We often get emails from more enthusiastic postcrossers, asking why there aren’t more members in exotic locations – like South America or Africa! Well, we’d love to have more members in all the countries… but it turns out, a lot of the things we take for granted in some countries are not a given in many other places out there.
I was thinking about these issues the other day, when an email from Darío popped on our inbox. Darío (aka dariomartinezb) lives in the Dominican Republic, and he told us the story of how hard it is for people there to do Postcrossing… and how he managed to solve this problem in his town! It’s a really heartwarming story that I thought we should share with you. Here’s Darío:
The problem with Postcrossing in my country is that the Dominican postal service suffers from huge disadvantages: slow delivery times, frequent misplaced or lost mail, damages to mail delivered and so on. When users started to join, they had to wait over two months to get their first postcards after they got registered some of the sent ones. This disappointed many people and they complained at me for that.
Then I talked to my mailman (we became friends last year) and he explained some sad things. When the postal service receives a card for someone that never had received anything before, they waited until a second or third correspondence arrived and then deliver the bunch. Why? Many reasons: the mailman didn’t know the address, the place was too far away, or simply they didn’t consider a postcard to be that urgent. I tell you, that shocked me!
My mailman suggested that I rent a P. O. Box and shared with friends. The mail is delivered daily to P. O. Boxes and there are no restrictions on sharing the address. So, I decided to become myself a mailman to my friends. And now people are enjoying Postcrossing more than ever! A friend and I pick up the mail everyday and distribute to their owners.
This has been the only way to make this enjoyable to many people. Last year in January the Dominican Republic was stuck in the early DO-200… We are now approaching DO-1000! I know that’s not much, but we are just getting started! :)
Isn’t that fantastic? Hurray for Darío (left) and Ramón (right), on their way to deliver today’s batch of postcards! :)
100 comments so far
Wow, what a great idea! Thanks for sharing this story!
This is great for helping each other!
and indeed a postbox is a great help, also in my less populated country!! Have lots of fun you two :)
So kind of Darío and Ramón to help the project!
Thanks for to talk us about this situation,it´s so sad!!!
By the way,how enjoyable to distribute the cards into other members....Congratulations!
What Darío and Ramón are doing is simply awesome :-).
BRAVO! I have said it before and I will say it again, Postcrossing people are the nicest ever!
I love it when people look for solutions rather than get bogged down in problems or give up....well done!!!
Wonderful story! Good for you Dario and Ramon.
Thank you, Dario and Ramon for sharing your story with all of us! Please keep up the good job! :D
Beautiful story!! :)
Great story! ! Happy mailing! !
Great idea, and it worked,didn't know that it was so hard to get your postcard to some places. thanks for sharing this story!!!
How great! You guys are amazing!
I just received a postcard from DO this week! Glad things are working out.
That's happy post crossing!
Getting involved at PostCrossing I've learned a lot that's not in travel- history- or geography books. You'll get to know the country by its people and what they think is important. Two tumbs up for you guys, Dario & Ramon, hope you can keep up the good work! Thanks for sharing.
This is so wonderful that you were able to find a happy fix to your mail delivery problem! :]
Thank you Dario and Ramon for taking the initiative! And the helpful postal worker who took the time to present an option rather than just shrug the problem off as "oh well ... it's just a postcard."
Brilliant idea! I like it that he not only discuss the problem but he also did something about it. Way to go!!!!
First Thanks to Dario and Ramon... I knew about the project by Dario and many other dominicans fellows too, through his personal blog and also through an article published in a local newspaper he has motivated a few people to join. Dario and I have been friends for more than 10 years and I know that when he is passionate about something he will do whatever it is in his hands to make it better. We started a FB group few months ago. It's open to everybody but it mainly serve as a support group where people can see that this is worthy the wait. We there share the postcards received through the system and with private exchange that helps get others motivated by the group influence.
Great idea
Maybe a good solution to other countries with similar problems :)
Great story, great guys. Go Dominican postmen ! Go Dominican Postcrossers !
Awesome!
Brilliant idea! Kudos!!
Wow, reading this post and your comments have made my day amazing! Thanks for your words of encouragement, Ramón and I, as well as the small bunch of Dominican Postcrossers feel very humbled by all this.
