It's Here!!!!

Our container arrived today after lots of legal wrangling, praying, waiting, paying, and only God knows what else. Lots and lots of thanks to everyone who made this possible.

Among the things on this container were a cement mixer for construction projects here, construction supplies, somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 computers for schools here, literally tons of medical supplies, and lots of our personal possessions (among them, Matt's studio equipment - YAY!).

You'll see pictures below and in the next few posts, but there was an unbelievable amount of stuff on this container. Semi trucks are a lot bigger than they look!

Since we're in Quiche and not in Houston, there were no fork trucks to be had. The entire truck had to be unloaded manually. And today. The driver was due back in Guatemala City with the truck TONIGHT.

He rolled in about 11am. Jacob (the local schoolmaster/pastor/friend of our group) had to ride his motorcycle to Chichicastenango (30 minutes away) to get the truck through some construction. He happens to know the mayor (his son went to Jacob's school), pulled some strings, and got permission for the semi to drive through a construction zone (the workers had to clear all of their stuff out of the way first).

Jacob also supplied about 6-8 kids from his school for labor. Our friend David Deegan (an Irish missionary from just up the road) brought about 8 of his kids, too. A school they work with was also the beneficiary of a bunch of stuff (around 40 computers!)

Also, our friend Martin - a local mechanic - brought his flatbed truck over to get the cement mixer and the anesthesia machine out of the truck. We don't have loading docks here and we weren't about to lower a 700lb machine five feet to the ground with just our backs! Yes, we know the Egyptians built the pyramids without flatbed trucks, but only because they didn't have access!

Anyway, it only took about 9 hours from the time the truck pulled in until the time everybody went home. Our house is a disaster, but we're happy. Nothing appeared to be visibly broken, which is a miracle since most of the pallets stacked on top of each other had fallen in the process of transit and God knows how many inspections. The crew who packed the container was clearly staffed by geniuses who knew what could withstand stacking and what couldn't.

Anyway, enough of the blabbering. Pictures.