Miscellaneous Forum

Before leaving for China, an acquaintance left a list of all the words that could not be used in e-mail or letters as it is known that the authorities would read through her mail and e-mail. Some things have gone through just fine, while others were obviously delayed for inspection. In the 1980s, a friend of my mother's went on a climbing expedition in Pakistan. Every letter sent back home was obviously taped up from having been opened and blatantly inspected.

The hamlet I live in only gets mail 4 days a week....and at least 2 of our ex mailmen and 1 of the packet delivery guys have been charged with theft and one other one was caught keeping piles and piles of undelivered mail at his house The packet delivery guy stole 2 packets from us that contained exactly the same thing...things he could not possibly use unless he has exactly the same motorbikes as we do...wierd! many of our packets have arrived damaged and we had to set up bank accounts for all the kids so that relatives can do transfers instead of sending money through the post for birthdays and christmas after a packet containing the cards and a box of buscuits was oened and al the money removed.

Your experiences sound just like those of my stepmother in South Africa - I now only send postcards apart from Christmas. Parcels have been stopped for many years as they so rarely actually get there. I make up for it when I visit and take plenty of presents with me and treat to meals whilst there.

Happens in Kenya too, I got used to sending those blue stick together flimsy airmail letters so that people could see there was nothing inside to steal. However, a box of books that we sent via DHS arrived intact in 1 day. Amazing.

You don't have to go that far for horror stories of the post. Here in the East End of London, items regularly go missing. I live in a communal block and the standard practice is for the post worker to just throw the mail for all fourteen flats on the ground at the bottom of the stairs. A few Christmasses ago there was an article in the local paper telling us that if we wanted our Christmas mail before 25th December to go to the sorting office and pick it up ourselves. It's appalling.

That used to be the case in Sudan. Aything sent by my mother went missing. My cousin sent me a Christmas card with an embroidered picture and was most upset when I told her it hadn't arrived. It turned up the following year with the insert slashed open. Sorry mate, no money had been enclosed. Nowadays mail is reasonably fast, abot a week from k. BUt husband rarely remembers to go to the PObox to look....

yes, we have problems with mail in Mexico still, and never have anyone send us anything to an address here. We need to maintain a P O Box in San Diego and a private company which has contracts with the USPostal Service, picks it up for us and then forwards our 1st Class and any packages (which we totally limit--NO internet shopping for us!) at our direction, which is once a month. Therefore, when we receive it, the mail can be as old as 6 weeks (sometimes more--and of course always the important stuff is too old to act upon). Of course, with on-line banking, credit card payments, etc., it has gotten much better thanin our early days. But we still need to find someone RELIABLE for hand carrying mail out for us to put into the US system; as mail in and out of here most often NEVER arrives. we totally gave up on Christmas cards in our early yrs, as the P O here closes mid-Dec to early January!! and again, many of the cards sent to us were never receivd anyway. so we end up paying over250 US annually to get our mail once a month.

I see a job opportunity for me there Trish. Do you think there would be a need for a personal courier to do the border run? I could see myself doing that!

hmmm, probably more trouble than it is worth.....Mexico has very stringent regs for foreigners to work here, and a license with the USPostal people is necessary to get the mail prior to its getting down here. for those who live near the border, the system set up is great, as they get their mail EVERY DAY (M-F)! but since we are 1000 miles south, we only have it forwarded once a month; it is kept for us,then bundled and sent via "MEXPOST" which is supposed to be 3 days, but takes 8-10 days in actuality. (we also have a casa up near the border, where we go for part of the summer; departing next week. so while we are there, we get our full mail every day, and initially when we get there, I have 10 mos or so of third class crap to paw thru and make sure nothing important got buried!! --that has happened a couple times you can imagine!) and maybe a little far to consider from UK or PI? :-)

It was a bit tongue in cheek, Trish, but I take your points. They are not going to let just any old muppet (i.e. me) take charge of postal deliveries. I know it used to be a great way to travel cheaply if you could get the gig, doing personal delivery documents. You basically got a free ticket to travel to place X,Y or Z with the caveat that you had to come back and bring documents home on the return trip. I think it is harder to do now but it certainly used to be an option for budget travellers.

yeah, I DID realize it was a joke!! something just made me answer it.......