We suspect those of you who have sent packages were wonder how it works on this end of the transaction. Over the Christmas holidays, we were able to perfect the process and think we have studied it long enough to give an accurate telling. True to form, the Albanians working in the post office are very helpful. The woman that actually processes the paper thinks Criss’ Albanian is good, so now that is his job to pick up the packages.

This the post office in Durrës. Inside is a Western Union window and 3 postal windows. We believe that each window has a specific purpose, but it is uncertain. One thing you do not do is pick up packages here. You go around back to this entrance. Often there is a guard here that you must explain your business to and he decides if you can go in. It is always puzzling that he is very difficult to get by, but then often he just leaves for some time to do other things and you can come and go without the hassle. Maybe his real job is an information person and he just redirects lost people to the correct door and this is just not understood at our language level.

When the package arrives it is logged in a bound ledger and a notice is written out and delivered to the address on the package. This might occur in the package room, but we suspect that one of the windows up front actually does this process. After the slip is delivered, we can go the next day to pick up the package. You cannot go the same day the notice is received, but must go early the next morning. We are not sure why early is critical, but that is what we are told to do.

Once, we actually went to pick up a package the day the slip was delivered. We wait in line in the main office, show the teller the slip and she directs us around back. At the back office, we get the head shake that accompanies all mistakes of protocol and are told the package has not arrived back there and we must go to the front office. Back in the mail lobby, we queue up in at one window, and are told to go to the next window and sure enough, there is our package. We suspect the only reason we were given the package is we were foreigners and therefore an allowance in the breach of postal protocol was permitted.

When you go to the package room, as we call it, you must have the receipt or it causes great difficulty in finding a package in the 10×20 storage room where they keep the packages. So with notice in hand, enter the package receiving room. At this time, the notice number, name, address and your picture id number are recorded on one log. The same information is then recorded on a second log with great care to make a copy with carbon paper. When the page on the second log is full, the carbon copy is torn out and thrown in the trash, and the next page with a carbon copy is started. Somehow, an amount is calculated for each item, package or envelope. It is still a mystery on how the fee is determined – by weight, by number of days in holding, by size. You pay the money which is something around $1.50 to $4 per package and you are done.