Kindness from a Post Office Worker

Admission time: I lost my keys at the Bots 10 one-year celebration party. I am not sure if someone grabbed them or if they fell out of my bag or what happened but the fact remains that I lost them. This was a frantic and sad day for me. I can't remember ever losing something like this before. Sigh. I shed a few tears, I called everyone and every place I could think of to ask about them, and then I moved on. The locks were changed on my house (and actually extra security added by the man that changed them for me) and I got new keys. No harm done, right? Well, sorta. On that very keyring that was lost was my post office box key. The one and only post office box key for the post office box that I am sharing with my NGO. Ugh. But this is not a blog post about the tragedies of getting new keys cut, but rather one about the greatness of the people of Botswana.

from my mama and sister

I had explained to the people at the post office about my lost keys and how I couldn't get into the post office box and how I thought I had something waiting for me and and and... After some hemming and hawing because it was against protocol (which is very important here), they gave me three packages that were, indeed, waiting there for me (from my mama and my sister! happy dance!). I half skipped all the way home (3km) with a huge smile on my face. The post office people bent the rules just a little bit and now I had fun new things to show for it! Hip-hip-hooray!

I went about the next few days with a little extra umph because of my fabulous care packages. And then, this morning, I heard a "honk honk" and I ran outside to see what was up. There, at my gate, was the post office vehicle! A guy stepped out of the driver's seat, walked around to the back, and pulled out a very large box. He came strolling over to me as I came dashing down the stairs towards him. He then explained that the post office staff saw the package come in and realized I wouldn't know it was there because I had lost my keys and wouldn't see the slip and also that it was really heavy so they figured they would just drop it off to me! (Are you kidding me?! SO NICE!) I thanked the man a thousand times over because he was right - it might have sat in the post office for weeks before I had a key re-cut (it's super expensive) and holy smokes was it huge so walking it home would have been quite the chore! And, yes, this was breaking protocol again because they hadn't taken my passport information to release it or anything like that. But, really, how many Tija "Kamogelo" Danzigs are there in Gabane? Probably not too many! To me, what is most special about this is the sincerity and thought of it. The post office worker recognized my hardship, he saw a way to help me out, and he did it. How often do people go out of their way to help a stranger out like that? In my experience, not too often. In Botswana, however, I have seen it happen more than a few times. It was one of those moments of kindness that I will carry with me and pay forward. So THANK YOU Mr. Post Office Worker for being so caring, thoughtful, and considerate. This Peace Corps Volunteer is eternally grateful! (P.s. I shared some turkey jerky with him to say "thanks"!)

the contents of the big box from my friend jeff