Can I send money to a co-worker’s local account in Portugal via PayPal? How can I use PayPal if I only have a bank account in Tanzania? PayPal works in different ways in different countries. While you may also withdraw to a US bank accounts, you may also withdraw to non-US bank accounts in certain countries. View a list here.
Lost Passport
What would you do if your US passport is lost or stolen? If overseas, you would contact the nearest US Embassy. You will often need a police report. If in the US, your need to report it lost or stolen and then apply for a replacement passport. You may call 877.487.2778 or 202.501.4444 for assistance. It is a good practice to carry a copy of your passport (and driver’s license) with you while traveling. You could also scan your passport and email a copy to yourself so that you can access it while traveling.
SPOT Satellite Messenger
I came across an interesting product this week in Brigada. SPOT is a satellite messenger. This handheld battery operated device can broadcast your location to up to ten people you choose. Every time you press the ok button, your friends receive an email or text message letting them know that you are ok and giving them your longitude and latitude. When you press the help button, your friends are sent an email or text alerting them that you need help, along with the GPS coordinates for your location. If things become worse, pressing the 911 button will alert the SPOT response center who will contact you friends, police, and other rescue services. SPOT retails for $169 and the service fee is $99/year. Another $50/year allows your friends to track your movements on Google Maps while another $150/year provides search and rescue assistance. It doesn’t cover the whole world so check the coverage map – Sub-Saharan Africa is not covered. The help button differentiates SPOT from traditional personal locator beacons, as it offers a middle option between calling 911 and doing nothing. In addition, the ok button gives peace of mind to friends and relatives. This is a very handy device that I would classify as a mix between a “poor man’s satellite phone” and a “poor man’s Codan.” By that, I mean that if you worked in a rural area and your friend or emergency contact worked in an urban area, you could use the help button to send him a text message and he could contact you via HF radio. If you use HF radios and can’t afford a satellite phone this may be a good option to let friends know that you’re ok or that you need help. Visit the SPOT website.
Quickbooks 2009
Quickbooks 2009 Pro is now out, retailing for $199.95. The big change many overseas users will appreciate is that it now handles multiple currencies. You can track both the local currency and the currency of the donor country, or two neighboring countries. To use fund accounting, you will need the Premier edtion for $399.95.
Portable Apps
We know that the pen is mightier than the sword, but is the pen drive mightier that the hard drive? A USB flash, jump, or pen drive is something that most people own and use to store files. While these drives are useful for backups and file transfers, they can do much more. As a solid state drive they are not as fragile as your computer’s hard drive. One way to get more out of your USB drive is to run applications from it. Many applications have been created or adapted to run completely from your USB drive. That means that you can use your programs, bookmarks, and files from any computer. This empowers you to leave your computer at home and carry your USB drive instead as it is smaller, lighter, more rugged, and less likely to be stolen that your laptop. Many of the portable apps, as they are called, are free. There are two main “platforms” or launchers – U3 and PortableApps. U3 comes on certain USB drives, but is not worth paying extra for since PortableApps is a free equivalent. You can download many other individual programs. Here is a list of my favorite portable apps. You can also install these portable apps in your Dropbox folder instead of your USB drive.
- Portable Firefox, an internet browser
- Portable Thunderbird, an email client
- Portable AbiWord, a word processor
- Portable Gnumeric, a spreadsheet
- Portable OpenOffice, a office suite
- Skype, a secure VOIP, chat, file transfer client
- FreeCommander, a file browser utility
- IrfanView, an image viewer
- VLC, a media player
- Foxit Reader, a PDF viewer
- DeepBurner, a CD writer application
- TrueCrypt, encryption for folders
- CyberShredder, a permanent file deletion tool
- SIW, a way to find information about your computer
- JBmail, a very simple yet powerful email client
- Pocket Bible for Windows, a Bible study program – bnot free
- Blumind Mind Mapper, a mind mapping program
- Notepad ++, a programming code editor
- Database Browser, a MySQL & MS-SQL client
- Metapad, an alternative to Notepad
Outlook Help
Do you ever get stuck on how to do something in Microsoft Outlook? I came accross this helpful site today, while helping a friend delete a read receipt that was stuck in the outbox. Visit HowTo-Outlook.
3 Ways to Transfer Money
How do you get your funds from your US bank account to your field account? Wire transfers, ATMs, exchange houses, and PayPal are some common methods. You should always have more than one way to move funds from the donor country to the field. This is important in case one method is no longer available. Here is a simple chart to help you think through the ways to get funds to the field. View the PDF worksheet.
Power Problems
Problems with electricity range from surges to brown-outs to over voltage. Sollatek, a leading manufacturer of power protection products, has a good summary of the various problems you are likely to encounter. Click here to view it.
RSS
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is an easy way to keep up with your favorite websites without having to look at each page individually. Certain websites and blogs that display the RSS symbol (on the right) make their content available by syndicating articles. Many news sites use RSS. You can copy the RSS feed address and paste it into a RSS reader. There are many RSS readers available. Some mail clients, such as Mozilla Thunderbird, also serve as RSS readers. One of the easiest RSS readers to use is Google Reader, a web-based RSS reader. The link below is the RSS feed for this website.
http://missionaryhelp.com/wp-rss.php
The World Factbook
The World Factbook, published by the CIA, is the leading authoritative source of country information. Learn about the government, geography, population, and more information about any country. You may access it online or download it.