PO Box

Yesterday I was approached by a 21 year old man I had met while staying in Tanzania two years ago. He has a sponsor for school but was having difficulties understanding why she was unable to send him money. After some time reading through emails, I realized the problem lied in the lack of "legal address". You see, in Tanzania, and in most of Africa, there are no street names, let alone building numbers. There is no mailman that delivers mail to your house. Even businesses have PO Boxes where they pick up their mail. Of course PO boxes in much of North America are given a bad name and considered sketchy. So, his sponsors bank refused to send money to the PO box for his school. Matters are further complicated by the fact that the new school term started 2 weeks ago. YIKES! I have been working for 2 days now, brainstorming with local friends, talking to school officials and with the leadership at the orphanage and I think we have a solution. My goal is to get my friend back to school by Monday. So much to do and so little time to do it. I cannot believe I leave Sunday morning!!!