03/07/10

This week, Ken and Nancy arrived via the shipping boat that we use. Ken and Nancy are from Florida and have visited Sonlight for several years and love coming down here. Ken was here earlier this school year with Grant to work on our generator. Thankfully, it is still running very well.

To get supplies to Haiti, we ship everything to a boat dock in Miami which is then loaded onto the Lady Lotmore and takes four days to get here. Though it takes four days of travel, the boat may not arrive for several months. Sometimes they have issues with customs, with the boat itself or a number of different factors that prevent a one day turnaround (including the most obvious...loading the boat). One way to get into Haiti is via the Lady Lotmore rather than flying. The problem with taking the boat is that you need a great amount of flexibility. Ken and Nancy are retired so that was a big factor on making it a possibility. Without the flexibility, you may show up at the boat and find out that there is a two wek delay. Not too many people can fly back home and reschedule their time off with work. Getting there is also a problem. Ken and Nancy live about three hours from the boat dock, so each time they were told that the boat was about to leave, they would drive down to the dock and when told that there were delays, they had to turn around and go back home. The boat finally left and this week they arrived. They will be here for about a week and a half or possibly a little longer. They will leave when the boat goes back.

Not only did Ken and Nancy arrive, but so did our food. We sent our food orders to Sam's and it was pulled for us by employees at Sam's. The process was different. In the past, someone would have to go there and do the shopping for the entire staff for several months worth of food. That could take two days as you shop for the food, package it up and take it to the boat dock and load it into crates that you build yourself. The freezer food all goes in our deep freezers and is shipped down and the entire deep freezer is unloaded and brought over to the school. This week, we all met at the school yard after school was out to divide up our orders. Later this week, we should get the crates of dry food that we ordered. It's always exciting to get a boat order because it's a treat to get something in that you have been out of for a while. Tortilla chips for example. I can live without them, but I sure like when they show up!! Much more than that, I am going to like when my girlfriend shows up next Saturday!! Heck with the boat orders.