An Occupational Hazard

The other two crates from Abidjan were delivered the Monday following the Marine Ball. We discovered that the African moving company employees used some “interesting” (aka ridiculously bad) packing technique in several cases, but (considering the circumstances of the move) Emily was surprised to find nearly everything intact. Well, almost…our luck held until the last crate.

Unfortunately, in the third crate, we found a significant amount of water damage in several boxes which was probably sustained during storage prior to shipment from Abidjan. Some items were still wet, some were moldy, and everything from that crate stank to high-heaven… musty, musty, musty! Fortunately, many of the items are either salvageable or replaceable. There are only a couple of things which we were truly sad about… according to Jay, this is another indicator that we are schlepping around too much junk. He is probably right… and obviously, this situation presents a perfect opportunity to downsize.

Anyway, we have insurance, so everything will be okay in the end. The most annoying thing is that we have to spend the time going through and documenting everything. And then there’s the fact that we have to clean/wash nearly every item since most of the shipment either smells musty or like the nighttime air in Abidjan (smoky, because W. African waste disposal commonly involves burning a lot of trash). Ugh! Em’s mountain of laundry is colossal, but hey, at least we aren’t paying our water bill. Also, live and learn. We didn’t have the option this time around (due to the evacuation), but for our next pack-out, Emily is totally prepared to be obsessive/compulsive about proper packing.

Just a couple of photos to document "the grossness" for posterity... of course it is impossible to adequately describe the vileness of the smell... ugh!