The BOAT only goes on for as long as I have places to stay, money to travel with and to buy food and books with, and safety, all my limbs, my sight, my hearing, my emotional and mental health, and my physical health intact. In terms of finances, I am funding this personally with my life savings, a small grant from my college which is only enough to pay for my rent for the summer, and a small gift from my parents for graduation. Once the money runs out, I’m going to have to berth somewhere, probably at my parents’ place, or get a Real Job (like consulting, or working for a multinational company). Since I am very very determined not to remain my parents’ favourite charity for the rest of my life, I really do need help.
There are three ways you can support me in this venture
1) Your hospitality – please contact me! Right now I am traveling down the Mississippi and have made it as far down as Iowa. So if you are along the Mississippi, and want to host me, I want to meet you!
2) Your financial support! I prefer to use Paypal, but if you want to write me a cheque (which may take a while to get to me) please send me an email at trueboatATgmailDOTcom to get my current mailing address.
You can find my Paypal button on my homepage. WordPress doesn’t allow me to display it directly on this page, but it is an easy click away. Right now my financial needs are for i) a domain name and some webspace, to host my homepage (currently at people.fas.harvard.edu/~jsyhuang). Harvard’s server boots me at some indeterminate point in time during the summer, and after that I will have to fend for myself in Cyberspace. ii) travel expenses: food, water, buses, trains (I always try to take the cheapest route), books (if you want to see books in my traveling library, which I disseminate to people I meet as the need arises, also email me for the spreadsheet!).
3) Your prayer! This is really the most important thing you can do for me. Pray for i) journey mercies as I travel and ii) that I will have wisdom and kindness towards all I meet iii) that I will be able to meet my expenses through donations and iv) I will never outstay my welcome in the places I do stay in!
You forgot to add that the money primarily goes towards new additions to your traveling library (95% of your luggage).
And that hosting will help you to save money on food & housing and that hosts will have the privilege of becoming a temporary custodian’s of a book as a token of your visit and promise to return