Good Things Do Not Come Easy (Day 59, September 19, Friday)

My job for today was to get the shipment moved from the Consolidated Protestant Relief Services' (CPRS) warehouse to the United Nation's Mission to Congo (MONUC's) Movement Control's (MOVCON) warehouse. I thought it would take only about two hours and I would be done by noon. The plan was to meet Ben at 9am in his office to pick up the paperwork. First, Ben changed and asked me to stop by the CPRS warehouse first to make sure everything was assembled and ready. My chauffeur for the day was my new found friend, Albert. He agreed to take me were I needed to go for today. He arrived shortly after 9am to take me to the warehouse. The items were ok. Then we headed downtown to Ben's office for the paperwork needed at MOVCON. In the meantime, the items would be loaded onto a truck for transport. We made it to Ben's office through the morning rush traffic into downtown. On the way downtown, we passed the MOVCON location. After some delay, we picked up the paperwork and printed our own shipping list. Then we headed back out to the CPRS warehouse and pass the MOVCON to meet the truck. Upon our arrival at CPRS, we were told that the truck had already gone to MOVCON. We headed again toward downtown in the morning rush traffic to MOVCON. At the gate, we saw the truck. I get out and go into the gate security office. I call the MOVCON office to announce we are at the gate. Who? With what? Finally, the guy agrees to come to get us from the gate. When he arrives, I show him the paperwork. It is foreign to him. He calls Mary at Civil Affairs who fills him in. Then Mary fills me in but in a different way. She said we were supposed to be at the MOVCON warehouse at 8am. What? They may not do it today. However, he agrees to take us to the warehouse. We arrive at MOVCON warehouse at about 10:15. The person in charge is not there at the moment. We talk to an Egyptian officer in charge. He is unaware, too. He calls the boss and she knows about it and had agreed. For once, everything appears on track. Progress! Not so fast. We open the truck and they see all the boxes (about 85 to be exact). Where are your pallets? What pallets? We need to have our own pallets. After a few minutes of discussion, the guys in the truck say they know were we can get pallets. It would take them about 30 minutes. Now it is 10:30am. My goal to be done by noon is vanishing before my eyes. After an hour and 15 minutes, the truck returns with the pallets. They start to unload and palletize the boxes. It takes much longer again they I thought it estimated again. Everything is palletized onto 6 pallets. The MOVCON start their processing. Each pallet is tied down and then wrapped in plastic. Done! Not quite so fast. Each pallet now needs to be weighed individually. Each pallet is taken by the forklift to the next building across the lot to be weighed individually. They weigh a total of 1,140 kilograms. Done! Not quite so fast. The MOVCON shipping clerk needs to make labels for each pallet. He labels them as a pallet of materials. Done! Not quite so fast. The boss says that each pallet needs an itemized shipping list. What? She says just look through the plastic wrapping and do a reasonable job. I complete the job in about 30 minutes. I even cross checked this itemized shipping list by pallet to the overall shipping list that we printed this morning. Done at last! But it is now 4:20pm. We walk back to the car at the gate to leave. What a day! Good things do not come easy in Congo even with MONUC. But we just saved over $2,000 in shipping cost.