A Uganda soccer jersey went missing ... but the post office came to the rescue. Marc Silver/NPR
I was working from home one day this week. My doorbell rang. A tall woman in a U.S. Postal Service uniform was standing with a USPS mailer in her hand. She confirmed my identity and gave me the mailer. It contained a t-shirt.
Sounds like a pretty ordinary moment. It was ... extraordinary.
Journalist and medical student Michal Ruprecht, who was on our global health team last summer, had gone to Uganda to report several health-related stories. He said he'd bring me a t-shirt. Of course I said "no need." But I do love t-shirts!
Ruprecht came back early due to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has spilled into Uganda (check out his Instagram reel about his return trip). He mailed me the t-shirt (and a keychain for a colleague) from his home in the Midwest. The envelope arrived on Monday. It was empty. What a bummer.
Ruprecht called the post office and it turns out there's a process for items that escape from envelopes. They're kept in the post office that received the envelope, then sent to an Atlanta holding pen where claims can be submitted.
So I thought I'd never see that t-shirt. The determined postal detective who rang my bell proved me wrong.
I am now proudly wearing my Uganda soccer-style shirt. And I tell this story this week to pay tribute to the world's civil servants -- people who work in government jobs and whose determination and dedication keeps wheels rolling.
For example, in DRC and Uganda and many other countries, community health workers make sure their neighbors get the medical attention they need. These workers are a critical part of the effort to control HIV and now to quash the new Ebola outbreak.
I know my story is pretty trivial by comparison, but it just made me grateful for all those civil servants whose work may go unseen and unthanked. So let me say: Thank you for your incredible service.
The postal investigator told me now she is going to look for the keychain and two notecards that were also in the package. I bet she finds them.
Marc Silver
Editor, global health and development
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