In just over a year later since I started sponsoring Estephanie, a DP of an art kit was shipped to her from Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City, USA to Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Hobby Lobby, one of the largest arts and crafts stores in the USA was my favorite place to find art materials for my sponsored children. A dedicated team at the headquarters handled my numerous inquiries back and forth via email for 3wks before finally placing the order. Due to weight & size restrictions for USPS shipping priority mail to Guatemala, the team had to fashion a homemade box to put everything in one box – big deluxe art set and 3 other sketch pads along with printing and putting my inventory list and a gift message inside. Also, we had quite a challenge to find a way around inputting a rather lengthy destination address into a limited space available on their labeling system.
At last, the package was dispatched and on its way to Estephanie. I was given USPS tracking number to monitor the progress, and after 7 days of passing through different States/hubs it departed US shores for Guatemala. From this point on once the package in the hands of Guatemalan officials, I had no way of knowing if and when it arrived safely and cleared customs, so anxiously waited for the news from CI.
Then, in the second week to my utter disbelief a further update showed up on the USPS tracking system, stating the package departed a transfer airport in O'Hare International, Chicago, USA. It rung alarm bells with me that the package appeared to had been rejected at Guatemala customs and returning back to the sender, Hobby Lobby.
I immediately contacted USPS and Hobby Lobby to make them aware of this unfolding mystery! They were kept on alert and monitoring the developments. And, weeks went passed by but no sign of the returned package. But I did not give up until get to the bottom of what has happened by calling USPS daily on my return from work in the evenings at UK time.
Whilst trying to find a hopeful outcome, I started searching the Internet for a contact at customs in Guatemala. I was completely new to all this and to make things even more difficult, websites there are in Spanish language. Thanks to Google Translate, I managed to find an email contact and a phone number, so first sent the email (with translation in Spanish) to inquire about the package... waited a few days but no reply, so bravely picked up the telephone hoping in God's grace someone will answer me in English. The gentleman who answered in Spanish to my voice in English struggled to understand me, and vice versa but with no hand gestures over the phone to help him try to write down my email address phonetically was hard enough and took around 20min, so he could trace my email and reply. During that agonizing time, suddenly a lady passed by him who he knew can speak in English, so asked me to 'wait.. wait' (goodness me a word in English came out his mouth in excitement, you can imagine we both were exhausted..😤) until he brings her to take the call.
You would not believe.. the young lady started talking in English with such fluency I never expected from this Spanish speaking nation. My first reaction was that "you speak very good English"… "yes, I went to school in USA". She is Alice and we introduced each other and chatted for as long as it took on that same phone call. Alice is well-educated Guatemalan and works part-time as university professor. She has enormous respects for the work I do for her fellow citizens. She was more than delighted to help me understand her role in the Ministry of Economy, and wanted to first contact the CI agency to find out if the parcel has arrived there by any chance. After a few days of failed attempts on the phone to speak to the agency staff, she decided to visit the center by her own after work. We kept in touch by emails ever since that miracle day!
Meanwhile, the team at Hobby Lobby, who knew me and my endeavors so well made an unprecedented decision to refund the full cost, including the shipping as ex-gratia courtesy despite not receiving goods back.
On one weekend she revisited the shops and bought the items and sent me all receipts – in one instance the shop owner has sold her an item at reduced price from what was originally quoted, saving Alice more to keep to herself for services rendered. She has lovingly wrapped each item and packed them carefully in a box and printed/inserted my inventory list and hand delivered the gift box to CI Mariscal Center with photographic evidence of delivery sent by return email. I’m ever so grateful for her beautiful execution of the project with such enthusiasm.
"We have concluded the investigation and will not be seeking any reimbursements for the merchandise or shipping costs on this order. We apologize on behalf of our carrier that the tracking was incomplete leaving us to believe the package would be returned to sender."
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