I also hope more Latinamerican and African countries had more members, so I hope this simple idea could be replicated elsewhere. We are hoping to do even much more. This project has enriched our lives beyond measure and I know many Dominican citizens would love to enjoy the same experience as well. :)
Thanks again for your comments, and to Paulo, Ana and all the Postcrossing staff for sharing this story. We feel like rock stars! :D
There are still great people in this world that are willing to help others!!! Mis saludos para Darío y Ramón!! Los felicito por tan buen gesto! :)
Proud to be dominican too!
Thanks Dario and Ramon for helping us!
I love this! What a clever idea - and generous work!
Thank you very much for all your comments. Thanks to Paulo, Ana and all the postcrossing staff, But mostly thanks to Dario for giving me the opportunity to be part of this initiative.
You're doing a great pleasure for all of us Postcrossers. I hope that I get an adress to send my card to the Dominican Republic.
This was a very good idea. You are doing a great job.
Hip Hip Hoorra!!! They are my mailmen :D
Dario and Ramón, thank u so much :)
Dario is our embassador from Postcrossing, not just for delivering the postal cards, but for giving us the information about Postcrossing, how it works and getting us excited about it!!!
I am one of the people Dario help when my correspondence arrive,this project really has excited me a lot, right through the exchange of postcard i have met different cultures and countries, have made friends that I never imagined and each time when comes a postcard is a day that glows for me, I really thank you for helping me and teach the art of exchanging postcards,this custom was lost in my country many years ago, but is growing again thanks dario and postcrossing.
Great job! This one really made my day! Nice to notice that there still exists whole hearted people.
This is an amazing story! I work for a bank in Canada and often send out mail to clients all over the world... I'm fully aware of how difficult it is for some countries to receive mail, for many different reasons.
You're awesome Dario, I'll definitely think of you if I send out a postcard to the Dominican Rep :)
Happy postcrossing Dominican postcrossers!!! Love you Dario!
This is an absolutely beautiful story. Well done you two in the Dom Republic!
great idea.....
Wow, what a wonderful idea and even more that you are doing a very, very good "job".
Fantastic!
This is awesome! I have family in the Dominican Republic and know the struggles of getting mail there. Happy to hear there is a small something being done and that Dominicans are getting into Postcrossing!! :)
Great idea! Bravo!
Thanks for the great story!
Thumbs up, Dario and Ramon! What a great job you are doing. You make me feel proud and happy of being a member of the Postcrossing family as well!
what a great story. It shows that when people work together things get done. I hope to get an address in the Dominican Republic to contribute to Postcrossing there.
great deed, great story
congratulations to all postcrossers in Republica Dominicana!!!
Wonderful story! I admire your dedication to finding a solution. If I ever get a card from Dominican Republic I will have a better understanding of the challenges faced by Postcrossers in that country.
touching story. Dario + Ramón = nice people.
This is so cool! It's so nice of the two guys to do tis for their friends.
Great job !!!!! We have a similar situation with the mail here in Cuba :(
Inspiring story. I hope someday to send and receive a postcard from the Dominican Republic.
That is brilliant - I had never realised how hard it was for some countries to get postcards. Thank goodness kind people like these two are on hand to help!
I really enjoy that postcrossing lets me know so many stories from around the world, I would never have a clue of without it. Thank you Dario + Robin for the effort you make to keep the postcrossing projekt alive.
Awesome idea and great story! It is nice to see where my postcard arrived (I sent a postcard to Ramón not too long ago!) Happy Postcrossing!!!
Amazing, well done!!! Cuban´s postcrossers also wait a really long time to get postcards, but unfortunately they don´t have PO Boxes. Something most be done.
That's awesome :D
Wow, from 200 to 1000 postcards! That's really a hughe difference!!!
Wonderfull project!
I enjoyed this story. Thank you for sharing with us. Happy postcrossing to Dario and Ramon and to everyone! =)
Haha, you are like honourary postal carriers! Way to go, guys! What an amazing way to get to know all the people in your postcrossing community, too. I like your creative solution.
good for you guys, what a great and selfless initiative.
Such a great idea. Fantastic that more postcrossers are able to join and receive some Cards because of this. Thumps up for it.
great story! :) good luck for the future!!!
..nice story and Ramon and Dario are great buddies for all the postcrosser, thanks foor doing this great job
Wow! You're the great enthusiast that doing a good job!
Wonderful! What a dedicated Postcrosser.
