Packed out

Last Thursday movers came to Gulu to “pack me out.” It wasn’t too emotional, because there’s so much to do I felt it was good to check a few things off the list. It was interesting even. I’ve heard pray tell about overseas shipments for people working abroad, but until this moment I’ve always managed to move things over time and just head out with two suitcases.

Since I have no furniture worth transporting 8,000 miles and I’m giving away most of my clothes, I’ve used my 250 lbs mostly for crafts. I had a few Christmas presents made, tons of African cloth that I’ll probably not do anything with and random masks and statues. The movers came at 9am promptly and started shoving things in boxes. I was amazed at the way they created a box for my awkwardly shaped fisherman’s basket. When they finished I was 25 lbs under weight. Fine, I said to them after quickly emptying a pot of dirt and shoving it in a box to add one last thing, I’m done.

Fast forward a week later and I hear nothing from the movers. I didn’t realize it at first, because I am distracted by everything else. I called the company and got a foggy response from the person I’ve been in communication with. “Oh, I was waiting on the thing about the form about the transport…blah blah blah” Yee gads. I’m never going to see these things again. I explained that I would like to get the shipment moving as quickly as possible and to please invoice me. The invoice came a day later and it was $700 more than the quote. Awesome. It turns out that funny shaped boxes are penalized. So my fisherman’s basket and my super light but super long straw mat have forced the company to hire larger crates. It would have been nice to know that when the movers were cheering me on “come on, you have 50 kgs left, add more add more.”

Sigh. I can’t tell if this was extortion or incompetence.

I happened to be in Kampala this week and thought I’d visit my things and see if there was a way to reduce the size of the shipment. While I was informed I couldn’t visit my things, I was at least able to shift some things to surface freight and hopefully reduce my load.

This morning I was happy to find that my invoice was now within range of the quote and that all would be ok. But then I saw an attachment with the invoice, entitled “EMBARGO ON HOUSEHOLD GOODS ENTERING THE USA.” Yeah. Remember that Yemen incident a couple of weeks ago? Well, it turns out that’s going to be the reason why Christmas doesn’t come for the Hubers. Seriously? An embargo on ALL household goods from EVERYWHERE in the world? Not just the scary places? It’s for thirty days at least. Sigh again. I asked the company if this has ever happened before and she laughed and said no. Awesometastic.

I think this may be why I never trusted the shipping idea in the past. If I’m not carrying it, how do I know it will reach? It’s only stuff and truly I feel ready to accept that I may never see my packed goods again. I’m pretty sure my family will forgive a Christmas without kooky colorful crafts from Africa they have to pretend to like. As long as my dog isn’t considered a household item I’ll be ok. He’s not, right?