You Haven’t Got Mail, But You Do Have a Post Office Box

“Street deliveries of mail are not common in South Africa. The service is usually available in older suburbs close to the city. Even where mail delivery is available to your home, it is not necessarily reliable or secure and we therefore recommend you rent a Post Office Box.” So said the Mobility Guide given to me by the Corporate Relocation Service to help me adjust to my new life in Joburg.

Now I have always been a big fan of the Unites States Postal Service. At the time of my leaving the US, the PO Department was considering eliminating Saturday deliveries and I hope they do not. The PO provides an amazing value and service. For less than a half a dollar you can send a letter or card anywhere in the entire US of A, including Hawaii and Alaska. Amazing! 

I can see why the US Post office is having its problems though. Between email, i_books, i_newspapers and i_magazines, and banking online, we really had cut down on the actual mail we received. I did still prefer to write thank you cards by hand and send and receive handwritten cards for holidays and birthdays but that is probably a thing of the past for me living in South Africa anyway.

So I did my research and decided to get a PostNet post office box at a shopping center near my apartment that also contained two food stores, a pharmacy, a dry cleaner, my bank and the spa that carries my Dermalogica face products. This way I only have to park once, pay once, and add it to my already established errand round. PostNet said they will SMS or email me when any mail arrives but since they did neither when my keys were ready to be picked up which they also promised, I will probably just check it from time to time. 

parked in front of the main post office on 8th Avenue in NYC

Not that I am expecting any mail any time soon. I have no one here to write me yet. I had the same feeling when I moved to Florida from NJ with my family in 1971. I did not want to move and cried non-stop on the two-day drive south in our Town and Country station wagon to our new home in the Sunshine State. My father tried to stop my crying by promising me I would have my own room in Florida (up until then I had shared a room with my sister since I was five when she was born) and that I could decorate it however I wanted. He also promised me I would have my own telephone with my own phone line separate from the house line so I could chat on it all day uninterrupted.  

After we moved, he kept his word. I did decorate my own room myself and got a new pink princess phone with my own private line. But as I explained to my father who came in to find me crying yet again in my room, “I have no one to call!” I kind of feel that way here about my post office box.  But having one does make me feel like I actually live in South Africa now. And that is something.