picking up a package at the P.O.

wow..... a big deal to say the least.... well, for me it was.

Recently I received an note stating I had a package to pick up at the Kumasi post office. Since the p.o. is only open during the week, I had to go on my own as Maa is at work all day. So... I set off to Kumasi by myself. I can manage getting from my house to Effiduase via taxi without any problem. I then get dropped at the lorry station in Effiduase where I have to pick a Kumasi trotro. The trotro's will not move until every seat is full.... so sometimes you have to wait awhile. The journey to Kumasi is about 45 minutes or so if the traffic isn't bad. I stayed in the trotro until the final stop, where I would board a taxi to drop me at the post office. Here... the frustrations began. I tried to flag down 2 different taxi's... I told them where I wanted to go and they just drove off?? Maybe they didn't understand me?? Who knows. Finally, I get a taxi. I ask the price... he said 7.00 cedi's.... I told him I wouldn't pay that, but I had to jump in as traffic started moving. We went back and forth on the price until I told him I wouldn't pay more than 3.00 cedi's. He finally agreed. We were driving awhile, and ended up in a completely different town!! The guy's English was not good, and he lied about knowing where the Post Office was. I was ticked. He finally stopped and asked directions, and I eventually got there... though I refused to pay any more money for his stupidity.

I arrive at the post office, and there are many street vendors in front of the place, bums on the sidewalks, ehhh. Lots of people. I go into the p.o. and am directed to the opposite end to a different building to claim packages. Okay.... I go. I have to show the note, and my identification. I then proceed to go through a series of check points. The postal worker, the customs guy, the postal worker again, then back to customs, the cashier, then the customs.... it was kind of ridiculous actually. I got my package and had to empty the contents, they were checked in and prices given to all the items. How these prices are figured exactly.... is still a mystery to me, but appartently they use some type of system of how much things cost, based on the country of origin??? Anyways.... once the price is figured for the box, a tax is configured based on the price. They have a tax for everything. A GH tax, a post office tax, a development tax, and health something tax, etc. They use 30% of the total value of a package to configure the tax. Then a fee is charged to get the package out of the post office and the shipment/handling/transporation of it since it arrived in the country. Geez!!! I made the guy go item by item and explain to me the prices, the taxes, etc. He was probably annoyed but I didn't care. I didn't want to be swindled!! So.... after my mom sent the package from US, and paid nearly 60 USD to send it.... I paid money on my end to get it!!! haha. It didn't end up being that much, about 15.00 cedi's which is about $10??? I finally left the package section of the post office and wanted to mail all my post cards. I went back to the other side of the p.o. and stood in line. I was apparently in the wrong line, so I was directed elsewhere, I stood there.... and was told to go back to where I was standing originally. Grrr. This happens alot. Not just here at the p.o., but everywhere. I finally get in the correct line or so I think, and people just keep cutting me in line!!! Because I am foreign, I can't really insult them, or act rude... so I just stand there, getting even more annoyed!! I finally left, I was mad and no one was listening to me.

The ride home was another story.... I got a taxi outside the p.o. It was to take me to the lorry station, so I could pick a Effiduase trotro back home. Due to the traffic, the taxi guy said he would have to drop me off across the street, once I got down I would cross into the park and go left... that is where the Effiduase trotros are. Okay... so I go. I get inside and go left... and it is not there... the people tell me to go across the way... I go.... not there... they say go up there... I go... not there... they say go up the hill ... I go... not there... finally... I stop and tell someone they have to take me to the place. I don't want any pointing of fingers or saying... over there... over here... no. Just take me there. I get the the Effiduase area and the only seat left is the one up front. I am sitting next to a very old man who doesn't speak any English. haha. Everyone in the trotro was amused that I was an Oburoni in the trotro. They were trying to talk to me in English, and making fun of themselves for not speaking properly... or being able to understand. It was kind of funny. I eventually got home.... but, NEVER AGAIN will I go to Kumasi by myself. It is too scary and too many people. Besides, they always try and make foreigners pay a higher amount because they think we have money.... not fair, but understandable why they do so.