The Container is here!! (Kind of)

This should have been posted last Wednesday, but I finally have the pictures and a connection on my computer.

Leo and I went to Managua to monitor the unloading of the container that had arrived from the States. It was full of food, computers, toys, and other supplies for New Hope and MQV. (Thanks Dad for all the hard work packing.) I was told that it would only be a few hours and I would be back by 12:30 in time for my singing class with the students. I should have known better - I am in Nicaragua - but it was 6 hours later before we returned.

We arrived at a big warehouse were the container was waiting to be unloaded. It was not at the loading dock, so we had to go back to the trucking company and pay $50 for them to move it about 100 feet. Then we sat and watched as 10+ workers unloaded everything and placed it in the warehouse. One man counted all the boxes as it was unloaded. I don't understand this process, because in about a week they will have to load it back into the container to be delivered to El Crucero, oh well. And of course, it took a while to get started unloading and then they had to break for lunch for an hour. (Although, I was honestly glad that they made them leave to eat lunch.) Once everything was unloaded and in the warehouse, we were told - on the phone as we were driving home - that the final count of items didn't match the list we had. So we turned around the recount it ourselves, because if they find just one item of they will ask us for a "gift" to overlook the problem. We found our list to be accurate, but I found out the we still paid them a "gift" of $25 to keep the process moving, because we would like our container sooner than later. And things here are normally later.

We hope to be unloading the container here at MQV by the end of this week. Cross your fingers.