Afghan Post and a Sorry Lesson!!

Yesterday a parcel arrived for me that has been almost 4 months coming!!!

Before I left Australia, I sent some souvineers and things to my sister in India thinking that I would pick them up when I visited her in January to bring them with me to Afghanistan.

Unfortunatly, the package missed me by about 3 days. So Skye set about posting it onto Afghanistan. She went through a great ordeal trying to make the package comply with Indian postal standards. She finally left the package and 500 rupeeswith a friend to let them do the best they could.

So after all this, yesterday, a note arrived saying that my parcel was ready to be collected at the central post office. The Guard where I live gave the post man 4 dollars and passed on this note to me.

So I happily headed on down to the central post office to collect my goodies. Paying on the way 2 dollars for the cab. I arrive at the post office, show all of my documents and am asked to pay another 4 dollars to collect my parcel.

When I say that I have already paid the 4 dollars for my parcel everybody laughs heartly and says I've been had. So in my outrage, I make a complaint to the postmaster, that his distributers are collecting money in this way. I think that I am doing my civic duty by reporting this. And quite frankly I'm sick and tired of being ripped off and over charged. I may be a foreigner, but I'm not made of money!

I then return to collect my parcel, thinking I can happily go home and savour the moment of opening it. But this is not to be. The parcel had to be opened by a customs officer and I list of the items recorded.

So we go through it
one skirt
4 AIESEC t-shirts
business cards
stuffed kangaroo
australian pens
koala lighter
and 2 packets of tampons

This was a rather embrassing point not only for me haveing the 5 or so customs men passing them around wondering what they were, but also for the local AIESECer, Mansoor, who had to explain to the customs men what they were. These types of things are kept extremely private in Afghanistan and most men wouldn't even know what a period was!!

So we finally leave the post office and after the 2 dollar taxi ride back to the office I was wishing that it had been lost in the mail.

But the story does not end here. It turns out that as a result of my complaint, the distribution post man is being investigated and faces the possibility of loosing his job. Further, he did not actually ask for the 4 dollars that he collected from the Guard here at my office, but rather it is something that he is regularly given when he comes here, because the workers here know how low his salary is.

Good one Kyle. So tomorrow, when the post master comes to investigate, I have to try and explain the whole situation and withdraw my complaint.

All this heartache over 1 skirt, 4 t-shirts, some souvineers and a couple of packs of tampons!