Breaking the Cycle, to Talk About Shipping Containers

There have definitely been a few recurring blog themes since COVID-19 hit Honduras. You could almost create a sort of graphic that looks something like a lifecycle of chicken. Instead of egg, embryo, chick, and chicken displayed in an endless circle, this graphic would have COVID-19, food shortages, need for backpacks, and what seemed like it was going to be a never-ending building project in Quelacasque. Today, we’re breaking free of that lifecycle of a blog to talk about… drumroll, please... shipping containers!

A container being unloaded into two smaller trucks, upon arrival in Gracias

The process of receiving a shipping container in Honduras is a lot more complicated than most people realize. Sowers4Pastors is hoping to receive the container full of food packed in Maryland sometime in October. The Florida and Maryland containers of backpacks should be ready to ship in early November. Shipping a container means that Sowers4Pastors can either get official paperwork for duty-free shipping or pay the duties when the container arrives.

The advantage of getting duty-free shipping is that you do that before the container is in port. The alternative can mean that your container is sort of held hostage until you pay whatever amount someone demands from you. For you visual learners out there, picture a giant, proverbial barrel. Now imagine that someone is holding Sowers4Pastors over it, demanding extra money before a container is released. You get the picture. This is why they are opting to do the extra legwork to get duty-free shipping.

When going through this process, Sowers4Pastors partners with another ministry/non-profit organization. They have Hondurans upfront handling the back and forth dealings with the government. Not surprisingly, the prices tend to be less inflated when there’s no gringo involved in that process. The other NGO’s lawyers get the ball rolling.

Every item on a container must be declared in advance. Clearly, that’s less complicated if the container is filled entirely with boxes of one food item. Currently, Russell is working with a lawyer to discuss what is being brought in on the food container--including the expiration dates, etc. That involves a lot of back and forth between Russell and the Spanish speaking lawyer. Just like the food in the container, the dispensa (government approval to ship goods duty-free), has an expiration date. The paperwork can’t be submitted too early, or the dispensa won’t still be good when the shipping container arrives.

Completing a dispensa for each of the containers that will hold backpacks is a far more involved situation. If there is anything in the container that isn’t on the list, Sowers4Pastors could face a hefty fine. It’s difficult to declare items that may not have even been donated yet! For that reason, they try to include anything that people might possibly donate.

Oh, and just to keep things interesting...There’s always a chance that the rules and regulations may change from year to year. You might recall that last year there were changes concerning how soap, toothpaste, and school glue were declared. After years of shipping those items, they were suddenly considered to be “chemicals.” Now, they must obtain licenses to have those things in a container. This is precisely why you want to be connected with an attorney.

The Sowerses will also be shipping some items for their personal households. Since Kirstin will be moving to Honduras as soon as travel restrictions are removed, she will have some personal items on one of the containers. As things stand now, it is highly likely that her belongings will make it to Honduras before she does. If Trish buys canned goods or toiletries, those get added to the list. She has been busy going through her pantry to see what they ran out of and what they purchased too much of last year. If the COVID lockdown has taught her anything, it’s that she needs to order extra chocolate!

 - posted by Christi