The Water for Life organization is headquartered near Spokane Washington, and our shop is located in rural NE Guatemala. We have one chance per year to send things down for our project, so the successful shipping of the container is very important to our progress. It is also a major expense item. Usually, the total for shipment and customs is about $16,000. USD

Our shipping agent is Jim Griffiths of Jimak Transportation International in Quebec Canada. Mr. Griffith sent a truck from Tacoma Washington to Jasper Oregon, with an empty container and be partially loaded, and then to Spokane (more…)

This year, just before we loaded the container for shipment, one of our board members donated a small Honda motorcycle, and we purchased another used motorcycle for our use in Guatemala. We noted the items on our shipping papers and all seemed to be in order. Seemed is the operative word in this situation.

We had no idea there was anything wrong until the container had arrived in the port of Guatemala, Puerto Quetzal. The customs officials noted that the titles of the motorcycles were not with the documents. A few worried calls located the documents still in the file with the shipping agent. Somehow they had not made it into the packet that was necessarily to be sent with the ship. We corrected this and sent the documents by overnight express.

Then the real problem surfaced. There is a law in Guatemala that has (more…)