Sunday, September 29, 2013

Centralized mail

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The houses here in Meitar do not have mailboxes.
Every family has to go check its own little box at one of two distribution places  at the center of town.
My landlady's post box, which I share, is on the highest row and my arm just barely reaches into it when I stand on my toes. 
Meitar has grown to  something like 7,500 residents so you can imagine how many rows of ta-ei chaluka boxes there are.

We  have a (literally)  hole-in-the-wall post office, way too small, and only a few people can fit inside.
If the line is long you have to wait outdoors.
The governing Local Council has promised  a proper post office will be built by April.
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(Linking to Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.)
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9 comments:

  1. Our postal system is operating in the red so they're starting to close post offices which is really sad for a lot of the rural areas.

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  2. I must tell you than even here in Ramat Gan the line in my post office is so often so long that people have to wait outside.
    But not to have your letters and magazines in box near your house is uncomfortable. How long is your way to these boxes?

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  3. Impressive rack! I receive only bills now, and could probably get them by email instead.

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  4. I dunno. Doesn't it make more sense for just a few people to deliver the mail than for 7500 to travel to the post office?

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  5. Kay, to solve that problem here Israel semi-privatized it into the Israel Postal Company some years ago.

    Anumorchy, everyone but me has a car so it is no problem for them to stop at the boxes. For me it is a 14 minute walk from home. Lo nora.

    VP, I don't even get bills in the mail.

    Hilda, apparently not. Many smaller communities have this system. I suppose the mail is more secure this way.

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  6. That is a terrible way to run a post service. If I remember right the Israeli post had a 'Hart' as a symbol and everyone claims it ought to be a 'Tortoise!'
    I sent a postcard home that took ten days to arrive then!

    The UK will be going that way soon now it has been selling Royal Mail.

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  7. We still have a post office, but we can't withdraw any money. It's more a corner of a shop.We can send parcels though, which is good, for I have to send parcels to Australia occasionally.
    Dina, last week I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at an exhibition in Assen, in the north of our country.Very interesting. I bought a dvd to see everything properly again.My back is hurting when I have to stand in a queue for a long time.Well, old age!!

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  8. What lovely, teeny tiny doors you've found for us this week!
    Here in Efrat we also have little boxes like those, and I also did when I spent a year in Bet Shean, many years ago. I always figured it was just an Israeli thing. But when my aunt came to visit a couple of years ago, she told me that they have the same kind of setup where she lives, about an hour north of Chicago! So you never know :)

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  9. Hi Dina - I asked my aunt, and they just call them mail boxes! Easy as pie :)

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