{Hello Hello --

That last post was almost the end of my catch-up communication. In a
few paragraphs we'll be back in real time!

I expect to be back in the US (Calif) on Sept 12, and later to get to
the E Coast. If all goes well, I'll drive across, stopping to visit
some of you, including Zoo at her Ferret Sanctuary to visit, volunteer,
and see, first hand, good care of sick and elderly fuzbutts! On the E
coast I hope to make a similar visit to Barb Clay and Rocky's! Maybe
I'll get to OctoberFest.

So, to finish up my old posting, which tells how we got together with
the man who's helped us climb out of the Customs pit:}

The Addis urban area is small enough, and the history, even to now,
dramatic enough, that my friends know a lot about most of the
political, intellectual, and religious figures and talk about them
familiarly. Sometimes I think their views are skewed and sometimes
I agree, but that's no different from being in the US.

Both Abeba and Saba are quite social, and they travel in very different
circles in terms of age and social status because of Saba's education
and other advantages she has had over her mother. Abeba worked hard
to get Saba through her education, and then my friend Catherine Hi
CAtherine!) and I helped. As part of that Catherine contributed to
send Saba to a good school -- and now Saba is in law school. Maybe you
remember that Abeba was born into a farming family that had to send her
out to work with relatives when she was very young? She was with them
for several years, and was not treated well. By a lucky chance on both
our parts, when Abeba left them at 17, she found work with me and my
first husband, Conrad (I was 26).

There I was, lonely and unsettled in a strange country and in a
difficult marriage, and there she was, just come out of a bad household
and just moved from the country to the biggest city in the country. We
took care of the house, taught each other cooking stuff, hung out, and
became friends over the 4 years I was in Ethiopia -- including after I
left Conrad and moved out a couple of years later.

Now, as we make our rounds of the city, we meet friends of theirs
regularly. One thing that makes that happen more than it would in the
US is that most people do not have cars -- again because of the huge
expense they are. All their lives till now, Abeba (58) and Saba (her
daughter, 26) have always travelled by foot or public transport. Even
now that we have our car, we meet at least one of their friends a day
in the various offices and shopping places or in the street.

There are so many deaths here. People die early and fast because of
the lack of advanced medical services and the lack of access to what
is here -- geographical and/or financial. Almost each week Abeba goes
to mourn with friends or relatives. It was at a deathbed that she met
her helpful relative. She had been good to him when he was (utterly
wrongly) held in prison for 13 years -- first under the Derg -- that
grotesquely brutal and irrational regime -- and then under the current
gvernment. Even though she really didn't know him, she visited him and
brought him food regularly and brought Saba with her once.

The concept of family responsibility is very strong in Ethiopia, and
Abeba observes it more than many. Now he is observing it, helping us
as much as he can. He knows some officials high up in the Customs
authority and in other places.

{OK -- real time starts here!}

We now have the possessions that I shipped by sea! We've spent a few
days going through all the cartons and checking equipment to be sure
that it still works, and there is very little damage.

Very good. But, something very bad is that it has cost us an inordinant
amount of money. Instead of retelling the story, here is my most recent
email to the transitor on the US side -- I haven't actually sent it
yet. I want to think it through to be sure there are no reasons to
keep this info to ourselves for now.

. . . . . .

Hi Missy --

The Djibouti port charges were stupendous -- I was expecting $12 --
15/day, and so abt $3,700, but the total came to almost $10,000.

The $1,000 was an additional amount, but we didn't give it. The Packtra
creep who was between me and the Customs inspector at the Addis storage
site spent a great deal of time trying to scare us about going to jail,
etc because of the fabric, and then offered to "help" by arranging a
special inspector. Then others at Packtra said they would help to
arrange this. We did not let that happen, just went through the normal
procedures, and it all went smoothly.

This was only part of what went on after the container arrived in
Addis. We have since found out that there was some manipulation going
on between Packtra and the Addis-Customs storage people. Packtra wanted
to delay our getting our goods out of there for some MONTHS, because
they have some deal w some officials to get a cut of storage costs.
When we found out that they were stalling our pickup, we also found
out that had "budgeted" getting about $20K out of me for that alone.
HOwever, we whisked the container out of there within a week.

We hear that they, and esp the general mgr (some guy named Girma) is
furious to have been thwarted.

We suspect they had a deal with the Djibouti storage people as well.
The gen mgr there is a friend of a newly re-found relative of Abeba's,
and he says the Djibouti people didn't hear from PAcktra abt my
container till it had been there 6 months.

It's through this relative that we got our stuff out of the Addis
storage customs area so fast, and through him that we got word of
Packtra's expected $20K cut.

So, as you can imagine, we are trying to get some info on Packtra and
the rest to get some money back.

If you are willing, we might ask you for an occasional email to support
how they have conducted themselves. If you aren't able to do that,
don't worry, but I'll keep you informed, if that would entertain you.

Meanwhile, please don't do anything that could conceivably tip them
off. I'm probably starting to see stool pigeons everywhere, but if you
think anyone in Rainier is a contact of theirs, don't let them in on
these developments, ok?

[Posted in FML 6085]