the big tourist market in Goa is chaotic and bright but mostly filled with trinkets and chotchkies that i don't have any interest in or the luggage space to lug back to Tanzania and ultimately home. while everyone says just ship it home they don't realize i 1] don't have a home address to ship to in the US and 2] shipping from undeveloped countries is not only difficult but is also unreliable. the US has a well developed postal service in which for a small fee a person will hand deliver paper to your door. this is not the case in countries outside the west.
in most cases when someone sends a letter, card or [god forbid] a package to me it involves multiple trips and hours spent at varied government buildings where confused clerks will ask again and again the same questions and pretend to look in the computer and the back room before returning empty handed to tell you come back tomorrow.meanwhile the sender is anxiously sending me emails every other day to ask if i've received it yet. when you finally can track down a package it's likely that another government official will open every wrapped box and paw through your power bars and other items that while desirable to the west hold no value to them.
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