The Post Office or How I Own the Most Expensive Coloring Books in Ghana

I mailed myself two boxes of stuff in addition to the four suitcases I carried back in January. People were kind enough to give me a lot of things and it all just didn’t fit. Now my experience in the past with the post offices in the villages where I volunteered in ’06 and ’07, was that they were a tad bit ‘inconsistent’ with their fees(I won’t use the word corrupt but I’m thinking it). All I know is that I was never allowed to pick up the boxes of supplies I sent; I had to get one of the Ghanaian staff members to do it so I wouldn't be overcharged.

This year it has been a little different. I received two small packages right at the school! But when a larger one came for me (Fed Ex) at Thanksgiving, I had to go to the airport in Accra, ‘pay’ for an escort, walk to a gloomy hanger area way in the back of the airport grounds where boxes upon boxes were waiting to be ‘picked’, take my box over to a creepy customs inspector who asked me all sorts of pertinent questions like was I married… pay about 30 dollars and then ‘tip’ my escort a second time.

My friend Barb (expat, 3 kids, lives here with husband) was impressed that I had small packages come right to my door so we tried an experiment. She had her mother in NJ mail a box to me at school. The box had movies for her kids, some mail order clothes and shoes. etc. Unfortunately it didn’t come to school-I was told to pick it up at the Tema PO. Barb told me to expect to have to pay a ‘tax’ to get it and drove me over there. When we got there she sat in her car and I grabbed her 7-year old, cute as a button, daughter to go with me (in hopes of reducing the tax). Well it worked! I was only charged $2 to pick it up and the postman thanked me for teaching in Ghana. Ahhh faith restored :)
Barb and Alex

And then this week. The first box I mailed to myself arrived and had to be picked up at the PO. In this first box I had a bunch of plastic folders and coloring books and stickers and kids workbooks. I’ll say now that it costs a fortune to mail a package to Ghana and I knew that. I’ll tell a story on myself- when I went to mail it at the Kensington Post Office the postman told me it would be $97! I was going to forget it but the box was already packed and sealed. So in a wave of post Xmas spending I said OK.

I took a cab to get the box Tuesday. I didn’t have Alex to bring in with me but I was feeling confident-I’d written ‘Educational Supplies’ on the outside of the box and there wasn’t anything weird in the box. I first went to a window where the man had me sign a bunch of stuff, show my passport and then he opened the box. Next I went to another window to see 'Cranky Customs Man'. Cranky Customs Man took out a calculator and started massive calculations. (I valued the box at $35 and it wasn’t very big). He took out tables and charts and the column of numbers was growing. I was quiet and trying to look like a really nice person-chatted with the stamp lady, told her I was a teacher….

Finally he presented me with a bill for 20.46 cedis (about $15-remember last time it was $2). This got the stamp lady all riled up and she proceeded to start yelling at him. It went something like this (‘Twe’ is the language in that area) Stamp Lady: “Twe twe twe teacher! Twe Twe twe educational supplies twe twe twe no 20.46!!” He responded angrily and and two other men were called in. They didn't really want to get involved although I recognized one as the 'nice' man from before. Tempers were flying and at this point the 20.46 was looking pretty good. Once or twice the box was glanced into (right on top was a box that said ‘teacher reward stickers’) but it was now an issue of honor. In the end I paid the 20.46, the stamp lady apologized to me and CCM shot her a look.

Next time I’m bringing Alex.

Which brings me to my final point. Several of my 'faithful readers' have offered to mail me supplies or have asked me what I/the school needs. It’s too expensive to mail things to me as you can see (unless it’s small). The two best ways to get supplies to me are 1) for me or a visitor (I’m coming back in May and I’ll have visitors in March, April and July) to bring them in a suitcase, or 2) for me to buy supplies over here. So, if you want to send something look down the right hand column next to this extry and I've explained how I'll work it.

That’s all for today.

Happy 50th to brother Dave!