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Books to Meru Held Up
Keith Schuchard and Jose Rodriguez
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Jambo, Brooks--I thought you and other TEEAers might be interested in this snafu, because it's a constant peril to shipments to East Africa. Jose had collected an important contribution of ESL tapes and DVDs, films of "The Merchant of Venice" (the set book), and other relevant books for Meru School, and he laments this demonstration of continuing corruption in customs and delivery services. Please forward this to Henry Hamburger, Gene Child, and any others who are planning shipments. I'll let you know when and how it is resolved. ---Best, Keith Schuchard Director of Technology at Emory College Language Center Update on Books to Meru. Hello Everyone, I just wanted to fill you in on the recent shipment to Meru and how that's going, or rather, not going. I want everyone to know what's happened for considering future shipments (and possibly another international carrier). The shipment is "stuck" in Nairobi at the moment. The Kenyan shipper, Freight in Time (FIT) has been communicating with me about certain "unpaid duties." I've been communicating with them and with UPS about this. UPS has contacted them and provided additional confirmation or proof that this has been paid "door to door" and that there should be no additional duties on donated items. UPS says that FIT is trying to double-charge to make additional profit. FIT says that they will not release the boxes until the duties are paid (we are not talking a lot of money here - about $ 150, but the Language Center is tapped out until Sept. 1 and it is the principle of paying twice for something we've already paid for). UPS suggested that I ask the school to "do whatever they did last year" to convince customs to remove the duties (apparently this happened last year as well). I have been in constant communication with the school and what UPS doesn't know is that last year, David Kariuki (principal) asked his friend, the Minister of Finance of the country, to talk to customs for him. The minister is no longer in that post, as some of you know, because of alleged corruption (which most people do not believe is true). In any case, the school no longer has that high contact and David will try through some other means. If this drags out past Sept. 1, then I can have a check cut and sent to FIT. And we'll just hope that they are truthful about receiving it. This is all for us to think very carefully about future shipments. It is tricky business, at best. And I feel bad that we were trying to do something good that has caused more work and stress for the school. I'll let you know how this all turns out. |