In your hasty move to Grenada did you forget that little essential item? Have you ever wondered about how things are shipped here?
For your reading pleasure, here is my story.
It starts out like most others. I left something important behind in the move. A poor little iPod touch that I had ordered off Ebay before we left took its sweet time arriving in the mail. It decided to arrive at the in-laws house one day after we said goodbye.
Now, people have horror stories about shipping things to Grenada. Eg. Christmas mornings ruined because “Santa” got lost in the mail or needed items arriving on the island after months of wondering. Anecdotally, the shipping system has been proven unreliable here.
Needless to say, we were a little concerned about Pod Pod’s journey. It was an expensive item (for our little shoestring budget) and we didn’t want it getting accidentally air dropped over the Atlantic.
But the in-laws sent it anyway – tucked away in the bottom of a box, wrapped in white shirts and hope. Thankfully, everything went exactly as it was supposed to.
Here’s how the process went:
Step 1. Get the fam to get a Flat Rate Box from USPS and slap about $45 worth of postage on it. This holds about a shoebox worth of content. Pop it in the mail and say a little prayer. The prayer part is important.
Step 2. Let it bake in the shipping system for three weeks.
Step 3. The student gets a letter in their SGU mailbox saying “You’ve got mail!” Aaaaaaand you have to pick it up asap or we will charge you/ send it back.
Step 4. Take your little letter and some ID, hop on a Number 1 Reggae Bus (usually trolling around by the Food Fair grocery store) and tell the driver you want to go to the post office in St. George’s. Look for a place like this and pay the driver your $2.50 EC fare.
Step 6. Hope that the import officer is in a good mood. Bat the eyelashes if it helps. They will now make you open your box so they can rummage around inside of it. Some just peek inside. Others toss your little gifts all over the counter for everyone to see. Like I said, hope they are in a good mood.
Step 7. Pay the people and go home. We were lucky this time and were only charged $17.25 EC for the import tax. But I guess it depends on what you are sending. Food is taxed at 55 %. Ouch.
Step 8. Take your goodies, hop back on one of those crazy Number 1 Reggae buses and go home. But not before paying your $2.50 EC fare.
*Thanks so much for sending that iPod touch! Now I will be able to talk to you all from anywhere an internet connection is available! If you will excuse me, I have a little texting to catch up on 🙂
