Day 45: Post Office Trip

Today was Friday. On Wednesday, I had received a call from the post office in Dakar notifying me that I had a package waiting there (for my birthday on Saturday). While I was excited to hear the news, I didn’t get a change to get to the post office until Friday.

I was accompanied by Fatou Lo who is just simply the best. We took a taxi downtown. I’ve been in plenty of taxis since I got here a month and a half ago, but this taxi was by far the worst. I mean, the only thing about this cab that was acceptable was that the seats were comfortable. The transmission was nearly gone, and the driver was constantly fighting with the shifter to get it into gear, and when we slowed down the car would lurch back and forth. Every once in a while, the car would stall, and to start the engine again, the driver would just connect two wires (where the ignition used to be.) It was quite an adventure, and we got to the post office around 1.

Once inside, I was led to the room where international packages are received, fees are paid, etc. I walked in the room and found that the man in charge was putting all of his stuff away. He explained to me that it was Friday, and it was time to take their short break. He ushered me out of the room, and eventually, led Fatou and me out of the post office. He said they would be taking a break until 3pm. Fatou Lo pleaded with him, but to no positive result. We were then left outside the post office to wait for 2 hours. We got some sandwiches at a street stand and then walked down the street through markets and such till we reached this little café/restaurant place where we got a couple of sodas. After managing to kill nearly 2 hours, we returned to the post office.

The customs guy made me open the package from my mom and go through each item (milky ways, granola bars, starbursts, reeses cups, etc etc) and explain to him what each item was. To see such an assortment of candy and food from home made me really happy, and I walked out of the post office with a smile on my face and an 18 pound box in my arms.