Cultural Mail

One of the things they try to stress to us while living here is that other cultures are not like America. Things do not always run as efficiently as they do here. So, as a learning experience today, we had Cultural Mail Day. Off Tim went with the kids to get the mail. He arrived at the mail room and stood in a LONG line only to find out that he had to have his passport in order to get his mail. So, they walked across campus, gathered the passport and went back to the long line. Tim got to the front of the line only to discover that he had MY passport. The 'government officials" hassled him for awhile and then he had a brilliant idea. He pulled out some American cash and began bribing the government officials. Guess what! It worked! They gave him our mail and two letters stating that we had other packages on other areas of campus. At this point, Tim was tired of dealing with the cultural mail so he sent Trinity to get the packages. Nope. When she got there, they told her that it had to be an adult with a passport. By the time she found us, mail time was over. So, I guess we will hope that our packages are back in the American mail room tomorrow. I told Tim that at least these "government officials" spoke English which is more than we will get next time. :)