This comes as exciting news to all of us, whether email, facebook or twitter posts, or honest to goodness "snail mail"! It's especially exciting when you live overseas and know that someone took the time, effort, and money to send you something in the mail!
We recently were expecting a package in the mail (Speed the Light equipment sent to us by the Iowa Ministry Network -- thanks to Iowa youth!). It was shipped by UPS which, because they don't actually have an office here, is therefore handled by a local carrier when it reaches Bogota.
Kevin was keeping track of the packge online, and it finally arrived in Bogota on a Thursday. So we started watching and waiting and expecting it the following week.
Monday came and went, with no package.
Tuesday, as I jumped in a taxi to go to the grocery store, I let the guard know we were expecting something from UPS and that I would be back in an hour.
That afternoon, the guard called to let me know that the delivery truck had indeed come while I was at the store, but that we had to pay customs fee, so the package could not be released. The guard gave me a phone number to call to verify the information and make arrangements.
Wednesday, with the cash tucked away, I expectantly waited for the truck to return. Finally, about 3pm, it came. He confirmed Kevin's name, I gave him the money, I signed in three different places, he signed a receipt, and he left. The package was one-fourth the size and weight I expected. I called Kevin with the good news, but while talking to him, I realized it wasn't addressed to us!!!!!
We had the wrong package!
Since I didn't recognize the name on the package, I called the guard and found out that the named individual lived in another house down the street!
Because the local carrier doesn't use the UPS tracking numbers, once they'd communicated with Kevin the afternoon before, they just assumed they were giving him the package he expected! We believe ours, indeed, was what they had attempted to deliver the day before, because the dollar amount for customs was the correct amount, but in the meantime, another package had been put on the truck, at the same address. When the truck arrived, the guard assumed it was the same package and sent him to our house!
"What are the odds," I asked myself, "in a city of four million people, that TWO packages would be sent from the United States via UPS, would be addressed to two houses in the same housing complex, and would arrive for delivery at the same time!?!?"
I will skip all the details, but after days of phone calls, both to the UPS in the United States and to the local carrier, both by Kevin and the Bible school secretary, one week later Kevin went directly to the carrier's office, returned the incorrect package and retrieved the new package.
The purpose of this blog is to give you a window into life in another culture and some of the joys, frustrations, and humor we experience in living life. I don't know if, in trying to keep this "brief", I've portrayed how complicated and interesting an experience this was! But it took Kevin bringing two cultures (US-based UPS practices/policies and Colombia operating systems) together, and showing up unannounced at the office to finally receive our package!
We are relieved that this experience was all eventually resolved, as we were looking at the definite possibility of losing the package and/or the money!
Thank you, God, for being concerned about all the details in our lives, even UPS packages!
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