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