Blessed News of Packages

i wrote this yesterday:
earlier this morning i was notified that i have 2 packages at the post office. so i skipped work duty to ride into Boma to pick up my packages to find out that my packages are in moshi. so tomorrow i'm traveling to moshi to get my 2 packages!

another odd experience happened while i was waiting at the doctor's office with the friends. they had rode along to boma to check if they had malaria. but i can't really say anything because there are some people at this base who follow my blog... and it's a secret! but someone found out they are pregnant (and have malaria)...

so today i went to retreive the goods. it's always an experience and nothing is easy. those are my two thoughts.

so i ride w/ Babu who is driving to Moshi to drop off our base leader's kid at school. the public school in tanzania don't seem to be up to par, so many kids are sent to private schools for education. i've discovered that all mzungu kids go to this school - the international school in Moshi. i've not seen that many white people since i've arrived in africa. who know that many white folk lived around this area?

so after dropping off Abbey for school, Babu dropped me off at this little restaraunt because it was 7.30 and the post office opened at 9. so i enjoyed a nice glass of cold passionfruit juice and people watched for an hour and a half. and the time flew by. i enjoyed every moment of being alone and free from the base. there's really not any time to be alone at the base...

so i get to the post office, handed them my notices and they retrieve my 2 boxes. beautiful - everything is running smoothly! i paid them for my 2400 shilling for my 2 packages. but then another guy comes to the front, and says, 'you know about paying the taxes for your packages, right?' i had heard about the tax from charnelle so it wasn't a surprise. so he opens the packages and i get to see all the fun goods i've been blessed with. (i have the greatest friends in all the world!) then this man tells me that i owe him 10,000 shillings which is about 9 bucks. not too bad. but the catch is that i need to walk to another bank in order to have them accept the money and to fill out some form which is required. (the word 'foreign' takes on a whole new meaning in 3rd world countries!)

so i take the form and start walking in the direction which he indicated. on the way there's a bank with an ATM which i've been told accepts foreign credit cards. so i stopped there and tried, but to no avail. so i proceeded down the street to this Exim bank. they also had an ATM with a sign reading something about international cards are allowed a certain limit. so i tired it, but again nothing happens, except that it prints a reciept. the receipt seems like the money has been distributed, but i got some type of error message on the screen. 'no biggie,' i thought, 'i'll just continue with the 10,000 shilling transaction and be on my merry way.' so i go inside, check in at the front desk, then wait my turn for a cashier. i hadn't waited too long, and it was my turn. the transaction went without any hitches. so i begin walking a back to the bank, but then i'm reminded of something: the last time i was printed a receipt but didn't receive any cash, my account had been deducted of the funds. so i turned around and went back to the bank, simply to be confirmed that the money would remain in my account. so i checked in at the front desk again and again waited my turn from a cashier. i explained the situation to him, and he told me he'd check on it and i could have a seat. so i waited for nearly an hour before the main banker, Peter, came to me and said that i was over my daily limit, but the money would not be deducted from my account. (i'll wait to check on my account tomorrow to see if he is telling the truth, and if the first bank deducted any money!)

after all that, i was walking back to the post office, with my form completed, and thought, 'i don't think i have any money left.' i thought i had taken enough, because most of the time 10,000 is a huge amount of money, but now i was down to 500 shillings which wasn't enough to get me back to the base. that's when i began praying that somehow God would bail me out of this dilemma. (this is a odd lesson to be learned in a foreign culture!) so i go back to the post office and explain my dilemma to the guy who requested the 10,000. he said, 'no problem, since you've paid the 10,000. i will cover your bus fare.' so he gave me 1,000 shillings for my bus fare, handed me my packages and i was out of there. then i caught a dali dali back to federici (our bus stop), had to switch dali dali's in boma so i wouldn't have to carry the packages quite as far. so i got off the bus, flung both boxes on the top of my head and started walking 'home'. after holding and balancing the 2 boxes for a 1/2 mile, i have a greater appreciation for those women who do that everyday. (sorry, no pictures of me walking w/ the boxes!)

not sure what all i will learn from all this, but the passionfruit juice and the morning to myself was an incredible experience. and through it all, i wasn't nearly as anxious as one would expect. i can tell you are all praying for me, and that God is responding to Your prayers in mighty ways. and thanks to my friends who sent packages that didn't weight 50 pounds each! and a shout out to the guy from the post office who gave me my bus fare!