Final Trip to the Post Office

For over a month now, my mother has told me I should be expecting a package. In Ghana how the postal system works is that all packages (unless very small) are delivered to the main head quarters in Accra. You receive a slip of paper with your name on it and a list of a few items that your package contains.

Well I have yet to receive a package slip for a package that arrived March 9th, so I asked for the tracking number. Thus I went off to the central post office 45 minutes away from campus by tro-tro. When I arrived I had to wait a good 10 minutes before I even get acknowledged as human. The people that run the place are very cold and quite rude. However, I have taken many a trips there and have made my friends. It was not till I saw my older gentlemen friend and lady who loves to speak fluid sentences at me in Twi and I have no idea what she is saying. (Just to understand it wasn’t until I spoke Twi and complimented her a gazillion times that she even turned her twisted face into half a smile… but at least I can say we aren’t enemies.)

Anyways, the only lady I could remember her name (Auntie Caroline) was making herself look quite busy with some paper work. I greeted her and said “Auntie Caroline, How are you?!?” with which she responded … “How do you know my name, who told you?”

I informed her we had met before and she continued with her paperwork for another 10 minutes before listening to what I needed. When I finally told her that I did NOT receive a package slip and that I had the tracking number she informed me that her book with the tracking numbers and locations was accidentally left behind at home. She had brought it home to work on and forgot.

A brief interruption: I forgot to mention a key-role in my trip to the post office. I traveled with my friend Theresa and the porter or lady at the front desk of my dorm. The porters name is Peggy who is a single mother of two in her mid 40’s with the sweetest demeanor ever. However, I learned on this day that Peggy has a hot, fiery, and not-afraid-to –tell-someone-what’s-what attitude.

Continuation …

I was informed that because she did NOT bring her book with her that there was NOTHING she could do to locate my package and that I would have to come back tomorrow. I was upset but realized that it is Ghana and things don’t work the same as back home and as much as it would suck to go back, I would just have to do that. WELL…. Peggy didn’t like that ONE bit.

Peggy was soo upset. (It is very common for Ghanaians to get in heavily heated-arguments to the point where you think there will be fist fights only to end the conversation as if they were best friends) She thought it was crazy that the woman forgot to bring her work book to work. “You don’t just forget things like that and you have to concentrate very hard at remembering,” Peggy stated.

It was at this point when Peggy spoke/yelled in Twi at Auntie Caroline involving a head manager. Peggy told her that she should be fined or fired for such actions as forgetting such an important book.

It was only after this conversation that Auntie Caroline said she would call someone at home to help to look in the book and determine where my package may be. I accidentally wrote down the wrong number so had to wake my boyfriend up at 4am to check the correct tracking number (Sorry :( ). I was off by one digit and hopefully on my way to finding the package.

When I finally had the tracking number sorted out Auntie Caroline told me her phone was dying and that she must use my phone with the credit I have bought on it. She proceeded to call someone and he would call back in ten minutes. Fifteen minutes later he finally called in which Caroline spoke to him until my phone ran out of credit.

She then proceeded to ask for my name and went into the back room for 20 minutes. She finally came out with a package that was in U.S. packaging that held the potential to be mine. It was only when she asked another lady at a different window to come down by her that I KNEW my package had been found.

Next, comes the bargaining. When you get packages at this post office you must provide an I.D. and sign a million forms claiming you are the one picking it up and then you must pay the handling and taxes fee on your package. The fee is determined by how much the items in your package cost. So the lady tells me my package will be 9 cedi. That is more than I have paid for a package double the size of the one I am receiving. It is custom to have to open the package in front of the employees so they can look what you are getting to make sure the slip was accurate. (There is even one lady in particular that likes to snitch/steal food from you, if you have any in your packages. A friend of mine lost a few rice-krispies to this lady!) I told her I never pay more than 5 cedi a package and she gave me an awful look, muttered a few things under her breath and proceeded to fill out the form to tell me how much I actually owed.

In the meanwhile, Peggy is assisting another lady argue about the 150 cedi cost of her package that contained a digital camera. Peggy thinks it’s ridiculous to even have to pay to receive a package. If you receive electronics here, be prepared to pay A LOT of money. You may as well just go and buy the electronics here. Or as my friends have done, hide it in a box of Cheeze-Its.

Of course, while assisting the other lady, she continually made comments about how Auntie Caroline should get a fine.

In the end I got my package that had been sitting in the shelves of the post office for a month in a half for 5.9 cedi. I was handed my change and receipt the fastest I have ever got it before. I said very friendly good-byes as I was fearful that they were all very mad but I wanted to leave a good lasting impression. They were pleasant but Auntie Caroline handed me my receipt and told me “You come back by YOURSELF next time!”

I thought the journey was just about over but Peggy was still a bit fired-up and proceeded to tell us that we just needed to be more “forceful” next time. We informed her we are NOT Ghanaian and if we did act in such a manner, we would get ignored for longer even probably told to leave. She was again, shocked to hear this.

Then as we were finally leaving she got the attention of the manager again and told him a piece of her mind about the service and what improvements should be made. In particular, she thought it was nuts that you could bargain on the price of a package and instead there should just be a fixed price.

Overall, it was a success if not for the help of wonder-woman Peggy of whom I will be getting Ghanaian food cooking lessons from tomorrow.

More to come, only 16 days remaining!

~Stacie~