Where is Moldova, anyway?

So thanks to a cleverly designed experiment (kudos to Steph and Jennnay), I know now, for a fact, that mail takes longer to reach Chisinau (the capital of Moldova) than it does to reach my town, 2 hours north. Why? I have no idea. But it is now more than a feeling, it is a proven fact.

So now the purpose of this post, to describe, just one more time, how ridiculous the post office system in Moldova is, and how interesting it is to deal with (now you will know why it is such a guessing game to see when a package will arrive here). No matter what you do, do not rely on what the post office in the United States says. They know nothing of Moldovan mail systems.

So, I received a wonderful birthday package from Jennnnay this week. In it was some candy, a drawing and a nice letter. It arrived, almost perfectly, 2 days before my birthday (no I did not wait to open it). Anyway, It arrived to Peace Corps, in Chisinau, and someone who was passing through my town, dropped it off with my site mate. (Peace Corps is really liberal with their package and mail distribution—everyone knows it is better to have someone go a few miles out of their way to deliver something, than to make someone wait a few weeks for the real mail. So basically anyone can take your packages to you as long as they sign them out—and this is a great policy because people are so thoughtful! Also people will ask you if you need anything from the capital—they might live 40 minutes from you, but when you live 2 hours from the capital, they are your neighbor!)

Anyway, after I opened said box from Jenn, I read the address she had sent it to. And she had sent it to Singerei, to my address at site. No where on the box did it say Peace Corps or it’s Romanian equivalent “Corpul Pacii.” I was dumfounded. How did this box end up in Chisinau, and at the Peace Corps headquarters, to be precise? The address said nothing of either. When I checked with the person who delivered this package, they said it was waiting for me at Peace Corps. Perhaps someone just read the American name and sent it to Peace Corps. Who knows! This is the post office you send your mail to people. It may be crazy sometimes, but in general, it gets the stuff to me! (and to other volunteers)

In closing, I would like to add that it isn’t as incompetent as the postal system in Brazil, that claimed it couldn’t send mail to Moldova because Moldova was not a country. Chew on that for a while.

And hopefully, I’m done with talking about the post office!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 06, 2007 at 2:36 PM.