One of the benefits of my job is that we are essentially exempt from international shipping fees. There is a location in the DC area where we can have packages/ mail shipped and it will be carried across land/ country/ continent/ ocean for free to us. So we only have to pay for shipping to said address.
I ordered two items on Amazon at the end of July, along with some Netflix (Season 1 of Glee). Amazon informed me that one package was delivered to the aforementioned address on August 5 and the other on August 11. Everyone has told me that it takes about two to three weeks for you mail to actually arrive in Addis once it reaches the DMV area. Okay, fine. Two weeks go by, nothing. Three weeks, nothing. I'm asking the people in the mail room and they're like "Nope, we have nothing for you". I'm seeing other people leave work with 3,4,..8 packages. I can't even get my Netflix :( I go to the mailroom again and inquire-- nothing. I check the address on Amazon thinking that maybe I made a mistake. No, its the correct address. One of my co-workers who sits beside me is receiving packages every week. I ask her when she ordered her stuff--"oh, two weeks ago". At this point, we're approaching the five week mark and I have heard NOTHING regarding my things. I ordered more stuff because I need some books for my dissertation as well as other things for my house. If you've seen my facebook pictures, then you're aware of my goldilocks pillows. Anyway, I go down to the mail room and ask if they can contact the Embassy-- several co-workers suggested that perhaps my mail was still at the Embassy because they didn't know I had arrived to post or where I worked (b/c you can't look me up in the system right?). The people in our mail room say they'll send an email. This morning, it's confirmed that I have two boxes and four movies in the mail room at the Embassy. And that in the future, they should be informed of newcomers so that they'll know where to send packages. :-|
I was headed to the Embassy anyway today to get my health situation checked out (turns out I pulled some muscles and I have a burgeoning sinus infection-- good thing it wasn't the malaria and impending heart attack I had guessed). I go to the mail room and they tell me that they already sent my packages to my building. I asked them to double check. They look at a few boxes and say "Nope, nothing. It's already been sent". I ask them to check ONE more time and took note of the employee's name. I told him I would be sending him a dirty email if I got back to work and my stuff wasn't there. He does a cursory glance under the counter and what do you know...one of my packages was there. I ask him if there's anything else under there. He says "Well, let me check". He pulls out the second package. I'm trying not shoot him daggers of death with my eyes because I've been waiting for these packages for weeks. So he tells me I have to sign for them. There was a part of me that was just hoping that the packages had arrived this week. No. He has to go back into some other room to get out the OLD sign sheets from weeks past. I ask when they arrived. August 13 and August 20. I stare at the counter...at nothing in particular. Just stare for a minute to pull myself together before I say something sarcastic. It's not worth it. I try not to be one of those Americans who thinks that screaming, cursing and insulting will either rectify the situation or make me feel better. These types of things happen in the US-- I've heard many a story of epic failures on the part of UPS or Fedex. I was just annoyed because my things would have continued to sit at the Embassy in the pile of misfit packages because no one was even bothering to inquire as to who I was. I've now been added to the list (I think as of today) of employees in my building so perhaps my mail will actually arrive in a semi-timely fashion.
I'm going to get started on Season 1 today and hope that my mail that arrived in the DC area last Wednesday and Thursday shows up in the next two weeks.
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