While you have been waiting.....

I know it's been a while, and you people don't think I do anything (those of you who keep sending me messages that I am behind on my blog :-).... but I have been busy.... as you soon will find out! And just for some added sympathy, I was sick on top off all of this.... I know, boo hoo to me :-) So here you go, my lovely audience...

Christmas in March!!!

At least that's what everyone told us it would be like when our sea container came.... But I am sure their container didn't come like this....

(One more thing I have to put in here before I tell the story is that the kids and I were in Australia when our container arrived. It is very important as the story goes on!!!)

Well ok, carrying on, all sea containers come up the mountain on trucks like this.... It is quite amazing that these big trucks can even come up the roads that we have here. It probably takes 2+ hours for these trucks to go from port side to Tembagapura....that is if they didn't have to clear customs and sit in the low lands just for the heck of it. From the time the sea container hit port, it was one month before it made it up to our house. (This is also important as the story continues!)

This is our container number. Don't really know why I put this picture in, but it was definitely important for the facilities guys.

And this is why that number was so important! When the facilities guys opened our container, this is what they found.... Yep, That is WET cardboard! YUCK...with a capital Y!

Now at this point the facilities guys didn't know the extent of the damage, they just called Chris and told him it didn't look good!

After the facilities guys pulled out the wood crates from the metal sea container, this is the water that was left. Lovely....

And all of this, because of this one little hole....

Chris calls me while we are in Australia with the good and bad news. The good news...our sea container arrived...the bad news...of course that it was wet. We still did not know how bad everything was. Chris stayed home from work the next day so the stuff could be delivered to our house. The things that were wet, were left outside...

Wet movies... So far, we have not found any that were ruined.

Our ottoman, that we have had for almost ten years, is off to the dump. This is where I am soooo thankful I was not at home! I hate mold!

A basket we brought, covered with mold!

This is where I am even more thankful I was not at home....Chris took everything out of the wet boxes to start drying them out. Most things were saved...at least the ones that were just wet and didn't already have mold growing on them. Did I already tell you, I HATE MOLD!

This was only part of the stuff drying out. The kitchen counters were full!

So after Chris had everything cleaned up, this is what was left for me to unpack when I got home.

Because things were drying out on the table, our living room floor served as our table, for the next few days. I don't think the kids minded at all!

So even though our things didn't come totally unharmed, we are very thankful to have our own creature comforts back! The damage could have been so much worse. The "experts"...the facilities guys, and Chris....think what happened was our crates were put in a damaged sea container, but our container was on the bottom, or covered by another container, so the water from the sea didn't get in.... If that would have happened, the mold would have been everywhere! They think that all the water came from the container sitting down in Timika, (the lowlands) and rain coming in because now it was uncovered. Because it took a month to get up mountain, the conditions were ripe for the mold to grow. If it had come up the hill right away.....well, I guess we will never know...

It has taken me a while to unpack, but we are very close to being done. When everything is put away, I will post pictures of the "finished" product.

Sorry for the delayed postings!

Robin

One more thing..... You know, the Christmas deal.....the kids now have all their toys that we sent over the sea..... Well, this is what they played with..........the BOXES!!!!