Like most of you, I have had my share of frustrations
with the U.S. Postal Service. But now
that I have lived in Peru for three years, I look at things a bit differently. 

It's important to understand that this post office was
not our local post office. This
particular location does double duty by serving as both a customs office and a
post office and it's a considerable distance from where we live. What's the rationale for having a customs
office located in a post office, you ask? Very perceptive question.

Essentially, this arrangement serves as a means of
generating tax revenue for the government. Packages sent from outside of Peru are directed to a designated
center. As far as I can tell, the
process is part random and part based on certain flags. Ostensibly the process is supposed to help
keep contra-ban from coming into the country also. From my perspective, it's all about the
money.

When your package arrives at this location they send you
a notice. You must take the notice with
you because it has a number that identifies your package. Step one in the process is to obtain a form
(in triplicate, of course). Because the
form is so complicated, there is a worker who completes the form by hand on
behalf of the package recipient. This is
a slow process and a bottle-neck in the system. Pregnant women, disabled persons and seniors are given preferential
treatment.

The vast majority of people who arrive looking for their
package don't understand "the system." They come in looking confused and have no alternative to asking others
who are there how the system works. There are no signs that help you understand the process. I think the process is slowed tremendously by
postal workers being interrupted by persons wanting to know what they need to
do next. Add to this chaos the natural
inclination of Peruvians to cut into lines or otherwise get ahead of the rest
the herd, and you have a significant cross-cultural experience in front of you.

Step
two
is to take that form to another desk where they look for the duplicate of the
notice that was mailed. They then take
that duplicate and give it to someone who searches through the store of
packages being held in the post office.

Then you wait your turn for step three in the process; your package to be inspected. This can be very time consuming. Every package that ends up in this facility
gets inspected

before it is released to the recipient. If there are wrapped Christmas packages, they
get opened and inspected while you watch. The inspectors are looking for items that have a collective value above $100. They go on-line and check the value of
certain items in a data base they maintain to determine the value. If they don't have the item in the data base,
they'll look for it on sites that sell those types of items. I can't tell you how many heated disputes
about the supposed value of an item that I've observed involving the customs
inspectors and folks who are there to pick up their packages. It ain't pretty.

Step
four
takes you to a group of cashiers who collect the taxes imposed, or who enter
your information into the system, whether you were taxed or not.   You, of course, must wait your turn to be
"checked out."  Step
five is moving to another line to wait to receive your package. Here, you can be charged again if your
package was at the post office longer than the stipulated allowable time (3
days, I believe). They charge you for
every day beyond that point and this clerk is the one who collects the
penalty. You have waited anywhere from
about 45 minutes to two hours, depending on the number of people who are
there. You sign one of your documents
that has been stamped and they release your once hostaged, now re-taped package. You're free!