Day 97

I'm getting to this blog entry much later in the day than normal but better late than not at all! It was a busy, busy day. Our guests remained so we continued to share our space in our office but I spent most of the morning on the move. First was my every-Friday meeting that deals with all construction projects going on here on my base. A few of the priorities are being driven by what I provide in supply and most often, that's what they're waiting for. Unfortunately, no one told me it was canceled! The on-base command group just turned over so it wasn't a big surprise.

On the way back to the office, I began my hunt. Over the past few weeks, about $75,000+ of material could not be located that was shipped here. Most of the supply orders I handle are between $500,000 and $1.5M. This was small and part of a bigger order. It was hundreds of electrical breakers and switches...actually, a hot commodity out here and in high demand. All indicators were that they were stolen and the customer of this material was about to start an investigation. I asked they hold off and let me beat down some doors first and see what I could find. Attempts by the customer to locate that material had failed so far. Normally, we don't require and line by line confirmation of receipt but when the order comes straight from the vendor to the customer (vendor was in Europe), we MUST have confirmation. DHL was the company who received it and I had all the tracking info and who signed for it. After I visited them (I think they were all Korean, Japanese, or Chinese...not sure), they pointed me to our on-base warehouse. I dropped in there and after an initial attempt to push me aside and shift the blame, I forced my hand to see all of their in-house receipts. Why? Because their employee's name is the one who signed for the stuff. Turns out, no receipt of receiving it and giving it out to customer. Hmmmm.... Back to DHL... gotta see that signature and have the warehouse compare it to actual and see who is lying to me. As I get back to DHL and we're digging up the signatures, I continue to rattle off the contents of what I'm looking for and who they should've called when it arrived (there should have been signs on that pallet telling them that). All of sudden, something I'm saying "jogs" the memory of one of the workers. "Come with me! I have this stuff!" Walking outside to the corner of their lot, under a bunch of trash, tarps, and plastic...all covered in dust, of course, is boxes just thrown around. On the ground underneath is the paper/placard that was attached to it all with the contact info here on base. Found it! Basically, it was just thrown in the corner and left...for the past 6 weeks. Turns out, the lady who signed for it ended up rejecting it back to DHL then DHL just threw it in a corner and forgot about it. Not good for the taxpayer, eh?! I took some photos, made some phonecalls, and directed the customer to come pick up their stuff. Back in the office, I put the photos together, drafted the experience from start to finish via 2-page PowerPoint and explained how I was going to change the process to prevent it from happening again. Done. In the end, I was pretty happy...this was a situation about to be blown out of control and now it's been solved. Glad I could be the one finish it.

The rest of the day was busier than normal but I also realized that for some reason, most of my counterparts were taking Friday off...again!  Geez... Life is certainly grand back in the States! So, I expect my Saturday morning e-mail to be very light. Our "guests" remained and I saw the writing on the wall...I saw another night where they were going to want to watch a movie or something again in the office. There was no way I was sticking around like last night! I had to get out of there and fast. Leaving early, though, would cost me the Friday lobster tail but that's OK. I grabbed my care package from Dorothy (fresh, clean sheets! finally!), my laundry and headed to the bus stop to wait. After the ride back, I grabbed some so-so dinner, then headed on back to my room.

The rest of the night was spent texting Dorothy back and forth over and over and a few phone calls. I won't go into the details, but she was out of town and while in her hotel, someone stole $400 cash from her purse while she was at the pool. Money for groceries she had just withdrew...several weeks worth. After a LOT of drama, reading the door scanner at her room, calling the police, etc., they gave her the $400 back and fired the guy who was confirmed to had broken in. I guess if you're going to steal $400 and the "do not disturb" sign is on the door, you should put the sign back on like you found it or it'll be known someone was in  there and those little swipe cards can be tracked to the user. Dorothy did great...she really did. My call to the front desk probably didn't help much (I was a tad bit fired up with a worker who couldn't care less and only wanted to put me in management's voicemail) but Dorothy held it together and got it done. Good ending to a very stressful situation for her and the girls. Talk about feeling helpless on the other side of the world! Plus, my internet kept going in and out so I couldn't respond to her texts timely...horrendous winds here.  Well, that's the day! Day 97 done. Day 98 on deck.

Goodnight, everyone.