Due to a recent conversation with a customs official while trying to figure out how come a box sent to me was charged 85 pula ($13 or so) when none of the other ones had been, I learned that clothing is taxed at 40% unless i get some paperwork done that allows for an exemption. And I was upset they were charging 12% for kleenex! By the way, if you use the word "kleenex" to describe facial tissue here you just get a blank stare (well, it was blank silence, since it was a phone call, but still). Any who, so collecting clothes is still good, if anyone out there is bothering, but sending it now would be bad, very very bad. Stay tuned.
Since I go to Gaborone tomorrow to meet with my Peace Corps program manager for 2 hours to learn everything I missed out on in the 2 week training (god, I hope none of my co-PCVers read my blog or there will be hell to pay. lol), I might just make a cross-customs-cultural trip to the customs office to see how hard it is to get this 85 pula fee reversed. It sounds like so much when you say 85 pula, but when you say $13...It will cost me about 9 pula and like 5 hours probably, so if i bother, it will have to be for the experience.
Some dumn schmuck at the customs office must have known I had just gone home and brought a bunch of facial tissue back without claiming it upon re-entry. Ooops. Now I hope no customs officials are reading this blog. Heck. I know they aren't.
And speaking of random pula, remind me to tell you next time about how many times I get asked each day by kids I don't know for money....if I got the 85 pula back I suppose I should give it tothem, minus the 9 and my hourly rate of pay to go and get the refund. I think at $300 a month, 40 hours a week I make about under $2/hour, so that is 13 or so pula. Jeez, I need a tea break.
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