yes, i know i have already complained in great detail about the kampala post office, but i keep expecting my experiences there to get better instead of worse. why oh why oh why? yesterday i received a call from the polite lady at the kampala post office advising me that i have a PARCEL and must retrieve it promptly. no problemo...because i know my friend, kathi gilleland, has sent me 9 pounds of junk food, which is sure to include chocolate!
so...this morning my favorite taxi driver, wycliff, picks me up at 10 and says "where to"? (our van is in for repairs AGAIN, but that is another story) when i say "the post office, i have a PARCEL there!" he gets this kind of weird look on his face, like oh no, not again. we had to stop at the bank in case they decided they needed to charge me a $50 tax to receive my box and then off through the explosive detection gate, into the first reception area, out the front, along the side, up the stairs to the PARCEL department. i hand my paperwork to the woman behind the desk and she types and types and types and calls for assistance. this postal employee says "your PARCEL is not ready, you can retrieve it on friday." i reply "no, there must be some mistake, you called me yesterday and said to come get my PARCEL promptly, so here i am, prompt." "there is no mistake" he says, "your PARCEL has not been processed."
i ask "then why did you call me?" oh so smugly he says "we didn't." "yes you did" i told him, "here look at my phone diary. why did you call me if my PARCEL is not ready for pick up? why did you waste my time? and are you going to pay the taxi driver because this little trip for nothing has cost me $20." mr postal employee says "no, of course not, you just need to come back on friday." i'm getting extremely annoyed at his attitude....all self righteousness and powerful, knowing my PARCEL is 10 feet away but i can't have it......he then says "i would process it if it were an emergency." "it is an emergency" i reply. he asks " does it contain medicine?" "no, it contains chocolate" i nearly scream at him. he is not amused. i calm myself and quietly ask "have you ever heard the term 'going postal'?" "no. i have not" "hmmph" i mutter...."i'm just saying"!
so, as i mentioned earlier, the van is in the shop AGAIN. every time my partner, andrew ssemwogerer, says "nothing else can go wrong with it!" bam......sputter sputter, black smoke, here we are sitting by the side of the road in the hot african sun, not a soul around, in the middle of no where and we remember to say "thank you Jesus!" we have been to kiganda 3 times since i arrived in africa, and all 3 times, we have broken down on the side of the road. mind you, this is 2 hours one way, it is NOT easy to haul a broken down van 2 hours in uganda. haha, nothing is easy in uganda, but this is costly, time consuming and oh so frustrating. at first we are depressed because we do not have any more money in the budget for repairs and then we get really MAD because it dawns on us that satan is trying to keep us from completeing our project in kiganda, which is drilling a well for the highway secondary school. no siree, nothing's going to stop us, we both eventually make our way there and are in time to see the big drilling equipment power down 40 feet. yay! 8 months ago we promised we would provide water in 2012 and thanks to st andrew's lutheran church in minneapolis, mn....we have kept our word and soon, hopefully this week, the school will have clean, plentiful water for the first time. (they had been drawing water from a filthy pond) yay and thank you Lord.
the van, well, it's in the shop. we have to rent a car to finish our projects this week. it's ok, afterall, i do need to return to the post office to promptly retrieve my PARCEL! and yes mr postal worker, chocolate IS medicinal!!
kathy
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