red taped container

It's saturday (afternoon already!!). I'm sitting poised to tell you the container story. The desk fan is whirring blowing away the heat and the concerns. Our container arrived on Wednesday... where do I start with the story. Being an English teacher, let me just tell you the main theme of this story - waiting and red tape. I must say though, I had very little to do with the container business, except unpacking our boxes into our house (yay I've got books in my bookshelf!!). So actually, I'm going to do a copy and paste job with Jair's version of the story....

"Its been a whirlwind week of learning the logistics and prossecess of the infamous SI port authorities. The soffrana ship arrived on wednesday and by mid-morning the container was already unloaded on the wharf. After almost a full day at the port office we only needed a 1 stamp to go that was to clear the clothes. They needed fumigation coz they were 2nd hand... Well in the numerous containers that have come to SWIM this has never happened. And I was anxious in a good way to just
unload and be done with the port etc. Well they decided to let the clothes go and it seemed all good.

But then they got hooked up on the ute. It said "used vehicle" and they were sure it was for personal use. I assured them it was for SWIM but they needed it in writing that it was donated. So Lauretta typed a letter and I signed it and went to the wharfs and were assured that first thing it would be ok for us to unload first thing the next morning. So Thursday boasted a fine day and we were all keen and ready... Well i could just keep telling you about the hick ups, but ill just say that it was 2.15pm when we entered the wharf!

After looking for abit we located the red container but to our suprise it had 3 padlocks instead of two! aargghh! ok so some more time lapsed; then we had a polite customs officer lady peering into the container with the full list of stuff. So we then learned that the place shut at 3.30 and had to pay penalty if over that! So I sent 1 of us 6 unloaders to hire a forklift! We were only allowed people with special wharf passes and they cost abit so we chose 6. Even vehicles had to have wharf passes,
so we used our mazda truck and we had a pass for our holden rodeo ute but its water pump decided to copy the Niagra falls and dump its coolant. That was just on the tuesday! so we were down to one beasty 'ole faithful truck. Sorry bout the side track...

Yep, so the forklift arrived in suprisingly qwick time and we threw the slasher and tractor body and wheels on and mattresses on and were at the exit gate at 3.35! If we were wearing capes you would have thought it was a superman convention...! BUT we somehow got the paperwork all cleared without a jolly 'PTL' (Permit To Land not Praise The Lord). Apparently the clothes needed a PTL because they needed fumigation! I thought that problem had already been ironed out. mmm Ok so it was back to the offices and some more waiting... Thankfully the offices were open till 4.30 and we got it
sorted just in time. (If they were in the middle of a signature at 4.29 and it ticked over to 4.30, they would have put the pen down and bailed!)
The gate security let us out and we were back at SWIM by 5.15! The truck overheated as we pulled into SWIM. All good. We managed to use a huge big large 'forklift' from OMEX nextdoor (forklift - as in its wheels the size of a small car and they use it to pick up trees and stuff... So we lifted the slasher and tractor off the truck and we thought we would be smart and put the wheels of the tractor on while it was dangling like a soft toy in mid air... but in our haste to make sure that we grabbed the wheels and hubs from the container, we kinda forgot the wheel nuts... mmm so we put it on blocks. No stress.

Next morning (Friday) we were up and keen as a fried bean and in the 'ol faithful truck. I put a couple of liters of oil in her then a few liters of water - hopefully that should fix it! We got to the container and set out to find our polite customs lady (we didnt want to be allocated a strict or picky person ) and we continued the unpacking! The rain cooled us down initially but then it cleared just as.....THE BEASTY HILUX emerged!!!! YAHOO!! yep I had cheese on my face non-stop! I worked quickly to put the frontal bits back on while the crew unloaded the bulkhead stuff and the rest of the tractor gear. We couldn't take any of the packing wood with us coz it had been tainted by kiwis so the container looked a mess with lots of polystyrene and wood and chip board. We went to the exit gate and had same PTL problem, this time with the hilux. It was still full to its eyeballs with gear and slasher on the back etc. We had time on our side today so I wasn't concerned. A PTL office person came down and after a littlebit of 'story', I followed her to the office, payed the fumigation fee of $100 SI and got the PTL. Mmm. I don't know how we got the PTL both times without the spraying factor but i wasn't about to question it!

So it got all unpacked at SWIM. A crew of 5 of us worked steadily on the tractor and we went for a lap around some dried mud
for the first time at 5.30! A good day's effort!"

So that's Jair's story about his adventure with unpacking the container. The goods were in remarkable condition. It is a blessing to get these little bits and pieces we packed a while ago and have the familiarity of books and stuff like that (although I'm not sure why we didn't pack any chocolate...). Getting our stuff makes us realise, however, how little we actually need it. Sure I'm happy to get some books and 3 jars of vegemite (why did I pack that again?), but they're things we hold on to loosely. The people we are with are phenomenally more important and we would hate for our possessions to separate us from them.

So, we're thankful for the blessing of this container and thankful to others for whatever contribution they made to get this jolly red banana smelling container here, but in the end, we know that God's other blessings, our friends and family here in the Solomons, you and each other are worth so much more to us.

So if another container ever comes again from kiwi land, I vote to pack you guys in it!