: I am friends with a number of people who work for World Vision and get the
: money to where it needs to go without taking a big percentage for
: themselves. Unfortunatly that does happen.

It does seem selfish to be thinking of building a kayak, and I feel a bit of a dork posting about buying fiberglass cheaply when I know there are people in a world of hurt on the other side of the globe. I feel for those people, and I pray for them. I'd like to put some action with it by donating to the relief funds, but exactly the reason you state above is what holds me back--I want to make sure that any money I am able to give will go directly to helping someone and not into somebody's pocket. Even so, no amount of money I or anyone else can give combined will ease anyone's grief over lost loved ones. It sucks bad when things like this happen, but it's a big wake up call. We're all mortal and none are promised tomorrow. We don't have things near in control as we think sometimes.

Thanks to you and Nick for the posts about relief efforts. From World Vision's site, it seems a good place to put a donation.