Postal Service Adventures

Emily sent me a package which arrived a couple of days ago.  Nobody could figure out who this "Gleen Wright" guy was, though, so the box never got dropped off.  Instead, I had to hike down to the main post office in Kampala to pick it up once the Forestry School security dude finally figured out who the package should have been delivered to.  Actually, the walk wasn't a big deal, since I walk past the main post office just about every day on my way home.  Not a lot of ways for me to get exercise here in Kampala, aside from walking.

However, picking up a package at the post office was, like just about everything else here, so complicated I had a hard time not giggling through the whole intensely bureaucratic affair.  Sequence was as follows:

Walked into the post office.  Patted down with a handheld metal detector.  Bag searched.  

Walked into parcel pick-up office.  Patted down with a handheld metal detector.  Bag searched again.  

Presented package slip to clerk.  Presented a copy of my passport.

Sent upstairs to get a photocopy of my passport.  Bag searched.

Paid USh 200 for a photocopy (about 10 cents).

Brought photocopy back to clerk.

Photocopy stamped and signed by clerk.  

Signed photocopy and my package slip, and wrote my phone number on both.

Package slip stamped and signed.

Paid USh 9900 (about $4) in postage due and "delayed pickup" fees.

Receipt written out, stamped and signed.

Signed receipt and wrote my phone number on receipt per clerk's request.

Signed post office parcel pickup log book, and wrote my phone number, per clerk's request.

Clerk handed me receipt.

Package placed on counter.

Reached for package.  Stopped by clerk.

Package passed ten feet down the counter to "customs" official with package slip.

Package opened and searched.  

Finding no un-Islamic or prohibited items, package re-sealed.

Package slip was again stamped and signed by customs official.

Customs slip signed and stamped by customs official.

Signed customs slip over a carbon of a duplicate slip.

Handed package and slip.

Turned around, handed package and slip to security guard (directly behind me, not ten feet from the "customs" desk, and watching the whole process since I was about the only guy in the parcel office other than about ten employees.

Customs slip filed.  Bag searched.  

One other amusing thing about the parcel office was the poster showing prohibited or regulated items.  Just like in the US (can't ship guns, explosives, radioactive material or toxic chemicals).  Only difference is that you also can't ship items deemed "un-Islamic" by union of African-Islamic Nations or something like that.  The funny part was that the graphic showing an example of an un-Islamic item was a cartoon of a live pig apparently being packed in a cardboard box for shipment to... maybe the decadent United States?  Guess they might also be shipping that pig to Europe, but I suspect that they would be facing a lot of competition from the Spanish.