You ask the plumber if he can come this morning, and he says yes but never shows up. You call back and he says he will come tomorrow at noon. He shows up at 4pm just as you are leaving your house to go to a meeting. (true story, happened last week) He says he got busy but will come tomorrow at 10am... you get the idea.
But, I was really impressed when we had a bit of an emergency and things worked out perfectly!
I am home and Jean-Patrick suddenly needed some important papers sent to him in Bamako. (this is due to an embassy/visa situation that I'll write about/vent about later) He called me at around 10:30am and needed the papers to be in Bamako that night because he had to bring them for an appointment early the next morning. Some of the papers had to be originals, so there wasn't a possibility of scanning and emailing or faxing them. Bamako is 6-8 hours away (depending on mode of transportation) so the only hope I had was to get the papers together and to the bus station by 1pm so that they could hopefully make the trip on an afternoon bus. I scrambled to find the original documents that JP needed and to print and copy off the other papers. As long as I'd be sending something, JP asked me to include a school book and a notebook that he had left behind. I wrapped it all up in brown paper and taped it securely. I wrote JP's name and number on the package. I hurried to the bus station across town and talked with a man at a bus company ticket window. He said the price would be 2,000 francs to send my package. That's about $4. He gave me a receipt and I took down the number of the bus apprentice (the young guy who works on the bus but doesn't drive, he helps with baggage and crossing checkpoints and dealing with passengers.)
JP went to the bus station in Bamako and as soon as the bus arrived he got his package. I was relieved and thankful for this system. How much would it cost to send a same day package in the states?
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