Tsunami Volunteer Support

I am currently working as a volunteer helping build homes for tsunami survivors near Khao Lak, Thailand -- the area that took 78% of Thailand's damage from the tsunami on December 26th, 2004.

Although the media has placed its focus elsewhere, there is still much to be done. The non-governmental organisation through which many amazing projects are being completed by people from all over the world, and the one through which I am working, is called the Tsunami Volunteer Center.

I have my PowerBook with me so I can communicate and do my own design work while traveling, however, the volunteer commitment I made is all day, five days a week, and so there's not so much time left (or energy, for that matter) to do work that will cover my daily living expenses.

So... I could REALLY use your help! While Thailand is really quite inexpensive, Khao Lak is a little more pricey than other towns since it used to host some seriously big resorts that are now washed out to sea. Even still, it's pretty cheap. Here's basically what I need to live here while volunteering, maximum:

- Housing: $10/day
- Food/water: $5/day
- Laundry: $5/week
- Transport: $4/day
- Phone/Internet/Miscellaneous: $3/day

So as you can see, whatever small amount you can help with would be HUGE to me, and of course, the people whose houses I'll be helping build! I'll be making regular updates to my site, so you can see the direct result of whatever you give. You can use this secure PayPal link to make a donation with a Mastercard or Visa (you don't need to have a PayPal account) and get a receipt for your taxes:

Because it's important to me to stay here to help for a while, I've made sure to work on ways to cover my expenses on my own over the longer term. I have one online business already running -- NameCat.com, my domain name registration site with a fun theme, and another business on the way: EasyPostcardPrinting.com, a site for event promoters, artists, photographers, and businesses to print high-quality color mailers and hand flyers.

Although NameCat.com is up and running, it seriously needs more promotion -- so you could really help me out by spreading the word! One easy way is to add the following text (or something similar) to your e-mail signature:

P.S. Hey, check out my friend's site, NameCat.com --
You can get your own (yourname) .com domain name,
e-mail address and webmail for only $8.95 per year. :)
<http://namecat.com/>

While the look of the EasyPostcardPrinting.com site is complete, it still needs a good amount of back-end programming work, and has some initial start-up costs. However, once this site gets going, it should bring in enough revenue to keep me going indefinitely, with a minimum of daily work. In other words, if things go well, it will allow me to be independent of any donations needed to keep me working as a volunteer. I'm really stoked about that! :)

Rafael

P.S. Seriously, thank you so much for any help you can give, especially your prayers. Truly, anything you can do will make a huge difference!