Bamako - Day 244

Date: April 19th, 2010
Distance: None
Country: Mali
Song of the Day: City of Delusion - Muse

I did get my package today. It took all day though. It also cost me $30.

I got over to the FedEx office bright and early. I was expecting the package to be in their office. Nope. What they could do is sell me the customs paperwork for $20. What? I tried to argue that it was ridiculous to pay that when they weren't do anything (like clearing it from customs). They were more successful by arguing that this was the price the customs office specified for the paperwork. Damn.

With the paperwork I had to bike out of the city to the airport and find my box. It was at another distributor out there. I found it. Then had it checked by the customs lady. She wrote it up as personal items, I thought I was good to go. Nope. I needed a stamp from the chef. Fine, I could do that. But there was a how bureaucracy involved. This one guy kept trying to help me out, which I didn't want. He said he would talk to the chef for me. I thought this was silly since he didn't speak any English and didn't seem to understand what I was telling him. So I really didn't think I needed a bad translator. Still he kept taking my paperwork and trying to run off with it. Annoying. Here I am just trying to figure out what office to talk to, and I can't get a straight answer because I have this guy following me around.

Finally I let him run off with it and I grabbed some lunch. I was too tired and frustrated to fight anymore. When I got done, my guy said it was all finished. He had spoken to the chef. I would just have to pay $40. I wanted to know who to pay and see a receipt for that. The guys said it wasn't possible. It turns the chef had said I didn't need to pay. The $40 was for all the "work" the guy had done for me. This set off a big argument. I told him I didn't even want his help to begin with. He wasn't very helpful either. I never agreed to pay anything. I did my best in French and he kept trying to find someone to translate to English. Eventually I gave him 5,000 CFA, which is a bit more than $10. I just wanted to be done with it.

Turns out that wasn't the last thing. Before I could get my box they had to make copies of the forms. I can't imagine what they do with them. Whatever. I did get my box finally, but it took all day. Far longer than I wanted to spend dealing with it. If that is their customs process, it is a wonder anything gets in or out of the country. Good luck Mali.

-Dravis