Care Packages

A few folks have asked us what we miss and could they send things in a care package.

Well, we do miss somethings

• Half-n-Half
• unsweetened, all natural peanut butter
• chicken broth (I am used buying canned broth. here it is either boullion cubes or make your own)
• good beer. that will be another post entirely…

But the problem is that packages to egypt all go through customs and they get opened. Expensive items have a tendency to disappear. Interesting items have a tendency to disappear. (For purposes of this conversation, “interesting” means anything you can’t get here. And since no one would send items that you can get here, just about everything in the package has the potential to disappear)

So, thank you to those that have asked, but the only way to really get anything is to carry it on the plane with you, either in carry-on or checked luggage.

Note: The university has several nice services.

For about LE100 you can have a car and driver pick you up or drop you off at the airport. (Thats about $18).

For an additional LE60 (about $10), you can get “clearance services”

This means a nice man will waiting for you with your name on a sign BEFORE you get to passport control or customs.

He take’s your passport and disappears for a few minutes, then you are whisked through passport control.

Then again with the whisking through customs.

At least that is how it worked for us: we didn’t stand in line, nobody asked us any questions and nobody even looked at our luggage.

We plan on hiring clearance expeditors when folks come to visit.

Note: Our air freight shipment arrived yesterday. These get somewhat special treatment in that the theft is less than average stuff that gets shipped. One of the new faculty had an iPod stolen.

We had something stolen as well: a box of Immodium. 9 boxes, 650lbs, ~$9k in declared value, and we are missing a box of Immodium.

I’ll take that and say Shukran!