A visit to the Post Office in Belize is always full of surprises. First of all, I opened up my post box to find that a Christmas Card had just arrived, 6 months late. Inside, was written, “Hope your Christmas is full of wonderful surprises!” dated the 4th of December 2014. Wow, that was certainly a belated surprise. I wonder where this card has travelled, in all this time from Australia to its final destination in Belize? Mind-boggling, isn’t it?
Anyway, today I had to send a package overseas. I need to tell you about what all this entails so that you know what it means when I send something by post. I had been in the post office the week before with the same package to have it weighed and priced for delivery. At this point it important to mention that there is seldom a queue in the post office but as soon as you walk into the tiny Government building, you feel time suddenly stops and everything moves at an infinitely slower pace. Getting a package price means getting a weight done and a bizarre and mind-boggling calculation (which seems to change from week to week and is dependent on the pricing schedule whims of the clerk, the conjunction of the stars and blind luck). You are talking about a 15 minute wait to get this information.
Upon delivery approval, I brought the package into the post office today…open..to be inspected by the postal staff. The post clerk has to approve of all the contents and the packaging. I am so careful to pack well because I have been sent home a few times with “inadequate packaging” and it was also a very hot Friday afternoon and they were just about to close. I also have to go in armed with brown paper wrap, scissors and sellotape so that I can wrap up the box and have it sent on the same day. I have learned to speed wrap within 60 seconds…not that it actually matters because the rest of the post office world is going at a snail pace. Otherwise, after inspection, you can actually take it back home to wrap up to then return to the post office for final posting! This time, I got another surprise…the price of delivery was less than what was quoted the week before. I wasn’t really that surprised…sometimes it is hit and miss…and most times, I actually lose out with delivery cost and have to pay extra. Nevertheless, this time it was a positive surprise and I will have to get in touch with the recipient to tell them the good news.
The postal service is one of the challenges of Belize. It is not even something that you can complain or get upset about. I have to like or lump it and try to work with the system. I do still want to earn a little bit more money by sending our Apothecary items overseas so I persist with it and hopefully on each occasion, I can find something to be pleasantly surprised about.
