Correo Argentina: your one stop for any and everything you ever need to get done.

I have been inspired recently to write by the sheer inefficiancy of certain things in Latin America. All of you anthropologists out there can tell me that I´m being culturally insensitive, and what not, that just because it isn´t our system, that it works here. A haiku comes to mind.

post office waiting
three hour pause in the same chair
no work day for me


That is fine, I´m not complaining because the slowness of certain things, as it provides me a massive gap in my work day, allowing me to get nothing done. I´ll go for a more positive approach: it´s kind of like organized procrasination, thus really everything I´m not too inclined to get finished anyways can be easily passed off as a ´sorry boss, I had to go to the post office today´. Your boss will then respond, ´ah yes, the post office´and saunter away, accepting your excuse for being absent from the office for 3 hours.  In case you haven´t caught on by now, the post office is going to be my subject of choice for todays blog.

This my friends, is the Correo Argentina:

For all of you non Spanish speakers out there correo means mail. Argentina´s mail service got a little overambitious and not only can you send all of your packages (no guarentees that it will ever make it out of the country) you can also pay all of you bills. Furthermore, it is the only place you can apply for a transport card and whilst the person in front of you is having a colossal break down because their payment cannot be accepted, or the phone bill was too high, their electricity got cut off or the water is brown, you my good sir or madam, can signup at the booth in the corner for your very own credit card, one that not only has a high credit maximum but also accepts anyone, regardless of past credit disasters. I frequently ponder the idea, though as I am not Argentine, I would most likely be rejected. 

Now, you might think to yourself, what a great idea, one can get everything done in one place. What a great idea it is however, the woman who is running the post office is an expert in one thing. Mail. This is why it is called Mail Argentina. So, you can guess what happens when someone is upset about the amount of voltage being used in their apartment, and they go up, aproach the mail expert about electricity. The whole system then begins to break down. The woman becomes nervous, because she, like most people, has no idea why the voltage in the said person´s apartment was huge this month. And then begins the phone calls to the electrical company, so that the poor expert in mail, becomes the middle man between the angry customer and clueless electrical company. Your wait, at this point, is going to be between and hour and an hour an a half. You have number 56 and on the counter we are only at number 42. Guess what your odds are that you will have at least one more person, in a similar position. I would guess about 100 percent. 

So in conclusion, way to take one for the team Correo Argentina, you have officially become Argentina´s scapegoat, doomed to deal with angry customers, not upset about mail, but about transport, or bills.