The Waiting Game

As you may know from our website and previous correspondence, we purchased a new Toyota Landcruiser 4-wheel drive jeep back last fall, with the help of numerous generous donors. These vehicles are used by many major NGO’s in Haiti and the Toyota dealership cannot keep them in stock. For this reason, they have to be specially ordered by the dealership directly from Japan. Ours was ordered in September 2009 and was just coming into the port in Port-au-Prince in January 2010 when the earthquake occurred. The ship was diverted to Santo Domingo, DR and the jeep was unloaded there. Arrangements had to be made to get it and the other vehicles that were ordered at the same time, to Port-au-Prince for processing through the Haitian Customs Department. This took until the end of February 2010. Then began the long process of having it cleared through customs – a process that has required the assistance of many friends and acquaintances, numerous trips to and through Port-au-Prince and much more time than anticipated. We think we are in the final stage of the process and expect to be able to get it from the dealer in 2-3 weeks. We’ll keep you posted!