Beans Hijacked

The heavy rains in September destroyed the bean crop in Honduras. When given an opportunity to bring some beans into the country, we jumped at it. These two containers of beans have been a headache from the word go.

The beans arrived at the port on the 26th of November. Containers are usually shipped to arrive at our warehouse. These were shipped to the port, meaning we were responsible for getting them from the port to the warehouse.

When they arrived, no one would believe they were to give away to the poor. The people at the port insisted that no one brings that much food into the country to give away. They must be to resell. Even when the president's office got involved, it did not speed things up in getting the beans release. Marc was working on this and Milton was working on this, and, of course, the president's office. Once they could finally be released, they had sat in port so long that there were bugs in them and had to spend another four days being fumigated, all the while accumulating demurage charges.

At one time, Marc thought they would be to the warehouse and delivered before we left on the 11th. Maybe in a perfect world.

Last night around 7:00, a very tired Milton called and said the beans were on their way to Tegucigalpa and Campimento. Marc was still sure they could be delivered before Christmas. No rest for Milton.

This morning the phone began ringing early. One truck, full of beans, had been stolen. Missing in action. The truck had been hijacked. As the truck was stopped in some road construction, the highjacker jumped on the truck and held a gun to the driver. The driver willingly gave up the truck. I am quite sure I would have done the same thing. A short while later, the phone rang again and Milton said the truck had been recovered and the driver was ok. Praise God for those two things. The beans were gone.

Those beans were to be given to the poor. We can only hope the beans will still feed poor people. They may be sold at an exorbitant price, but hopefully, they will still feed the poor in one way or another. We will never know what happens to that one container of beans. And with the other container, many people will still be fed. They will only receive half as much as originally planned.

The truck belonged to the head of the Honduran police. He is one angry fellow that his truck loaded with beans for the poor was stolen. He plans on finding the highjackers. And too bad for them if he does.

I cannot close this blog by saying, "it has been another great day in Honduras," when in fact it has been a pretty bad day in Honduras. But a lot of people will still have beans on their tables for Christmas, and for that we give thanks.

Terri