Our UAB arrived just over a week ago. It took seven weeks from our arrival date, and that is really good for Brasilia (in most of the world, I hear it is normally two weeks). I may have mentioned how messed up our pack-out was. The movers' late arrival, and subsequent haste to get packed quickly, led to only the first two boxes containing what we really wanted in our UAB. The other four boxes were a jumbled mix of stuff.
Next move, I will not only put colored stickers on everything, but I will also divide up each room into piles. That way, if push comes to shove, we won't just give up and let the movers load up whatever they touch first into the UAB.
Things I will never allow to be shipped in UAB again: ceramic dishes and pictures. The packers actually put six of my small plates in a stack with only one sheet of paper in between them. Guess how many pieces they were in when they arrived? Your guess is as good as mine...I can't count that high. I also lost a large plate and several bowls and mugs. Luckily, it was just my cheap IKEA set, so it wasn't a big financial loss. Unfortunately, IKEA doesn't sell my set online, so I can't replace them unless I get a family member to go shopping, wrap them up really well, and send them to me (any volunteers?). DS1's Cross Country photo frame glass was the other major casualty. There is really no good reason for DS1's stuff to be in our UAB, since he isn't even here with us, but we have a cupboard full of his stuff already. It was definitely marked yellow for HHE.
Things I wish were in my UAB: laundry baskets and trash pails. I only brought two laundry baskets to VA with us, and they didn't make it here in the UAB. I will definitely want laundry baskets next time around. I miss them very much. Really. Okay, throwing laundry over the banister down to the main floor is kind of fun, but then I have to pick it all up, and...well, you can't throw laundry back up the stairs. Trash pails would also be nice. I did get one in the UAB, which happened to be my bedroom pail. I appreciate it very much, and wish all the children had their trash pails, too. Today I swept up a pile of pencil shavings off my younger boys' bedroom floor. Maybe I am completely wrong here, but I imagine my children actually using the trash pail if there is one. *Dreams*
We are told our HHE and POV are in Rio. That means that they might be in Brasilia by the end of the month! However...I am a little concerned by the email we were copied in on the other day. It was from the guy in charge of shipments on this end asking the guy on the D.C. end for the bill of lading for our second HHE shipment. My thought is that if they didn't get that along with the other one, we may find out that there is only one shipment at the port, not two. Let's cross our fingers that it isn't so. It has been over a year since we have seen the bulk of our HHE, and our kids, especially, miss their stuff. There are a few things in there that I'd like to see, as well.
As for the POV, I am hoping for speedy travels. Once it gets here, it can be a couple of months, still, before it gets plates and we can drive it. I am starting to go a little bonkers without a car. We have a minivan from the motor pool on weekends, which is wonderful, but it was a little disconcerting when we had to have our kids call a taxi to get home from their basketball game the other night. They had never been in a taxi before, and their first time was in a foreign language. At least there is an app for that.
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