Patience.......

Having arrived back in Morogoro too late to access the Posta, I had retrieved the mail from our Post Box and discovered that I had some parcels waiting to be collected.
I walked into town today, Mama at the Posta sent me to the Revenue Board to pay duties...(or bribes!?) on the parcels....
Bwana says: "You have to pay the duties...on these items it will be over $Aus50.00"
......KWA NINI?????? WHY??????

Kwa sababu......Because............etc.....etc......etc.....
I was not going to get my precious parcels from Mum and Gemma at this rate...so I changed my tactics and explained ever so sweetly that most of the contents did not require me to pay duties....AND that last time I only paid 2000Tsh for each parcel....After lots of discussion in both Kiswahili and English he agreed to me paying 5000Tsh. I had to go to the CRDB bank and pay this then return to him with the receipt.
On entering the bank I became number 25 in the line. Faces were long and people were resigned to the wait. Was this normal in this bank? I never use this one but I know that some banks take ages to serve...OMG!
Pole Pole....we slowly moved as people left the line and exited without service?? No one was being served. Finally the Manager or someone of importance explained something in Kis then came over personally to me and explained that something had broken down and it would be another '5 minutes'!
Yes, I know how long 5 minutes is here so promptly left the bank to sit in this internet cafe.....
I will let you know whether I actually get my parcels or whether they find some other reason to delay me/get money from me.
PS: A little hint: When you send me a parcel remember that books, stationary, pencils, paper etc....anything that I might use for reading, writing, teaching etc doesn't require me to pay taxes at this end.....so.....maybe everything you send me could potentially be amongst the classification of stationary for teaching????

ASANTE SANA.... THANKS HEAPS....in anticipation of your snail mail. One of the things that makes me VERY HAPPY here is opening our Post Box to find mail inside....even when it's mail for the girls at school, it's exciting. The feeling of isolation is intense when it is empty especially at the moment when my access to the internet is unreliable and intermittent.