Pack out

"Pack out."  These are swear words until the last day of pack out when the truck is loaded!  Luckily I'm writing as a "survivor" and the pack out is over and a thing of the recent past.  The process of getting ready for pack out begins months before.  I've been going through all of our things and deciding on what to keep, throw away, give away, sell, etc.  With all of the school papers and projects we've accumulated along with house crafts/art, etc. there was quite a bit to sort through.  I decided to take pictures of these things instead of scanning them or keeping them because of the quantity and lack of time.  I was then able to throw those away.  Then I went through all of our books and toys to see which ones we could move into long-term storage (books that the kids wanted to hold on to) and which ones we could keep or give away.  Briant and I decided to get rid of toys that the kids would grow out of playing with over the next year that they won't have with them in VA.  We had to even consider the ones they've recently gotten for Christmas or birthdays because of the limit of 800 pounds to take to VA.  We sold a lot of those things so we can replace them in VA like their Ripsticks.  A few weeks before pack out, I had to start making piles--the UAB pile (800 lbs that goes by plane to VA), the HHE pile that goes to storage until we get to Latvia, the HHE long-term storage pile that we won't see for years until we're assigned to work in D.C., the use now but give away right before we leave pile, the give away now pile, the sell now pile but use until we leave (like the piano), and the sell now and get rid of now pile (we had to sell early in order to exchange the kwanzas to dollars).  Too many piles that's for sure.  Oh, and then of course we had to pull out and fill up suitcases and carry-ons with the clothes, school things, and small toys/books that we need and want to keep with us for the two weeks after the pack out.  We had to do a "dry run" to make sure everything remaining would fit in the suitcases and carry-ons in case we needed to send things in our UAB or HHE.  Needless to say, our apartment has been in disarray:The other difficult thing about pack out are the kids that want to keep touching, playing with, and moving everything in all the piles!  And the whole week that we had the pack out scheduled, the kids had a school break.  So the week became even more interesting.  ;)The pack out took two days, followed by the pick up of the long-term storage boxes, weighing in of the rest of the boxes, and paperwork on a third day.  Overall, the packers did a good job.  We served them lunch every day, but they seemed to get tired after eating and were anxious to finish around 2-3pm after starting work at 10am.  So the second day, after seeing that we could finish if they just put a fire under it, I asked if they could work at least until 5pm and then they called a few more workers in to help.  We only had long-term storage left to pack by around 3pm which wasn't very much, but I literally had to sit there and hand them things to bubble wrap and I put everything in the boxes myself because they were all just standing around talking.  Angolans aren't known for their work ethic, so I felt the need to step in a little.  Especially because I was anxious to get it over with and get back to my kids.  For days before the pack out, Briant and I had to focus on getting ready, so they were on their own entertaining themselves and caring mostly for themselves.  And during the pack out, we had them go to Marialice's apartment in our building (another embassy employee) where they could go and watch movies and play quietly and be out of the way.  So our family was anxious to be done!Thank goodness for Zita who kept up on the cleaning while we packed!Saying goodbye to our things in the truck:I told the packers to show their muscles for the picture.  :)  I love their smiles! The house is very empty!  After looking at the contents of our 175 boxes, we figured out that 74 of them were full of books!  Yes, 42% of our boxes were books.  We figured that's about 2,500-3,000 lbs of our 4,700 lbs!  If only we didn't love holding a book and turning its pages instead of using a Kindle.  ;)

So now we're living out of our suitcases and we're counting down our "lasts" of our time here.  Today was our last Saturday swimming at the embassy.  Tomorrow is our last dinner with the Elders.  This week is my last week of work and the last full week of school for the kids!