Once was lost, now is found
The box is here! The box is here! Oh, frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!
I never bothered posting about the box, as I never knew how to write it up. Technically it wasn't my problem, but it was my wife's problem, so it was my problem, if you know what I mean. Anyway, now that it's here, I can risk telling the tale. If my attitude of days past sounds callous, I can now always excuse it as confidence that China Post wouldn't let us down. Anyway, the tale:
Back in June, Yau Neih packed up two boxes containing almost all of the homeschool books and materials needed for this first year. She shlepped it to the post office and sent it off to our future residence via surface mail. She wasn't real confident of the boxes' safe passage, but money was tight and we thought this was the most economic way to go. Fast forward to August. We start inquiring of the folks in China if they had heard aught of our box. Nobody had, but when we arrived on campus we found one of the boxes had preceded us.
In the days that followed, we hoped each day for news about the second box. It had now become the box. We had Thad ask the post office for information. We tried to trace the box. We asked other foreigners about their experience with receiving packages in China. We heard nothing regarding the whereabouts of the box, but were continually assured that China Post is very good. With one exception, our fellow ex-pats told us that they had never had a package lost in transit, though some were very late.
September came and it was time for schooling to start. Thankfully the box that did arrive contained the teacher guides, kids' notebooks and the math and science materials. (Okay, the kids weren't thankful for the math books.) What we were missing was all of Ga Dai's literature books and Siu Wan's geography/craft materials. We figured that Ga Dai could easily catch up on her literature and as for the geography, well, there was plenty about "foreign lands" that Siu Wan could pick up in our daily life. So on Labor Day we commenced with the home schooling.
While the kids' education didn't suffer too much, our home life was indeed hurting. Yau Neih hates losing anything and she cares passionately about her children's education. This missing box gnawed at her and her expressions of frustration were echoed by Ga Dai, who not only empathized with her mother but also was aching for something to read. Now I really had none of my own angst. To me, it was a matter of sitting tight and waiting or going online to reorder the books we needed. (Not that money isn't any less tight than it was in June. But I can be pretty prodigal when the need is there.) I tried to sympathize, but since I couldn't share in the anxiety nor could I offer an optimistic view of the situation, I'm afraid the support I offered was second-rate at best. We finally made plans to order the books needed for this school year by the end of the week.
Then today, as noon-time approached, we were starting to get ready to go to the canteen for lunch. There was a knock at the door. Our next-door neighbor, Joan was outside, saying that Matthew had called her and told her that he had been at the post office earlier and had seen a box there with our name on it. We excitedly thanked her and started getting our shoes on. Then the phone rang. Thad was on the phone saying that Marty had called him and told him that we had a box at the post office. (Oh, what a bunch of gossips we are!) Marty had also offered to drive us over there this afternoon to check it out. Of course, Yau Neih had no intention of waiting that long. She asked Thad if the post office observed rest time. (from noon to 2:30 pm) When he replied that they didn't, we were out the door. Now we usually limit our taxi usage to hauling major purchases or traveling outside of town. Today, however, Yau Neih wasn't even willing to take the time to walk downtown. We hailed a cab and I was thankfully able to pronounce the phrase for "post office".
As we drove along, we were all steeling ourselves for the possibility that the box that had arrived was not the box. After all, people had threatened to send us care packages and it was quite possible that the box was from someone else. We arrived and marched into the post office. Yau Neih eagerly asked that phrase she had learned so well, "Yo may yo mei guo syung zir?" The clerk she had asked started to say no, when the other clerk interrupted and pointed over to the parcel window. We hurried over there and Yau Neih quickly scanned a stack of four boxes. Sure enough, there was the box at the bottom of the stack. (Where else are you going to put a box full of books?)
After signing the receipt and a short taxi ride home, Yau Neih and the children tore into the box, rejoicing over its contents. Me, I grabbed a hunk of bread, since I knew that nobody else was going to be interested in lunch. Why the boxes got separated and why the box eluded our attempts to trace it will probably remain a mystery. (A letter to Michael and Joan was attached to the box, so I suspect that served to mask its paper trail.) But it's a mystery that can remain unsolved. The only question that really concerns us is, "Now what do we fuss about?"
posted by John @ 3:19 AM
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