Jan 14 Containers arrived Jan 6

The containers have arrived on Jan 6 except one of the containers with construction materials is still in Cameroon. Supposedly it is on the way now and will be here by end of this week but we have heard that before. Apparrently someone took the payment and disappeared that was supposed to be for the truck fuel etc. It is difficult to do business when it seems almost everyone is corrupt. If your skin is white it means that you have unlimited money although they extort from blacks also.
Our container also arrived here Sun Jan 6 and was unloaded from the truck with some big equipment from the cotton company. The other containers were offloaded then also. The boxes etc. in our container were unloaded in Moundou the container lifted onto a truck by 80 men then the boxes thrown back into the container and then the truck driven here. It would cost another $1800 to get the crane to lift it onto the truck so lots of man power cheaper. So far we have not found much if any damage in spite of the way it was thrown in. Maybe we had the boxes packed pretty well. The glass jars we have not gotten to yet. We won’t unload most items until we have a house to put them in. We did unload our comfortable couch and chair and desk and a folding table and a few other boxes. A case of corn chips was so stale that they are not edible. So far the nuts and grain that was sealed in plastic buckets seem very fresh and ok. No worms. A few small items that had been opened and put in at the last minute such as oats, spice, etc were not good. It has been a year since it was packed. It gets extremely hot inside the container when it is sitting in the hot sun.
Construction is moving along. Our house has been framed outside walls and a roof on it. The maternity, surgery, and private wards have been framed and roofed. There is still a lot more to be done. We desperately need some plumbers and electricians . There is enough work to keep them busy for quite a while. All the construction is steel so no termites can eat it down. We need painters and general fix er uppers to refurbish some of the older buildings. Mission work is not just for preachers and medical people but for lots of others as well. There are some Maranatha volunteers coming in 3 days for 2 weeks to do some of things that need to be done.
Business is picking up for the hospital as well. The next 3 or 4 months are our busiest time of the year. People have more money now after harvest and travel is easier so they can get their elective surgeries done. We had 10 procedures today. One was hysterectomy for probable endometrial carcinoma. One was a mass that perhaps was an old walled off ectopic pregnancy or endometrial cyst. We had several hernias and hydroceles, lipoma, etc. It is certainly nice to have Danae and Olen back but it is only about 4 months until we will take our annual leave in May and June.
Our emails drbland@sbcblobal.net and dfbland@gmail.com
Love, Rollin and Dolores