I Love Letters!

I got a letter this week, and I think it's a great example of the interesting postal situation I find myself in. For one thing, it's a joke around my village that the post office didn't have to work until I arrived. I guess no one else has a mom in America who likes to send them fluoride mouthwash and hand sanitizer. Go figure. Maybe that also explains the prevalence of gold teeth. Anyway, now that the post office has sprung to life, and I mean that in the sense of a sluggish existence, I can get letters and packages all the way from that distant land called America brought straight to my village center! It's actually really great when I think about it, especially because a lot of other volunteers have to go into the cities to get their things. But perhaps my favorite part of the process is how I find out that I have mail. It's usually something like a student coming to my classroom, interrupting my class, asking me to come into the hall, and telling me that there is something for me at the post office. It's a very urgent process, you see. As the letter has already taken a million years traveling to me, those extra seconds matter! After that though, it's a game of cat and mouse between the postal staff and me.I think they quickly dead bolt the door to the building whenever they think I might be coming. Even the meat business that someone runs from the post office suddenly disappears (and yes, I mean like a butcher shop...well just a table of meat...in the post office...because "mail" and "meat" both start with m? I don't know). SO this particular letter was from the ever wonderful Heather. It was a birthday card. For those of you who have forgotten in my prolonged absence, my birthday is December 27th. Now, I will admit that Heather was a bit late in mailing it, as it was sent out on January 4th, but that doesn't really change the fact that it came into my possession on the 17th of February, over 6 weeks later haha. But, always trying to look for the bright side, I just thought it was great that I could basically have a second birthday! Because really, opening the card and seeing that it said Happy Birthday, even I took a second to ask myself when my birthday is! Now, you may be reading this and thinking "well then I'm never going to send you anything as it's going to take so long to reach you that it'll be outdated," but to add to your confusion, and mine, about how this system works, you should know that on the 9th of February I received a Valentine's Day card from my mom...sent from the same state as Heather's card, but sent 18 days after Heather's. Hmm. And then there is the other mystery that when my mom decides to send me a big box of goodies, those can miraculously make the journey faster than any small envelopes. The only thing I can think of is that the postal gods here in Azerbaijan are real jokesters who like to play games with my mail. So, in conclusions, I think you should all get out there and see if you are in the favor of the Azerbaijani postal gods. I promise to always write back, so you can join in the fun of seeing how long this process really takes! Plus (added bonus!) I'll put your letter on my wall of mail and then you'll be famous here in my village because not only does the whole village seem to know when a letter arrives for me, but they afterward find out who it was from and all visitors to my room ask who wrote each card (Heather, your card with the shoes on it is a big hit, as is yours Jane with the cakes). If you want to be guilt tripped into writing to me, you should know that at one point my sisters laughed ab me because they said that my friends don't love me since the majority of the cards are from my mom (don't worry Mom, I still love everything you send me, keep it coming!). Clearly this means you guys need to help me out, my reputation is suffering. My family also has a tendency to compare people's handwriting, probably because they can't actually read what any of it says, so make sure you write neatly! Happy writing!

My mail wall. If you don't see your letter, the postal system either really hates you and it never arrived, or you really hate me and you never sent one haha.