment, in the University of Western Ontario under
Dr. Hugo de Lasa's Supervision.

From what I have read (so far), the Project in the Ecovillage that I will try to implement as soon as a I
graduate from my PhD. Will consist in the following technologies: Water will be obtained throught
conventional primary purification processes, Solar distillation, Solar Disinfection and Photocatalysis
(which makes it drinkable). Food will be obtained probably through Local fruits (Mango, Banana,etc)
combined with aquaponics (Tilapia and vegetables) and Soy & Corn Crop Rotation. Shelther for the
animals and plants of the Ecovillage, will be provided throught Rammed earth Walipili greenhouses
and the shelther for humans would be given by Ecodome Earthbag Building.

Currently I have just a little bit of theoretical Knowledge on the Earthbag building techniques and I
have read “The Natural House: a complete Guide to Healthy, Energy-Efficient, Environmental Homes”
by Dan Chiras and “Earthbag building” by Kaku Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer but I am aware that I
need hands on Experience and that Some workshops would help me a lot.

Since september 2010, I have been living in London, Ontario, And since I am attached to the University
Schedule, I was very happy to find out that we have a week off from February 21 to 25, which means
that I have time to go to the Four day workshop (February 23 to 26). I definitely don't have enought
money right now to pay for the workshop. My Incomes are a CONACYT Scholarship of 1,000 USD
per month and pay 450 USD for rent plus services (about 50 USD per month), and In food alone I
spend about 300 USD per month (grocery shoping and university meals). Which leaves about
maximum 200 USD free per month.

Right now I have 494.86 USD on my Bank Account, TOTAL, and if I take in to account that I still need
to save 100 USD to buy food, to finish the month (Next deposit will be on March 1 st), I Couldn't afford
to spend more than 400 USD in the trip. I found a Round trip to Los Angeles flying with “Spirit
Airlines”, that's 350 USD. That leaves less than 50 USD left, but I could borrow about 100 USD from
some friends for expensses, to have about 150 USD to stay and eat near the school.

I don't know in how much can a Scholarship remove from the tuition costs, but I was also wondering If
I could Pay You in monthly fees, like 200 USD each month for some months.

Thanks a Lot for your time, sincerely,

Patricio Javier Valadés Pelayo