Busy, Busy, Busy

Yes! The container has arrived, and was safely and successfully unloaded in our back yard, our carport, a loading dock, and the mayor's yard.

Here is a picture of the carport, which I offer as an explanation of why I haven't gotten back sooner to report on our success:
On Friday night, Russell had been told that we should expect the container to arrive sometime Saturday. In the past, the containers have departed from Puerto Cortes very early in the morning; sometimes they even drive part of the way the night before, and arrive at their destination at 7am. So, we knew to be prepared for a possible early morning arrival.

Our good friends, the Wards, planned to come and help with the unloading. Their home is just under an hour's drive from here, so they were standing by, to depart at a moment's notice.

At about 7am, we received word that the truck had been dispatched from Puerto Cortes, so we called the Wards and told them that we were anticipating the arrival of the shipment around noon or 1pm. Arrangements were made for them to arrive and have lunch with us around noon.

At 11:15, Russell checked in with the driver, and found that he had only gotten as far as San Pedro Sula. We consider the distance between Puerto Cortes and San Pedro Sula to be about an hour's drive, so this was quite a setback to our schedule.

We phoned the Wards, and they were already on their way to our house. The decision was made for them to come on anyway, even though now we didn't expect the arrival of the container until at least 3pm.

We had a nice lunch, and the kids played games while Brad Ward took a nap and his wife Trish and I chatted.

Around 3pm, we heard from the driver again. He had made it to the city of La Entrada, which we normally consider to be the halfway point between San Pedro Sula and Gracias. At the rate the driver was progressing, he would arrive at 6:30 or 7 pm!

At this point, we started to have discussions about whether or not we really wanted to unload the container in the dark. This particular container, in addition to all of the gift items, also contained a backhoe, and the extrication of the backhoe from the container was expected to be a difficult process, which we didn't want to complicate by trying to achieve it in the dark!

The truck finally rolled into Gracias around 6:00pm, and Russell went to the edge of town to meet the truck and discuss the situation with the truck driver. Officially, we have only two hours to unload the container, or we have to pay for the extra time. We already knew that we couldn't complete the unloading in the allotted time, and that we would have to make special arrangements with the driver, as we needed the truck to be moved three times during the unloading process.

We were hoping to wait until morning to unload. The driver, in spite of his remarkably slow progress in traveling to Gracias, was anxious to complete his work and begin his holiday festivities. So, Russell came to an agreement with the driver: we would unload the small items that evening, and the backhoe and spools of cable (for the construction of cable bridges) would be unloaded very early in the morning.

So we set to work, in the driving snowstorm, to unload the first item in the container, which was thousands of feet of PVC pipes. Okay, so there wasn't really any snow. But, look at this picture, taken during the unloading process . . . doesn't that look like a fun holiday scene?

The apparent snowflakes are not an indication of para-normal Honduran holiday weather.

Can you see the increasing pile of pipes, through the heavier "snowfall?"

Sydney Ward offers proof that these pipes (purchased from a salvage yard) were not the cleanest things we've ever handled.

Once the PVC pipes were out of the way, we could start to unload the boxes and bags of Christmas gifts for pastors and donated used clothing. The truck was moved (just a few feet) to be closer to the carport doors. The unloading process was considerably slowed by the fact that the small items were packed in around the backhoe. Russell had to sit up on the backhoe, reach over it, lift up the items, and pass them along to the other workers, who would carry them to the carport.

Finally, around 8:30pm or so, only the backhoe and the spools of cable remained in the truck. Then, the menfolk went to work on the backhoe, making sure that it would start up and be ready for unloading in the morning. Meanwhile the women and kidfolk were all thinking about the fact that we'd had no dinner (perhaps the menfolk were thinking about this, as well). So, falling back on tradition, we ordered pizzas.

Some of the kids ran to the nearby pizza restaurant to order the food. The restaurant was very busy, hosting a private party, but they were open for carryout. When the kids returned 25 minutes later for the pizzas, they were told to wait another 5 minutes or so. Apparently, in their busyness, the cooks had forgotten to make our pizzas, as the additional 5 minutes turned out to be more like an additional half an hour.

The Wards finally started their hour-long drive back home quite late. On Sunday, we all slept in a bit, then the Wards headed back to help us start the sorting. Trish Ward is a born organizer, and she really got us started off on the right foot. We are so grateful for all of their help!

Thanks so very much for your prayers in regard to this shipment. The only glitch we experienced was the incredibly slow driving of the truck driver (we never did find out the reason he took so long). This ended up working in our favor, as the driver wasn't in a position to give us trouble about the complicated and lengthy unloading process.

Later, I'll give the details of the unloading of the backhoe and cables, which took place on Sunday morning.