Much ado about nothing

I went with Melaku this morning to take care of a few housekeeping items around town. First we went to a computer shop and I oicked up an EVDO modem for my Mac. This is suppsed to be many times faster than the CDMA one I had been using in my PC. It is not pay-as-you-go with a SIM card but rather envolvers a pre-payment agreement with ETC (Ethiopian Telecommuncations Corporation). I went to the ETC office and got the form which I have since filled in. We then headed off to Bole airport to spring the Dell computer that was confiscated last week.

That was a huge treat :) I entered the airport after paying the 3 birr fee :) and went to the customs area. They would not let Melaku in so I was on my own. I went to a counter and stood around while 3 people assisted another customer. I finally asked if I was at the right place for what I needed to do and they sent me somewhere else. My first stop was an office where I showed a clerk the letter from RSU about getting the computer in the country without having to pay 1,300 birr duty. That did not go well; he explained that the wording of the letter did not ask for tax exemption directly so wondered why did I even bring it? I must admit the wording in the letter was not the best but it could have been interpreted to be asking for what I really wanted.

I returned to another guy there who told me to go to "the window over there", which I started to do then noticed there were 2 windows. I asked again and was told to go to the cashier's window. I placed my paper on the bottom of what seemed to be a large pile and waited about 30 minutes for my turn. The first thing the agent told me is that I had been in the wrong line. He told me to go to window #5 and he would service me right away when I returned. There was a pile of paper in front of window #5 so I gave up. I ripped up the papers I had and left frustrated. "Welcome to Ethiopia" ... I was hoping to give the computer to Melaku so now it will be disposed of somehow by customs personnel after 60 days.