Our Goods Arrived

We are happy to let everyone know that the Goods for Good shipment of school supplies and educational toys and books arrived in Malawi last week. The goods arrived in perfect order and will be distributed to local schools and Chezi in the coming weeks. We also had the pleasure of visiting Malawi’s “Capital Hill” this week. We had to visit the Office of Finance because the Malawi Revenue (MRA) refused to grant us tax exemption on a shipment of fabric arriving in Malawi in August. You might be asking yourself the same question I asked, how much could the tax really be? Well, it can be upwards of %50 of the total value of the goods.

Our friend Mr. Gundaphiri, who helps St. Mary’s clear their shipments from customs, asked us to visit the Finance Office, “prepared to fight.” So much so that we even joked around about bringing some of the babies living at Chezi to pull at their heartstrings. I am glad to say that we did not have to resort to that, in fact the gentlemen we met with practically laughed at the refusal from MRA, and while we waited (which is unheard of here) he wrote a letter reversing their ruling. This was both surprising and concerning. What if we had not gone to speak to him? Why did MRA say no to begin with? Bureaucracy is not easy to deal with, but at least this time, the kids will get what the need.