The Post Office
"how many people does it take to process a package?"

Running errands is an adventure here…and a trip to the post office deserves to have its story told!

We have packages sent to our main headquarters in Colombo to ensure that it makes it to a physical address. Our office in Hikkaduwa does not have a street number…nor does our house (we are not even sure if the street our house is on has a name!). When a package comes that is too big to be delivered to the physical address (which is anything over the size of a 10" x 12" envelope")…a pick up voucher for the package is delivered to HQ and then passed on to the intended recipient to go and pick up.

The first time we received verification of a package to be picked up I went by myself to find the post office…which took an extra 45 minutes (I missed the street and ended up on the other side of town…nice!). When I finally arrived at the P.O., and found a place to park (10 minutes), and made it inside…I am sent upstairs where I find a long counter the length of the large room, with literally 20-25 men behind it. I walk up to the counter and show them my voucher (that looks like a newspaper) that indicates I have a package waiting for me. The man behind the counter tells me to go see the man sitting at the island counter directly behind me (what he really did was point...mumble a word or two in English...then a bunch of words in Sinhalese...but I figured it out!). Here is where it all begins... the man behind the small island counter begins the processing of my voucher. He asks for my passport, to fill out my address, and to sign the document in about three different places, I am then given a number and asked to wait until it is called (the number is not always called in English…nice!). That’s 1.

A man comes from behind the long counter, retrieves the voucher from the first guy, and takes it behind the long counter and puts in a stack. That’s 2.

Another man takes my voucher and disappears into another room (sometimes there are two men who leave with the form). The man reemerges with a box…which I hope is mine and I hope still has everything in it. He sets the box down on a table behind the counter. That’s 3.

A different man (sometimes this is done by two people as well) takes his razor blade out and begins to open the box. That’s 4. Once opened, he then shows the contents of the box to another man, who writes mystery numbers down on a piece of paper. That’s 5. The man who opened the box now begins to close it with string and then places it on the floor behind the counter (again this sometime can be done by a completely different person).

The man who examined the box and has written mystery numbers on my voucher…now passes that paper to someone else that looks it over and writes down some more mystery numbers and passes the paper back to the first mystery number writer, who confirms the mystery and signs it. That’s 6 and 7. (In case you are lost…5 (5) gave a mystery form to 6 (6) who filled it out and gave it back to 5 (7) to process again)

The voucher is then passed to another man who is the cashier. He looks at all the mystery numbers and determines a mystery price. That’s 8. The price depends on who is there that day. I have had two different prices, from two different people, on basically the same type of package. The first one was 150 Rupees and the second was 230 Rupees (Approx. $1.50 and $2.30 U.S.).

My voucher is then passed on to another man…who checks all the forms, the mystery numbers, my passport to verify I am the person whose name is on the package and started this whole ordeal, and gets me to sign their log book. That’s 9.

And finally, there is a man who sits and waits for me to sign the log book, then picks my package up from the floor behind the counter and hands it to me. That’s 10 (and this could fluctuate by about 3 people depending on the day).

This process will take at least 20 minutes if they are not busy and 30-40 minutes on a typical day.

It takes approx. 10 men to process a package the size of shoe box. If you are wondering what all the other men are doing (I quoted 20-25 men behind the counter at the beginning of the story)…your guess is as good as mine?

Thanks for the packages! What's in the box is well worth the adventure!

Adam

Fran the Fan, who is a very important contributor to our quality of life, recently became a little less efficient and a whole lot louder. In the absence of a ladder, we put our heads together, and came up with a resourceful solution. (Actually, there were two solutions; this is the second. The first one, which hypothetically might have involved a rope and the second-floor railing, ended before it began, so there are no pictures.)
Dave disected the fan and applied WD40 while Paul read a book, Chris shielded Paul's head from falling debris, and Adam hung on to Dave for all he was worth. Meanwhile, Mindy took pictures, handed tools, and said, "Please don't drop him." and "You guys are out of your minds." While we are pretty sure we did not actually fix the problem, Fran at least acknowledged the effort and the TLC and has given us no problems since.

Art Exhibition. The Salvation Army Community Center in Hikkaduwa houses a pre-school, for about 25 kids, ages 3-5. Recently, they had an Art Exhibition (similar to the "Open House" we had as kids in elementary school) and parents / grandparents were invited. Mindy tried to stuff one of the kids in her pocket (how cute are they?!?), but the parents noticed, so she had to return the child. =) One of our favorite works of art was the flower arrangement, created with tin cans, tissue paper, and candy wrappers. Another was the grape "piece," constructed with tissue-covered bottle caps.

Pets! Here's Rip, the two-timing pup who adopted us and spends half his time at another home and half his time with us. He likes to eat eggs, rice, chicken, and sausages. (No actual "dog food" here.) =) Axel is the kitten that we "rescued" from a drain pipe. She'd been there several days, was too young to be away from mom, and was starving - and Chris felt sorry for me (not the cat) - so he brought her home. She cried nonstop, but she adored the boys (especially their facial hair) and you should have seen the 6 foot something men trying to comfort the inconsolable kitten... it was a valiant effort; however, we have mourned the loss of a team member as Axel didn't make it. So, our only pet is Rip the two-timer, who is really not all that bright, but makes up for what he lacks in brains with being cute and excited when we come home. He's not very street smart - which has lead to a few near misses with the 15 other dogs in the neighborhood who ARE street smart. But he is the fastest dog on the street - which is the ONLY explanation for why he is the one dog in Hikkaduwa that has zero scars.