When I Need an Ego Boost, I Will Go to the Post Office
January 24, 2007

I have some very good news to report today: I am finally in possession of the two packages that I sent myself from the US in September! After two unsuccessful visits to the Gulshan Post Office, I decided to check the Mohammadpur Post Office because the package was originally addressed to my work address in Mohammadpur. (At the General Post Office I gave them my new address and they told me they would deliver the packages to Gulshan.) My hunch was correct and my two packages were in fact in Mohammadpur!

As always, my trip to the post office was very exciting. As soon as I walked through the door I became the main attraction. Since I went to work today, I was wearing a sari. I immediately received several compliments – “You are very pretty!” and “You look very beautiful in Bengali national dress!” I was then invited to have some tea with them (when were you ever offered tea in a US Post Office?!), which I politely declined because I had just had a cup in my office before I left. (The gentleman was quite sad that I refused and tried to get me to take a cup twice more before I left…)

Three men then offered me a chair (I am not allowed to stand anywhere in Bangladesh. If I stay in the same spot for more than ten seconds I immediately hear “boshun!” which means “please sit down!” Even if I tell them that I prefer to stand, they will yell “boshun!” every ten seconds until I agree…) After I gave in to the request to “boshun,” I gave them my package numbers and told them that I was looking for two large packages sent from California. Since there are not many foreigners in Mohammadpur, and they do not get mail from California that often, they recognized the boxes right away.

After declining my third cup of tea, one of the gentlemen carried my (very heavy!) boxes outside for me and helped me load them into a CNG. It was definitely first class service all around!