Authority (Almost) Always Wins

Authority (Almost) Always Wins

Yesterday Sonya and I went to the post office to pick up a box. It was dated Dec 2005. We thought, oh no, someone sent us Christmas stuff. We hoped it wouldn’t cost much for storage. That’s right, the post office charges storage if you pick it up seven days after arrival. What would five months cost?

We found out there was not just one box but two. One from close friends in Kansas City and another one from our LINKS district from last year. They only charged $14 for storage, which I paid only because they were Christmas presents.

Then, after getting the boxes we have to take them to the douane (customs officer) dressed in military fatigues. He cut the boxes open and riffled through them. The items were obviously gifts. However, the value box on both boxes showed each box contained over $100 in value. So, he fiddled with a calculator and said I owed $114 in customs fees. I said I didn’t have that much. He said, how much could you pay. I said, $6. He laughed, and then realized I wasn’t smiling or joking. He turned and went to big boss’s office. He came out and tried to deal with me.

I said these were obviously gifts. I decided I would not pay anything. About that time Sonya walked in with Payton. She started to get upset. The customs officer said, please calm down, ma’am. He said, I’m not yelling in order to show respect in front of your children. I said, you could show respect to my kids by letting them have their Christmas presents. About that time, Sonya leaned down to Payton and asked him to try to cry (maybe I jest or maybe not).

The customs officer explained that all items are charged customs fees according to their value, whether they are gifts or not. Sonya said, this isn’t a car at the port, just some Legos and Poptarts. He said, if a car was sent as a gift, it would still have fees. I said, if you know someone who would like to send a car as a gift, please give them my address.

Sonya talked about how we’ve never paid customs fees, maybe things were not getting better in Benin, got mad, and walked away. I told the officer, We just returned to Benin three weeks ago, because we like Benin and we like the people here, but when stuff like this occurs, it makes me think “Ca ne va pas encore changer” The new president’s campaign slogan was “Ca va changer” (Things are going to change). Sonya came back and starting rattling away, most of it was in French. I threw up my hands and stormed away and even left the building. I was ready just to leave the stuff there.

As soon as I got to car, Sonya came walking out holding both boxes. She said, I’m not sure what happened, but one guy blinked at the other, and the customs officer shooed me away and said take them and go. So I did.

Sonya said, we just acted the way Africans do in similar situation, and the sad thing is, it just worked. We spent the next hour coming down off our adrenaline high. We were pretty wasted, just by going to the post office.

During this whole episode we did not get “angry” or berate anyone. We did show genuine frustration at the whole thing. We bickered long enough to get our stuff, I guess.

So, last night we had a Christmas party in June.

The moral of the story is: If you send us stuff, do not put a value of more than $20 on the box. And, pray for us and for the system that everyone who lives here has to endure in order to do the simplest tasks.