News on our Christmas Shipment

Today we have good news and bad news.

Russell called me from the agency in Puerto Cortes this morning. The news he had received was unexpected. They are saying that we will likely receive the release on the huge container from MD later today, but we will likely not receive the release on the shipment of boxes from Florida until after Christmas. (I thought it would likely go the other way, with the Florida stuff coming first.)

This is good news, because we are paying a $50/day storage fee on the container which might be released today. The sooner we stop paying those fees, the better.

It is also bad news, because the Christmas gifts are not in the container, they are in the boxes. Also, the arrival of the container means a HUGE amount of work for us, which we were sort of hoping wouldn't have to be done during the last few days before Christmas.

The entire container has to be unloaded within two hours of arrival in Gracias (which would be no sooner than tomorrow . . . more likely Christmas eve). The container includes some heavy spools of cable for the bridge construction project, and a huge backhoe, which Russell will have to unload. Driving the backhoe in and out of the container is dangerous and difficult, but it will have to be done by Russell, or supervised by Russell, in a rush, once the container arrives.

The rest of the contents of the container will be unloaded onto our carport, without the use of any equipment. We just walk back and forth from the truck to the carport, carrying one box at a time. It is tedious.

We have also been warned that the backhoe may have leaked hydraulic fluid into the bottom of the container, which would mean that we would have a bunch of messy boxes and bags to deal with upon arrival.

Oh, there's actually some additional good news. Because Russell will be driving home without a load of boxes in his vehicle, we believe he will be able to stop off in San Pedro Sula and get us a HAM for Christmas. This makes me drool just thinking about it!

Also, we are getting a bit short on cash, and he was likely going to have to return to the city sometime next week, to deliver a check to our check cashing company. Now, he can drop that off when he goes back north to pick up the FL shipment, instead of making a special trip just for that.

We are still waiting to hear how much will be assessed in duties. We expect this to be a large amount, because of the backhoe, but we are hoping that it will not be more than normally exorbitant!

Prayers, as always, would be appreciated!