Day 3 - Tuesday, October 14th, 2014
We arrive at Correo Argentino at around 10.30am to check the overall number situation. We take number 19 (Yay!). 18 numbers, how long will it take us? At the average German post office this would suggest a waiting time of 10 to 15 minutes. We decide to stay and wait.
 |
| Correo Argentino ca. 10.30 am |
The call indicator is not working. We are outside waiting. Nothing happens. The lady who is handing out the numbers is sitting there waiting. Sometimes she moves some papers from one side of her desk to the other. A Correo guy joins her for 10 minutes, then leaves. Apparently he is strongly involved in the waiting business as well. There is no package being handed out. No numbers are being called. We are waiting. Correo folks are waiting. Everyone is waiting.
There is a constant stream of new arrivals of people who want to pick up their imported goods. As we are positioned outside (all seats inside are taken and the place is not too big) about two thirds of the new arrivals are asking us, where they can take their number. Slowly we are becoming the local Correo consultants discussing Correo waiting strategies with our fellow waiting folks. Btw, to take a number, you are not just taking a number. You have to go to the lady, sit down at her desk, ask her for the number, present your passport (pero claro, por supuesto!). She then starts to do something very laborious involving lots of paper and handwritten notes (and of course stamping the handwritten notes). And
then you get the number.
Meanwhile we start feeling like a sworn community of contrabandists with all the other people waiting for their imported goods. Have to continue waiting though. No progress. The numbers lady leaves, comes back again holding her mate (the Argentine beverage, that is), smiles, leaves again, comes back again, sits down, hands out more numbers. No package. Just lots of people waiting (video shows, what is happening in Argentina, when you are waiting for more than 1 hour in any given place; note to self: I have to rotate the video; it is okay on my mobile and it is okay in my media player on my laptop; not after uploading to blogger).
A German student is talking to her parents on the mobile at the top of her lungs... in German... constantly moving from outside to inside back to outside. A Swiss student (sitting on one of the seven available seats) asks herself if she should just beat the living daylights out of the German for the impoliteness. Being a polite Swiss girl she refrains from actually doing so. Nothing happens. No package in sight. Nobody leaves. Everyone is waiting.
 |
| Correo Customs Office with German student - I didn't want to take a picture of her, really! |
After one hour (!) of utter waiting they are calling the first number. A man rushes to the back part of the offices and vanishes; does not return. Still no package. 5 (!) minutes later he appears with a
package, an expression of deliverance on his face (in this case deliverance and delivery are pretty much the same). Suddenly there is bustling activity. Numbers are called in quick succession (relatively quick, that is). Proceeding with the packages takes some time, but there is actual progress.
At 12 flippin' 30, i.e. 2 hours after we arrived, it is our turn (YAY!). We are moving to the back part of the offices. There are 6 (six!) highly-paid government officials involved in the package handover process. I catch a glimpse of one of the guys monitors. He seems to be a cineast as he just checked the movies to take his girlfriend out tonight. I do not want to know, what the other Correo guys are doing at their computers... like seriously not.
The Swiss girl (№ 18) is still involved with one of the other government officials, so there are at least 2 people really doing some work. The actual task of these guys: check the stack of documents we brought regarding stamps ("verde"). We have to show our passports again. Important: he puts
our package on the table in front of us. There is a spark of hope. Will this journey end soon? Will he just hand the holy package over to us?! ... No, of course he does not! ... His task is only to check the stamps. But do you remember, that we have to pay a fee of 40 pesos for the well appreciated work of these hardworking Correo guys? It is not
his job to cash the fee. It is the job of the
numbers lady. It is virtually a multi-tasking job she is carrying out.
We now realize that there is kind of a cashier's desk with...
a second queue of waiting people. There was this one guy waiting there, when we entered the back part of the offices. He is still waiting. Why is that? Because the
numbers lady is busy handing out numbers. As a matter of fact it is 12.30 and they are not handing out any numbers since 12 anyway (it is sort of their policy). So she is sitting in her number handover seat at the number handover desk waiting for people to tell them that, sorry, they do not have any numbers left for today. She is actually doing nothing. Just sitting there waiting for the possible arrival of new people. Meanwhile the man is waiting, the Swiss girl is waiting, we are waiting for the numbers lady to cash the fee.
At some point in time young missus ends sweet idleness. Gets up, runs around confusedly, moves papers and documents, gets her mate (aforementioned Argentine beverage), sits down again to wait for new arrivals to
not hand out numbers. More waiting.
Endless minutes later she plucks up courage, gets up and approaches the young man waiting at the cashier's desk. It could have ended in a romantic love story, but she actually makes him pay his fees (which of course involves more paper, handwritten notes and stamping action). And ! the man! actually! gets! his package!
And then, it is our turn. We pay our fees and get our package. Simple as that. After 3 days of hard work and endless waiting, we are the happiest people in this beautiful world. We are home at 1.30pm.
The End (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! CARAJO!)
...
Epilogue
- I am ultimately impressed with the patience of Argentine people.
- I am very impressed with the high number of business opportunities for the Lean Six Sigma crowd in Argentina
- All of this reminds me of three capital letters: G, D and R
