.jpg)
Just noticed that I forgot to say anything about getting mail out of Guyana. The first time you arrive with your parcel all neatly packaged so that it will make the journey across the Atlantic. But oh no!, they have to look at the contents. So you rip it all apart, it's checked, a price is agreed and you seal it back up as best you can. Then they ask for ID because every parcel is registered against its owner. Has to be proof of address and passport. Luckily, they accepted my VSO card which has the passport number and is signed by a Minister and I had just been paying my phone bill so I had a utilities bill. Just as you think you are done, she sends you to the next window - customs! Open up! Noooooooooooooooooo! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After another inspection, recording of the contents and your ID and a thorough look at your face, you are sent to copy your ID on a public photocopier where, of course, there is a charge and a queue! Then back to the second window and another queue where your parcel is approved. (I believe they don't approve it if it has heroine or cocaine but I've never tried that to test it). She points back to the original window where you queue to have the stamps put on it and your parcel taken away, with you wondering if it will ever get to the address it was sent to.
You know, I don't even mind the bureaucracy or the inefficiency, but do they have to be so rude about it? Even Guyanese get upset. How can you do all this in your lunch hour because they're closed before you go to work and when you come home?
Anyway, that's my Grumpy Old Man bit for today!
PS It's not much better in Wallington Post Office!!!!!!!!!!!!!
