A Whiff of Homesickness

Shauen and I received our first packages! We were informed by the LMMU office that they had received a slip in their box for us and that we needed to go to the post office with picture ID to pick up a package. They couldn’t pick it up for us. We actually had two different kinds of slips stapled together. The first slip we took upstairs to the parcels office. A lady took the slip and Shauen's ID and then disappeared for a while. Finally she came back with the package. She wrote a bunch of stuff down in a big log book and then Shauen had to sign in the log book for the package. We also had to pay 3,000 shillings for it which is about $1.50. Then she hands over the receipt and sets the package over on another guy’s desk. He’s the Customs guy. So he looks through a bunch of customs forms that are rubber-banded together and somehow finds the ones associated with this particular package. He pulls them out, writes a bunch of stuff on the back of them and then Shauen has to sign each of them. Then we are sent with the receipt and one of the customs things over to another desk where the lady writes everything down in ANOTHER log book which Shauen again signs and has to put his phone number into. FINALLY, we're allowed to leave with our package! Then we go to where we’re supposed to pick up the other package. This one is much less involved – maybe because it was smaller/lighter. We hand them the slip, they disappear for a while, finally return with the package, write down everything in their log book, have us sign, take 1,000 shillings (only about 50 cents) and give us a receipt and the package. When we looked at the packages, we saw that the smaller one had been sent on Jan 20th and arrived in Uganda on Jan 29th, and the larger one had been sent Jan 23rd and arrived here Feb 4th. However, we weren't notified that the packages had arrived until yesterday! We are extrememly grateful to have at least received them, the Gillards are still waiting for packages that were sent to them mid-December. One of the packages happened to be a birthday present from my parents, I received a couple of new shirts that I had requested. In trying them on, I realized that they smelled like home! It turns out my Mom had thoughtfully washed them before sending them. I never considered home to have a smell, but today I learned it does and for the first time since arriving, got a little homesick.  -Krista