My First Package!

I got a package this week!  After 9 months in country and spending Christmas away from home a box full of delicious homemade goodies was such a treat!

I'd been pestering the women at the post office for the last few weeks, stopping in every couple days to inquire if my package had arrived.  The first time they seemed a bit confused, they asked me if I was Stephanie, another volunteer in my rayon who lives in a different village.  I gave them my name and number but wasn't confident that they would actually call me when it came, so I was surprised last Tuesday when I got a call from a woman speaking Russian.  She didn't hang up after I asked her 'what?' several times in Kyrgyz (which normally works with wrong numbers and telemarketers here), then I heard her say post office and package and I realized it had arrived!

I went right to the post office and was impressed to see that my package was sealed in it's own mail sack and the woman made big production of checking my ID and slicing the seal on the mail sack. 

I was impressed.  I had heard so many stories of packages being rifled through but mine was completely intact, and the cookies had even survived the trip without too much damage!

I have been enjoying my treats so much!  Thanks Nonnie! Everything was delicious.  And being as it was the end of the month and I had no money to buy any vegetables or good food it was so nice to have something delicious to eat to break up the monotony of buckwheat and canned winter salad.