A good chunk of the past 24 hours have been extremely trying. There was even a point where I felt tears pricking my eyes and tried to hide it by pretending to yawn. Then I realised that it was only my eyes' natural reaction to my dry contact lenses and that I really needed to yawn because I was out late last night.
If you had read some of the previous entries on this here blog, you might've stumbled across a post featuring the dilapidated state of the skate ramp I volunteer at in Huanchaco. Shortly after writing about it, the rollerblade hearted guys at Wheel Love put together a collection of skate items for the kids and sent the package on its way halfway across the world.
So it's been a long while and the package has yet to arrive at it's destination because it's been stuck at customs for more than a month now. Note to anyone who's intending to send stuff to a different country: make sure you check what is deemed illegal in destination country before sending it. We made that mistake and are only finding out now that in Peru, secondhand clothes are illegal, no matter for what purpose. And to make things worse, the storage bill for keeping the package for so long has amounted up to USD$470.
The colossal sum is partly my fault because I couldn't/didn't get to Lima earlier where the only customs office in the country is, 800km away from Huanchaco. And today I finally learn what it's like to be a foreigner in someone else's country.
I went to the Centro Comercial where customs is located a few days ago and was immediately bombarded by offers to help; one guy even offered to get me a taxi back into the city even though I just got out of one... And because I was pretty much clueless, like a genteel bovine I was ushered to an office by one guy who claimed to work in customs. He introduced me to Luiz who listened to my situation, and then told me that he will help me get everything done within a day, all I needed to do was make a copy of my passport, pay for storage and sign right here.
Now I speak Spanish as well as I can rap, but I know the word 'firma'. Plus I also know about real life and such things. How many princesses have lost everything to their evil uncles and aunts after the death of their royal parents because in their grief and distraught, they - wait for it - "signed right here"? Obviously I wasn't going to fall into the same trap.
That was 2 days ago. Today, I asked a good Peruvian friend who's also in Lima at this moment (Bruno, bless your soul in this life and the next 3 ones) to come with me to the customs office. Which was a good thing he did because turns out, these guys who I thought were working in customs are not, in fact, working in customs but are agents instead.
Surprise surprise. Coming from Malaysia, you'd think that I'd have guessed this sooner. And I should've. But when you're in a country where the language is not your own, it can get quite flustering though this is hardly an excuse to become stupid. Lucky for me again, I had Bruno and he explained to me my options: 1. do it under the counter(ish) with this agent who will sort out all the papers for me for a small fee, which is not entirely illegal anyway, OR 2. we do it ourselves, which would mean spending hours going on a self discovery tour of the customs department.
Coming from Malaysia, I think you would know which I picked. If you don't, well you can keep guessing. But even with the choice I made, it wasn't just a matter of sitting and shaking my right leg. I spent something like 5 hours and 30 soles in taxis and combis going from one place to another, getting the right stamps, double checking with DHL who had like different offices NOT within walking distance of each other, to make sure we were not being scammed, etc. By the way, DHL is not the most helpful of courier companies in my newfound personal experience. At least not here in Peru anyway.
This Monday, I will still have to go back to the customs office to sort out the final bits and of course, to make the painful payment. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who responded to my tweet for help and chipped in cash to help with the bill. Every bit of amount helped and I truly hope to return the favour one day. Muchisimas gracias.
Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago when we cleaned and painted the skate ramp with some help from the kids :)
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do later. - Kurt Vonnegut
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