Worldwide Postal Wins

by Heather

The worldwide postal system has become for us an interesting and impressive phenomenon.  Someone can drop something into a mailbox in, say, Michigan, and that little envelope successfully navigates thousands of miles and lands right here in the middle of rural Africa.  Usually.  Most mail arrives within a month or two, completely intact.

This is an amazing feat.  I mean, people tend to arrive rather bedraggled after prolonged international travel.  Airlines routinely misdirect luggage.  And we have often lost small items during flights and layovers.  But mail generally comes through unscathed.  

Sometimes the mail takes a circuitous route, like this package which traveled by way of Bermuda...

or this postcard which took an unexpected trip to Cambodia before arriving here.  Wow!  Who knew that mail from North America would be redirected to Africa when mistakenly sent to Asia?  This inspires confidence.

And gratitude.  Mail here at Kibuye is cherished.  We receive your Christmas cards, and we display them for months on our walls, or even for years on bulletin boards.  

And so... if you send Christmas cards all the way across the ocean to us, we will love them.  International postage rates apply, so three regular stamps on a normal-sized envelope should do the trick, or the post office offers global stamps as well.  Address:

(name)

Hôpital Espoir de Kibuye

BP 73,  Gitega

BURUNDI, East Africa

Disclaimers:  1. Occasionally an anticipated piece of mail gets lost forever in transit.  2. Delays are not unexpected.  One letter arrived a full 10 months after it was sent.  3. And sometimes the trip is rather rough.  But even this battered package arrived with all of its contents still safely packed inside:

So our genuine admiration and appreciation go out to the worldwide postal system for a well-coordinated effort that delivers love in envelopes around the world.