Por Fin, Por Fin (At Last, At Last)

I am thinking that you people that bought school supplies are wondering what happened to them. Am I ever going to mention them again? Several of you have emailed me asking me "what about the school supplies?" I had no answer. I did not know.

Last week, the container finally arrived in the country, not here in Tegucigalpa, but in the country. After all the paperwork was complete with all i's dotted and all t's crossed, we had a firm time to unload the container. Tuesday at noon. I was on my way to the warehouse, and Marc called and said hold that thought, the container has been delayed. Just at the moment the container was to be released and on its way to our warehouse, someone asked about another fee that had not been paid. A brand new fee that the government has put in place. No one knew about this fee, not our lawyer that prepares the paperwork for release, not anyone. Welcome to Honduras.

Yesterday morning Marc went to the office where the container was and it was opened and inspected on site. Containers are usually inspected when we open them at the warehouse. Marc called at 12:30 and said it would be ready to unload at 2:00. Marc and I were at the warehouse at 2:00, but no container. No surprise here. It showed up a little after 3:00. Not too bad for Honduras.

A few Hondurans that needed work were there to help us unload. I have unloaded several containers since I have been here. We did not have that many helpers and this was, by far, the easiest container to unload. We were through in just over two hours. Amazing.

The workers we had were amazing. There were three women and two men our friend Gina Larios asked to help. Each one took a dolly and, once it was loaded with boxes, would run back to the storeroom, leave the boxes and run back. Thinking of other containers that took several hours to unload, I was hoping they would slow down and not tire themselves. They pretty much kept that pace for the whole time.

I have been asked, since school has started will be able to distribute the school supplies. The answer is definitely, yes. With the rising food prices, the arrival of school supplies will help some families keep their children in school for the remainder of the school year. There are many places we will be taking school supplies. I will keep you updated.

To everyone that bought school supplies and sent them to Illinois, I thank you. To those that sent money, I thank you. To my friends in Illinois that took the money and purchased more supplies, inventoried, repacked and prepared everything for shipping, I thank you. And forgetting this was being done in the United States, not Honduras, plans changed. The container had to be shipped from Nashville, not Illinois. A big thanks to all those people that loaded a truck on bitterly cold and windy February afternoon. And thanks to Ron Ashby and Jerry Carter for driving that truck to Nashville. Thanks to everyone of you for your part in this shipment, for the heart that wants to see these children here in Honduras have a chance at an education. This shipment could not have been done without each and every one of you.

Now, I am ready to get back to the warehouse and get these school supplies out of there and into the hands of those that truly need them.

Terri