david_h wrote:
@AaronFW - try Googling for options to send a package from where you are to Kigali.
OK. I tried to do some research.
I could buy a set of piano wire for 300 USD. Piano wire also doesn't appear to fit under any restrictions for shipping to Rwanda, so I am good there.
It looks like I could send it via the USPS for $30-$90 depending on the size of box and expect it to be there in 6-10 days.
Other options like FedEx, are substantially more expensive.
david_h wrote:
I was involved with some medical supplies to go to Uganda. The EU supplier said not to even think of surface mail, they could send it air freight and have it held at Entebbe. Someone there familiar with the local formalities could go there collect it. It all went smoothly, the lady at customs helped them fill in the form to get the duty waiver on 'humanitarian supplies'. We bought similar stuff in Uganda but it was not much cheaper, required sending the money out and the supply chain was slow. One problem with surface transport in East Africa is that smuggling is rife so trucks are forever being stopped and checked, which increases the chances of things going astray.
In 2012, I carried some stuff in a suitcase to the Democratic Republic of Congo for some friends (I was coming to be there for 3 weeks and offered to bring some stuff along). I flew from Entebbe, Uganda to Bunia, DRC using a small MAF plane. (Sometimes if we needed to transfer small items, we could simply send to MAF in Uganda and have them carry it to the DRC for us.) So I am a little familiar with what you are describing.
I agree with part of your last post to Nanohedron; there is not really a strong "African" identity. The first priority is to provide for your family. After that, there is a priority to an ethnic community. After that, the ideas of "States" and "Nations" are very Western ideas that were imposed on Africa and don't really make sense within Africa.
In regards to straightforwardness, if people don't answer questions, it is often because they have higher values elsewhere, such as they value the relationship more than being straightforward. Being straightforward brings a risk of damaging relationships.
I think this is worth saying... whether it is not selling piano wire, not being straightforward, posting endlessly on Chiff & Fipple, or anything else; I have observed that people only do that which makes sense for them to do. Perhaps we differ culturally and our ways of thinking, but people only do things that make sense to them. The difficulty is usually the stepping out of our own worldviews to understand someone else's.