Thanks for asking, and I'm happy to respond. Initially I had hoped this fundraising project would be over very quickly, and when that didn't happen, we've made it a weekly running thing, and adjusted to make it work. Making any major change to how it's done, part way though, wouldn't be fair to the current contributors, so we're just going to continue on as planned. The Steem for the project is powered up with the rest of my Steem, and only separate on the books. When it became an ongoing weekly post instead of a one-time fundraising event, I started self-upvoting the post (with 100% of proceeds going to the project). Powering up the project funds helps grow the project, and avoided them sitting idle (or loaning them out for interest). All donations have been recorded as they came in, transparently here on the blockchain, but I'm eager to hear of any calculation errors if anyone can find any.

You're wise to question about the delay due to powering down. I hope you won't mind if I re-use an explanation I typed out a few months ago, when asked the same question:

When the project started, I hoped it would only take a week or two to get funded. 1300 is small change compared to some of the spammy posts on this site that are making people rich! But alas, it's very hard to get people to part with even a couple bucks for a good cause, even when the only thing they have to do is click one single button - I've done the rest. A few other people (like yourself) have pitched in to help, but for the most part I've funded the majority myself.

That said, when we hit 1300 USD worth of Steem, the plan is to transfer it to Edgar so he can convert it into paper currency and make the local pump purchase (and installation).

After a few weeks, I realized this was going to be a process (far from instantaneous). Until then, I had been allowing liquid Steem (in the amount of the project balance) to sit in my account, doing nothing.

As you know, I don't really upvote my own content much. An exception is the weekly M:A-P post. I realized that if it's going to take months (not days) to fund the project, and I'm using my Steem Power to donate to the project, why not power it all up, and use it to grow the project that much quicker?

That's been working, but like you said, what happens when it hits 1300 USD in conversion value, and I want to get it to Edgar?

Regarding powering down, it's something I've done now (on my @greatesteem account) a couple times. It takes 13 weeks in total, to get out whatever amount of Steem you want from your account (in 13 equal weekly transfers). Luckily, that's only 3 months, not 2 years.

But still, 3 months is too long to wait for water! The project is already 6 months old, so clearly we're not going to save anyone's life by getting this well installed, but it will obviously improve the lives of several people. It's a project worth doing. Even if the funding is completed in another 3 months time, which would be 9 months after starting it, adding another 3 months for the power down would be too long.

You mentioned one of the potential solutions, which is pulling funds from my other accounts. But this is my largest account. Pulling from the others will reduce the delay, but it's not a full solution.

Another solution I've been preparing is what I'd call 'over-powering-down'.

I'm at 1255 Steem now, and about 185 of those are earmarked for MAP, so about 1070 are my own.

Assuming the price of Steem stays the same, which is probably a bad assumption but will give us a rough idea, $1300 USD will require about 2600 Steem.

2600-185 is 2415, so we still need another 2415 Steem.

My own holdings are 1070 now. What will they be once MAP generates another 2415? That depends how long it takes.

Assuming it takes 3 months to make another 2415 Steem (which would mean an acceleration of the project and several big donations) my 1070 will have increased to about 1315.

If if takes 6 more months to make the 2415 (perhaps more reasonable given the current pace), my 1070 will then be 1600.

Assuming I've got about 1500 of my own Steem when MAP reaches 2600, that's about 4100 in total (I'll nearly be a 'dolphin', briefly!)

At the maximum power down rate (ie: powering down my entire balance) would mean 13 equal weekly payments of 4100/13, or 315 Steem.

At 315 Steem per week, it would take about 8 weeks to withdraw the 2600 for Edgar. That's better than 13, and pulling funds from my other accounts would reduce it further, but I aim to do better.

Keep in mind that as the finish approaches, I won't be powering up the payouts anymore. That would be a waste of time. The last several payouts will accumulate as liquidity (doing no good, but ready for use), so I don't have to power down as much.

It all depends on the price of Steem, the political/economic situation in Venezuelan, the USD value, the overall crypto market, the degree of success of the project, etc etc etc.

But I believe with the above techniques I'll be able to gather all the funds and have them to Edgar within a few weeks (max) of the completion week. Maybe I'll even start the over-power-down process a couple weeks before the funds are all in, to give me a head start in having the liquid Steem ready when it's needed.

Perhaps there are Steemit users with liquid Steem just sitting, that would loan it to me (probably for a cost), so when the project finishes funding, I can send Edgar a payment almost immediately, and then do a power down to slowly pay off the loan. There are all kinds of services starting to become available in this ecosystem. Maybe there will be (or already is) a kind of 'payday loan' service I could use? It all depends on the details of course.

But yeah, I'm glad everything is transparent, because any time there's money (or even valuable tokens!) involved, people can get easily upset. Emotions run high around money for a lot of people. I've always avoided doing any kind of charity or goodwill project until M:A-P because there's a lot of sketchy initiatives out there and I don't want to open myself up to that kind of criticism or drama. But when Edgar's pump died and he posted about his desperation, and I realized I had a potential solution, I couldn't not get this going! I intend to see it through without any shenanigans involved, either from myself or anyone else. So far, so good. I can't wait for the excitement as momentum builds! :)