(This story is shared with permission of the other Postcrosser mentioned in this post.)
Back in October of last year, I drew an address of a Postcrosser in South Africa. (Her name is Alison.). I was excited, as it was my first card to send to SA. I send the card and it gets on its way.
A month or two goes by…nothing…
Anxious about its arrival, and wondering if it had gotten lost, or maybe the user didn’t register it, I decided to contact the user. It hadn’t arrived. She let me know that post in SA is not reliable, and sometimes weeks go by with nothing arriving in her box.
At some point in Spring of 2022, I find out that I would be travelling to South Africa as part of a program with my school. I teach at a school that chooses a different country each year to incorporate in various ways through lessons, food, presentations, etc. during the school year. The school also chooses three teachers to send to that country to learn about it and report back the following year. I decided to try to be selected, and I was chosen! I was thrilled, and began planning my trip (which I would do with my wife and two kids).
I contact the Postcrosser and let her know that I was coming to South Africa. I even suggested that if my postcard hadn’t arrived, I could perhaps try sending a card from South Africa to see if it would beat my original card.
Well, the original card finally arrived after six months. Check it out here: US-7960876.
Not only that, but it turns out that our trip to South Africa had us passing through Alison’s city of Durban (a city on the Indian Ocean). Since we were going to be travelling with our two young kids in tow, and Alison has two young kids herself, we decided to set up a play date at the beach.
So, on July 19, we got to meet up! We adults had a great time talking about South Africa and similarities/differences with the USA. The kids had a great time playing together. We got some ice cream afterwards and the kids also played on skateboards/bikes.
One cool thing is that she brought the postcard that I had sent with her. How neat to hold something in my hand that had travelled 8,500 miles over 6 months from my house, and now it was in my hand again. (It’s worth noting that Durban is the farthest away from home I’ve ever been, and I’ve travelled around!)
(That red flag is my school. I’m on the right, my wife and younger daughter are next to me, and my other daughter is just to the left of the flag. Alison is on the left, her daughter is to her right, and her son is hiding in the back.)
Funny story: I’ve always wondered if I’ve ever forgotten to put the ID on my card. Well, as it turns out, I had forgotten to do so with this card! When it finally arrived at her house, she noticed it didn’t have an ID on it, but she realized whose card it was since I had messaged her before. I had included the ID in a message to her (no, I hadn’t asked her to register it…but I just included it to help identify in case it had arrived), so she was able to register it that way. Of all the postcards for me to have forgotten the ID…this was the one. 
Here’s to many more random meetings between Postcrossers across the world!
This would indeed be a great story for the Postcrossing homepage. This is what PC is all about: connecting. Thank you for sharing!
