Barrel or no barrel?
Since I'm in a posting mood now (I only blog in binges, don't I?), I thought that I would frame a question to all of you RPCVs out there (and anyone else who might have knowledge about sending barrels to foreign countries). So my Goddaughter's mother called the other day and we talked for a while. My Goddaughter loves basic school and is really smart (so her mother says, but since Jamaicans are very blunt this is probably true- if she was dumb, the mother would have just come out and said so), so that's the good news. The bad news is that the restaurant where the mother worked has now closed down, and the nursing school that she applied to also closed down. She said that sometimes they don't have any food in their house and asked me to send a barrel of staple foodstuffs to them in Jamaica. I think that this particular Jamaican friend would not lie to me about something like this, nor would she ask for a barrel of food if she just wanted cash to buy bling.

So I said that I would try to help out, and began investigating the process of sending a barrel to Jamaica. It appears that barreling is pretty specific to the Caribbean, and therefore the barrel shipment companies are centered in places like New York and Miami. If I do succeed in finding a barrel company here in DC (there might be one), then I will have to purchase a barrel, purchase everything that goes into the barrel, then pay for shipping. Then my friend will have to pay customs (which she has already agreed to do). There have also been reports of people stealing things from barrels, though I don't think they would steal food- more likely Nike shoes. But, in summary, the barrel might be more trouble than it's worth. So here is the question. Should I:
1) Send a barrel. If so, how do I do this?
2) Ship a big box of food.
3) Send cash through Xoom and hope that it gets spent on the essentials.

Any advice?