Visiting the Pony Express

 Asuncion is big.  Really big.  Think Houston big.  About twice as large as Chihuahua, Mexico.  Think 4 1/2 times as big as Shreveport.  Or 937 times larger than Coats, NC.  Or 1089 times larger than Roach, MO. 

Suffice to say, this is the biggest place I've lived in...well, ever.

Friday morning I got to go to the post office here in Asuncion to help pick up the mail for all the NTM missionaries in the country.  To quote another visitor to the post office, "This is like the Pony Express!" Remember, Asuncion has a population of nearly 2million people.  This is the capital of the country, and this is the post office for small mail.  The small packages are next door, and the larger packages are a 10-minutes drive away.  (Don't ask me why!)  With this in mind, continue:

Here's a wall of mailboxes.  No one has mail delivered to their door--well, very rarely (and as expensive as it is rare!)  Each door has a window & a key, no back to lock the mail in, and the wood reminds me of a hollow door we once had that broke easily.  These boxes go about 8 feet up or higher, so if you have a high box, you get a ladder & climb for your mail.

This is our mailbox: #1181.  Any mail that comes to me goes through this box first.  And I actually got a letter the day I went from my great aunt!

 

And, yes, I did look through the window & saw desks and post office workers.