Back in April, Jon helped me pack up about 1000 pounds of random stuff (toiletries, some food, mattress, TV, clothes, shoes, and some board (bored) games) into an elevator-sized wooden crate. I itemized all the boxes, insured it all against theft and destruction, crossed my fingers and sent it off on its journey to Malawi. The expected arrival date was June 4th.
A few weeks ago, I contacted the un-named shippers for an estimate of the arrival date and was told June 18th! Hallelujah! I could use some soap and good toothpaste right about now, and some new-to-here clothes would be welcome. Not surprisingly, my things are not here. In fact, they are not in the country. Or, are they? I can’t possibly do it justice, so here are some quotes from the myriad emails exchanged this week with the shippers involved in this complicated and opaque process:
June 22, 2010:
“All I was able to find out was that your household goods left Charleston April 20 aboard the Bonn Express bound for Antwerp. I was also able to confirm that the vessel docked in Antwerp May 3rd. My contact at the steamship line here in the States emailed its counterpart in Europe to get transportation details of your household goods Antwerp to Lilongwe. That is the last piece of the puzzle missing and as soon as I find it, I will let you know.”
June 20, 2010:
“”The container which carried your shipment is still in Durban not destuffed yet, according to the agent in RSA she said may be it will be offloaded next week Thursday, after that it’s when they will prepare the documentation for it to embark on road transport to Malawi but she doesn’t know when it will leave Durban to Malawi.”
June 18, 2010:
“I tried to get in touch with Ecu-Line South Africa to get an update on your household goods, but the line was constantly busy.”
June 18, 2010:
“According to the information we received late today, your household goods are already in Lilongwe. I was not able, however, to confirm exactly where. I will call the steamship line tomorrow morning @ 9 am & speak with the Traffic Department Manager and get an exact address of the location of your household goods.
June 17, 2010:
“We received all the documents for clearing but this shipment it’s very difficult to track because it’s an LCL shipment and we don’t know whether it is Johannesburg or Malawi because the agent in RSA is not responding to my branch e-mails .”
Please please please tell me your stuff will arrive! It reminds me of the several times my luggage didn't arrive when I got to Lilongwe and no one ever knew where it was - though miraculously it did arrive a few days later. Thank G-D. I remember trying to buy clothes to wear in the two boutiques withe imports from South Africa covered in dust. Maybe there are more options now?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't bet my life on it, but I assume it will get here some day. I don't mind the delay, I mind that I paid a lot of money to have multiple people tell me that that they have no idea where the box is. We are not talking about a letter; we are talking about an elevator size!
ReplyDelete"We can confirm that your package is still on this planet and still in this time strain of reality. However, the last report states that it was shrunk by a freak scientific experiment at the port in Johannesberg. Bad part of this: most of your stuff is useless. Good part of this: you'll feel like a giant. Good day, Caw"
ReplyDeleteMissing you in Durham!!!
Wow, I think this just convinced me not to ship stuff home from Chile.
ReplyDeleteFor what's it worth, Jeremy, I don't remember my parents having nearly this much trouble shipping things to and from Brazil. Then again, I was 14. Any other readers have experience shipping internationally?
ReplyDeleteOur shippers never even turned up to pick up our stuff in the US! We had to put it in storage the day before we left. Nightmare. Still haven't found a new shipping company. Whole industry is run by ex-cons, I think even when they have the best intentions, they are so unprofessional it's impossible to have faith. Don't you love it how you only hear the nightmare stories after your own bad experience? Everyone has a story to tell us now. But, we have shipped before and it was completely fine.
ReplyDeleteEek. My stuff is somewhere between Papua New Guinea and Haiti. Maybe it's hanging out with your stuff, Caryl?
ReplyDeleteWhen my mum moved all her stuff from Kenya to Brasil in 1975, the entire container went missing. Years later, she got a call from a volunteer in the port in Sao Paulo who was looking through warehouses of unclaimed goods. She had found my mum by seeing one of her paintings with her name on it, then she...wrote a letter to a policeman in Kenya...to get my mum's address in Brasil? Crazy.