Boxes and boxes, cartons and cartons.

I was sure that the couple of days it took to organize the hand over ceremony for two 40ft containers worth of medical equipment would be the hardest task. I realized my error when I stepped foot on the yard where the containers stood staring back at me.

The containers were completely full. There were about six to ten men working at any given time. One would drive the forklift while the others would carry the boxes two or three at a time. I could only carry one or two, depending on the size.

The first day was the most difficult and the hottest. It was a Saturday afternoon and the Rugby 7s Tournament in Wellington, NZ, was going on. If I haven't mentioned it before, rugby is practiced and watched fanatically here in Fiji. Everyone follows the game, and Fiji has been the world cup champions for the last two, and people are hoping that this year will make it three. Anyway, people wanted to watch, and I didn't want to be the one who stopped them. Needless to say the day moved slowly.

Despite the already slow moving day, we were forced to restart a number of times due to logistical errors. Terminology the first time, 'cartons' vs 'boxes'. Then it was that the numbers didn't add up- the actual number sent differed from the inventory checklist. So by the quarter finals we threw in the towel and decided to start again the following afternoon. A few of us went back to J's house to drink beer and cross our fingers for a Fiji victory in the tournament.

(Oh wait, before I continue on about separating boxes, I must tell you how amusing the Wellington 7s extravaganza is. Okay so, every team that's any team has at least one Fijian on it- New Zealand has 4, Australia 3, England 1, etc. So here we are routing for Fiji, when in reality it doesn't really matter because in a way, Fiji wins anyway. England ended up winning, and even though the final points were scored by Domodomo - a fijian player- there was little acknowledgment from the team. But, when Domodomo tried to defend the Pomies from the Fiji players during the match between the two countries, all the Fijians were pissed and tried to fight Domodomo. Must be hard to be him... traitor to his country, outsider to his team, isa.)

Sunday afternoon, a day of rest for most, was spent at the warehouse sorting through boxes. Everyone showing their flexed muscles was ready to work. I don't know if it was because people were still upset about the results from the tournament the previous night, but everyone worked without a break from noon to 8pm.

Finally, its all finished...

http://www.fijitimes.com.fj/story.aspx?ref=archive&id=114769


starting to take out the boxes of the first container to be sorted

sans the forklift- see, only one box

The first attempt when we thought 'cartons' meant entire 'boxes', when in reality, there were six cartons to a single box. oi lei!

Labeling the boxes for distribution, only to later find out that our second attempt would also be wrong. At this point we spent hours trying to figure out the difference in the numbers we actually had been sent compared to what was stated on the inventory lists.