The Tribal Wife Goes Shopping...

And packing...and shipping...and then checks herself into a mental health facility...which is where I am writing you from now. I like here. All the sheets are nice and clean and white. Just kidding. Although, I came very close, I promise.

JM and I found out last week that in order to have our stuff in PNG by the time we get there we had to ship them on a container that is leaving California mid October. We were told that if our stuff made it there by October 8th, it would be loaded up and would set sail to PNG where it will arrive about the same time we do (late January) if not before. We decided to go for it, and our next step was to figure out how to get it to California. We contacted Friends In Action. They are a ministry that helps missionaries in remote locations with, well, a lot of things. You can check out all they do here: www.fiaintl.org. Anyway, they are helping us get our stuff from Mississippi to California, and they told us it would take about 5 days to get there. They would also need two days advanced notice to arrange everything. (These are all business days, by the way, weekends don't count) So, if you followed all that you would see that we had to get all the stuff we wanted to send packed up quickly!

It doesn't seem that bad until you realize two major things that made it complicated:
1. We had to buy mostly all new stuff since we have to live in the US for 3 more months. The picture above is one of about 6 trips to Wal- mart, Target, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Plus, a lot of our stuff wouldn't work best over there anyway (for example, we were advised to get stainless steel cookware because stuff with teflon peels off and rusts quickly)
2. We had to catalog every single item, how much it costs, how long we have had it (stuff we have owned less than a year gets taxed) and what box it is in. Yes, this is a picture of me cataloging tampons. I had already suffered the embarrassment of checking out at Wal-mart with a cart full of tampons...side note...teenage boys should NOT be cashiers at Wal-mart! Anyway, so after that horrific experience here I am taking them out of the boxes to make them fit in the box and writing down that there are 216 for the NTM shipping guy, the California couple helping us ship, and the customs agents in New Guinea to see. Don't think the word "hysterectomy" didn't cross my mind...twice. I guess it is just preparing me for when I run out and have to order them over short wave radio for everyone in the country to hear. Joy!

Anyway, we are done! And are very excited about that. Here is a picture of all our stuff stacked up and ready to be taken to the trucking company. Pretty cool huh?