Inagural Post Office Visit

Monday, June 10, 2006

I had a huge achievement today which I am very proud of. For the last 117 days, I have been anticipating its arrival…fortunately not 9 months of waiting. Today, I conquered my fear of going to the Post Office.

Up until now, I have mailed three things. The first was a pre-stamped postcard that Peace Corps gave everyone in my stage. The second was a card in which I managed to buy stamps from another volunteer. The final one was a birthday card for my mom, which I had a Peace Corps Volunteer returning to the States mail from San Diego

I realized that with my dad’s birthday coming up later this week on Friday, I was going to have to figure out some sort of solution. Also, I had a package slip in my mailbox at Peace Corps Headquarters from the Post Office stating I had to come and pick up a package. I don’t know why it wasn’t delivered to Peace Corps, but I think it was because it was taxed a lot more than any of the other packages I’ve received.

Needless to say, I was forced to go to the post office. Basically, up until this point, had it been Halloween and I saw somebody dressed up as a La Poste, they would have scared the hell out of me. I walked about 300 yards from Peace Corps to the post office my package was at, and started the package retrieving process. Being the first time, it was far from easy. First, I went to a window in the main hall to provide them with my package slip. They then handed me the US Postal Service/US Customs form that had been filled out. After that window, I went to a back office, unsure entirely where to go, then I was pointed in the direction of an adjoining office. I don’t know whose office it was, but the guy seemed to kinda be a big deal. He took my forms, looked at them, then filled out some forms. After his office, I was sent back into the other office to pay 2,500 FCFA ($ 5.00). In a sense, that is a lot of money here. This step involved stops at two people’s desks. After paying, I had to go back into Mr Big Wigs office to get my receipt and paperwork stamped again. I then went back into the main portion of the post office. Here, I went one window where they ripped off one of the sheets of paper I had. I then went to the next window where I had to pay 1,000 FCFA ($ 2.00) as a holding fee I believe. The longer it is there, the more you have to pay. Also at this window, I managed to buy stamps for my dad’s birthday postcard. After this window, I had to return to the previous window, where I finally got my package.

So, my first pot office visit lasted between 30 minutes and an hour and included stops at 8 places.