The Macedonian Postal Service

Sending packages from the USA to Macedonia is very expensive. It’s a minimum of $49.95 to send a box about the size of two size 17 shoe boxes. My favorite sister, Luanne, sent me a surprise New Year’s box of goodies that contained a beautiful sweat shirt, a box of gourmet cookies, and a bottle of maple syrup. The maple syrup allowed me to have French toast one morning, served American style. My Macedonian friends do not know what maple syrup is, despite the fact that they have many maple trees. They also are not familiar with the other syrups (Log Cabin, Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth) since they don’t use these products on their pancakes. Macedonian pancakes are crepes, filled with chocolate crème.

Anyway, I digress. The postman delivers regular mail to my apartment, leaving it by the door since there are no individual mailboxes at my building. The postman does not deliver packages. He will leave you a yellow card that notifies you that you have a delivery awaiting at the Post Office. I’m not sure about domestic packages, but if the package is from outside of Macedonia, the cost of picking up the package will be indicated on the card. So not only do they not deliver packages, they require you to make the trip to the Post Office and then charge you 186 Denari (About$3.00) to lug it home.

I believe that this procedure has something to do with Customs, since every package that comes into the country is opened up and its contents examined. The package are then resealed, banded and sent on their way to their final destination. Maybe the cost of picking up your package has something to do with covering the cost of the materials to reseal it. I will investigate this matter further, since I am curious as to why things are done the way they are.

On the 16th of January, I received my first Care package from my Number One Supporter – my wife. She had mailed them on the 7th of January, between Massachusetts’ snow storms. In return for the shipping costs for two parcels ( $100) and the 372 Denari (186 x 2) to pick them up, I obtained about $60 worth of things that they don’t have in Macedonia or that I have been unable to find as of yet. I was giddy as I opened the resealed boxes and discovered that I now have a good vegetable peeler (I was using and could continue to use the butter knife, but I was losing a lot of the potato and carrot in the process); Log Cabin Syrup for my pancakes (to go along with two bottles of maple syrup); 7mm lead for my mechanical pencil; horseradish for my meatloaf; Centrum Silver vitamins for my over 50 needs; a good carving knife so I can give my bread knife an occasional rest; black non-wife-beater style undershirts; a meat thermometer so all the pork I have to eat (very little beef in Probistip) won’t give me trichinosis; plastic Ziploc bags so I can store leftovers from the serves-four recipes and there being only one of me; wash cloths and dish rags for cleaning the bachelor pad of the previous Volunteer in which I now live; aromatic candles to assist in the battle to overcome the cabbage-oriented smells of my neighbors’ winter diets; pot holders which will replace the cumbersome dish towels which routinely failed in their efforts to protect my hands from being burned; three bottles of Costco contact lens solution at $3.00 a bottle enabling me to forego the $16 a bottle investment in Probistip; and a two-cup measuring cup with metric volumes so that I don’t have to refer to conversion charts when I am making peanut butter cookies.

I also received a t-shirt (Macedonia – America: The best of both worlds), a History of Russia DVD set, and a beautiful and comfortable L.L.Bean flannel shirt (thank you Mom-Barber).

These simple things will give me much pleasure over the next 24 months. It was a great Care package but the extreme cost of shipping will limit future bundles. If I really need something badly, I can plan on going to Skopje where I’ll probably be able to find it. Right now, I have everything I need (except my internet connection). I’m one happy camper.