Last week was full of excitement. It was spring break for me, but that meant that I just had to work full time at my other jobs. My IT job was fairly straight forward, other than hunting for a virus and keeping them internet up and running there wasn't much going on. My second job that week involved learning about the pharmacy. At some point in the near future I am going to be working there everyday logging incoming and outgoing medications. So, this was my week to get familiar with how it all goes.
One of the major events of the year happened this week too. The pharmacy got a container of medicine. The order had been placed last fall and it had finally arrived. At 7:30 in the morning a few dozen people showed up and helped unload the massive amount of stuff from a full 20 foot container just like the one in this picture.

The pharmacy usually gets two shipments this large a year. Although, throughout the year small shipments of donated or emergently purchased medicine arrives. But twice a year there is a big shipment. It is a big ordeal to get all the supplies out of the container and into the pharmacy where it will be stored until it is needed. As each box came out of the container a number was written on it and the man with the box was supposed to take the box to that numbered room.  I was assigned a room to manage. I told the men on which pile to put the box. After about an hour of unloading the stream of men and boxes finally stopped and I realized my checklist was almost complete. I wandered outside to see what else could be done. When I got outside I noticed that there were many people on the truck and all talking very quickly. I soon discovered that the driver of the truck had decided that there was not going to be any more boxes unloaded until he was paid.  We all waited around for a few more minutes hoping that this would get resolved quickly and we would finish unloading the container. That was not the case. After many phone calls and waiting, the container was finally fully unloaded sometime in the afternoon. It was a success. The pharmacy had enough supplies for a few more months and it seems like we got everything that was ordered. 

Now for the other container. Last year when we were preparing to move here we were told by several people that we could send some of our things to a container in Florida and it would make its way over here and arrive by June. Today we were informed that only hospital essential equipment would be sent over on the container. I am fairly sure that means almost none of things that we had hoped would be coming in June will be coming. Oh well. One missionary couple here told us their tale of not getting their container full of stuff for almost three years. Since we waited almost three months for that last of our bags to arrive here I guess we can wait three years for the rest. Oh yeah, we'll be gone from here in three years. Hope the people here enjoy our stuff.