My clearing agent asked me to meet him between 10:30 and 11:00 am at Jubilee House at Tema harbour. I was there at 10:30 and called the ‘agent’ “I’m on my way”, was his prompt response. At 11:15 am there was still no sign of him, so I called again.
He sounded impatient, “you have to wait an hour, madam”
“one hour!” I shouted
“yes madam, one hour”
“so why did you ask me to come here at this time”
“madam, its a procedure we have to follow, that’s the way things work here”
“wait, don’t the customs people go for lunch in an hour?”
“yes, so it will have to be 2pm, then” he added nonchallantly.
I was livid at this point. “So why the hell did you ask me to show up in the morning!”
It was pointless. We were on different planets.
Around 12:30 my ‘agent‘ shows up and we have to sit and wait for another hour for some document or the other to be processed. At one point I look up and the ‘agent’ was nowhere in sight. A young man comes to give me a message from the agent that he had to rush back to the office because he had forgotten some documents that were needed. Unbelievable!
The agent shows up after 40 minutes and we wait some more, then we drive to another part of the harbour, and wait another 45 minutes for a document to be processed. Finally at around 3:30 we were given clearance to the warehouse where the shipment was held. I was turned back because I had open toed shoes and had to ‘rent’ a used pair of sneakers outside. It was such an ‘eeky’ feeling wearing used, sweaty sneakers without socks. But I had to focus on the task at hand, which was to get my stuff out today.
At 3:45 I entered the yard with the agent donning a reflector vest (also mandatory) and my temporary sneakers.
Most of the customs agents were in their main office, watching a soccer match. I groaned internally, it didn’t look good. I saw my so called agent beckoning me to come and talk to one of the customs guys.
“Madam, he said it won’t be possible today, oh...so maybe you can talk to him” the agent informed me as I got closer, and promptly stepped out of the way. I glared at him, what was I paying this guy for again?
The custom’s guy told me it was almost 4pm and that because of the delays in processing the necessary documents I won’t be able to get my items today. Besides the customs woman who was supposed to do the inspection just came from lunch.
Et puis alors? I thought to myself
“you go and come back tomorrow morning, eh?” he added
I tried to explain that this was the 2nd day I was trying to get my things cleared and that I’d had to get a truck on 2 occasions for nothing. But he wasn’t interested in what I had to say, in fact I was blocking his view of the telly. He kept moving his head from side to side as I pleaded my case.
“Madam, I said it won’t be possible today, please go and come back tomorrow, eh?” he insisted, looking past me.
“Please you’re blocking our view!” one of the customs people yelled from the back of the semi circle formed around the tv.
And that was that. I returned home for a second time, empty handed and very frustrated.
Lots of deep breathing on the way home. Tomorrow is another day.
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