Be very thankful that you live at a place where you always have water and electricity. Ebeye has been without running water to the houses for two weeks.
It can take anywhere from one week to 30 days to get our mail. Media rate is the most economical for books, movies, CD’s & paper, but only those products & nothing else can be mailed by Media rate. The heavier you pack the box, the better the rate.
The fastest service is US Postal Service, First class/Priority. The post office will give you an "APO/FPO" box in two different sizes (usually found in the lobbies). You can stuff all you can in the box (with any amount of weight) for the same price. We have sent some really heavy boxes that way. When you bring the box back it will cost $10.95 to mail the smaller box and $11.95 to mail the larger box. It is best to reinforce the box seams with tape since they have so far to come and they get tossed around a lot. Packages must be less than 70 lbs & 130”. You can send any box within those rules by priority mail in which you will be charged by the weight. Again, reinforce the box with package tape. DO NOT leave anything wrapped in original packages, unless it has too many parts to keep together (like a puzzle, jacks, etc). Take the tooth paste out of the boxes and just send the tubes. The packaging just takes up more room in the box and Lee and I do not need extra weight to carry over to Ebeye.
Since the box is going outside the US, you will have to fill out a (sometimes multiple) white customs form (found in the PO lobbies) that they will attach to the outside of the box. The packages need to be mailed NO LATER than Dec.3rd. Without any notice last year they decided to deliver our mail the last two weeks before Christmas only ONE day a week. That caused half our Christmas to arrive a
week later. We ended up having presents two weeks in a row and the kids did not mind a bit.
We live on an Army base so every box has to be loaded either on to our two wheeler, cart or our back to walk to the dock. The boxes then have to be unloaded to go through security and loaded back on to the cart or two wheeler to be carried to the ferry where we unload the boxes onto the ferry. They are not allowing people to take as big a load with them on the ferries this year, so we may have to make even more, smaller load trips. When we arrive at the dock on Ebeye, the boxes are unloaded off the ferry and we have to reload the boxes onto the two wheeler or cart. We either pull it to the school where we are meeting on Ebeye or if we are going to the Gugeegue church building, we have to pay a taxi (small pick up) to take us to Gugeegue on the roughest road I have ever seen. If we go to Gugeegue we also have to pay for several more taxi’s to take all our members to Church and our Christmas celebration. The taxi’s cost more on Christmas day. In the past they have charged us $50 round trip to go to Gugeegue. The biggest gamble with going to Gugeegue is whether or not there will be gasoline available to run the taxi’s.
Address:
Lee & Avis Cummings CMR 701 BOX 1652
APO, AP 96555-0017
If you would like to send a check to help with our taxi’s or the Christmas meal, please make it out to Avis Cummings. DO NOT ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. They will send it back. God's Blessings to everyone for your help.
Please pray for one of our sisters, Heity Keju, who has passed out twice in less than a week for reasons unknown. Heity passed out yesterday during our English class. They carried her to the hospital and I'm not sure what the Dr's have said yet. Heity and her husband, who passed away, helped start the church on Ebeye and Gugeegue.
