|
Unloading The Sea Container Medical Missionaries sends sea containers of medicines, medical
supplies, medical equipment, and clothing to many countries, many times each year. Often those sea containers are sent
to the Dominican Republic, with supplies for Medical Missionaries' work there and in Haiti. One container was sent
to the Dominican Republic in January 2009. It cleared customs in Santo Domingo and arrived in Banica on April 3, just
as a team of doctors and nurses was preparing to leave Banica and head back to the United States. This is the story
of how they, with the help of several Dominican men, unloaded the sea container before leaving Banica.
|
| | |
Besides boxes of medicine
and clothes, the container had many large, heavy, bulky items such as gurneys, computers and monitors, exam tables, and chairs.
| 
| 
|
Some
of the contents challenged even the strongest of the workers. These larger tables will go to the diocese of Hinche (Haiti)
for use in a hosptial there.
|
Not everything arrived in the same condition as it was when packed, but everything
survived the trip.
| 
| 
|
After
about an hour and a half of unpacking, you could almost see the other end of the container. But some of the heaviest
materials remained to be unpacked, including a 10 meter satellite dish and a generator.
|
The two-thousand pound
generator, bound for Salterdere (Haiti), was the very last item out of the container. Once that was on the Medical Missionaries
truck, everyone gave a sigh of relief.
| 
|  |
The materials
destined for Banica were stored under the covered pavilion, mainly to protect the computers (in the boxes on the tables) from
rain.
|
The materials bound for Hinche were stored in the open but were covered to protect them until a
truck from Hinche would arrive to pick them up.
|  | 
|
When
everything was unpacked and covered, Dr. Gil made a last inspection and gave his thumbs-up to the unpacking.
|
|