Super idea and you able to enjoy the hobby with fellow members from your country
Thank you very much for choosing this post crosser and telling his interesting story. It warmed my heart. But I'm sad, that so many people on the world, for example in Afrika have no possibilities because of post-problems in their countries. :'''/
How wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Dario for be an ambassador!! Postcorssing rocks!!
Great job, Dario!
Except that understandably less people join up from the destinations where mail takes long, they will also be able to send less.
Compare someone in the middle of Europe who, by current amount of postcards sent, could have 6 postcards travellling; to someone in in an unreliable-mail location who also could have 6 postcards travellling.
The European's postcards take, on average, less than 2 weeks. She can send, to keep 6 travelling, more than 3 a week. The woman from the unreliable-mail location has, for the sake of argument, post cards that take on average almost 6 weeks to arrive, with one every now and again not arriving at all. She can send, to keep 6 travelling, one a week.
(But there is a special privilege to being from an unusual location: Your post cards are really appreciated. Even I, a South African - not that rare a location - with 6 post cards this far have had 2 people with 300+ postcards thank me for their first South African post card.)
I have kept reading all your amazing comments and I can't be more humbled with your appreciation. What I really wish is that we could find more people in Latinamerica and Africa that could in some way replicate this idea. We have been improving our delivery times here in DR and we expect to open more P.O.Boxes to accommodate more people without cramping that small box :)
Also, we plan to have a conversation with the Postal Service authorities somewhere between June and July to explain Postcrossing and maybe propose a few ideas to use the project to promote again mail delivery in DR. I'm not totally confident of this idea as Government dependencies tend to be everything but welcoming of ideas, but what can we lose by trying?
Well, thanks again for your words of enthusiasm and encouragement. We are happy to help promote this project here. Spreading culture and lifestyles is hands down the best experience ever for us.
Thanx for sharing!
Such a special story about special wonderful people finding innovative solutions to problems. Well done and thanks Dario :)
I think it's a great initiative, that asks for followers in other countries with postal difficulties!
What a lot of people (including myself until recently) don't realize is that in a lot of 'exotic' countries we would like to receive cards from, people have other struggles than how to send & receive mail!
E.g. how can they feed their children and keep their own bellies from grunting with hunger or how to keep safe and stay alive in all the violence that is experienced in so many countries!
And then there are groups of people who sadly enough see sending postcards as not fitting within their religion or culture.
I hope on the long run postcrossers can make a difference within their own circle/country and show the world that all people are worthy to exist and to connect with people anywhere on this earth and to learn from them.
To learn from one another in fact.
Happy Postcrossing to all!
Yes ,the world need more people like this! Chapeau!! if every post crosser do 1 thing a day for someone else we can make a turn...
Great Dario !
Fantastic. with have a great idea and you are really a good friend !
Teresa
Perhaps if we all worldwide sent the postal authorities in the Dominican Republic postcards, they might be more willing to listen to Dario and his fellow Postcrossers to come up with a more viable solution?!
Great! :-D I hope more people do the same, so the whole world can enjoy postcrossing.
I realize that postcrossing cannot do anything to improve mail delivery or postage cost in every far-flung corner of the globe. Still, I can suggest an idea or 2 on how Postcrossing (not Dario and others in small countries far from Europe) could make it easier for new members from small countries:
Idea 1) Since the majority of postcrossers are in Europe and Eastern Europe, remember that postcards from further away travel longer. If, say, a German and a Peruvian both have the same amount of postcards travelling, and sends another when one reaches a destination, the German will have -on average - his arriving a lot quicker, enabling him to send more postcards in the same amount of time. Therefore, I suggest Postcrossing allow people from far away to have more postcards travelling at the same time.
Idea 2) Rare destinations are also, often, places with not that much of a postage system and not many postcards for sale. When someone from a rare destination joins, Postcrossing could include a note with the guidelines that they don't have to worry too much about meeting the exact postcard demands of a picky postcrosser - the mere fact that this is the first time they get a postcard from [fill in unusual destination] will make most postcrossers overjoyed with the postcard.
Idea 3) Make a new article on this blog, in which postcrossing asks its members: What can postcrossing do to encourage/ help people in countries with low numbers of postcrossers, so they can send more? Many of us may have ideas.
I hope that someday I get chosen to send Dario or Ramon a card so I can send them something special as a thank you for going above and beyond to help out their country's struggling postcrossers. Bravo to two great guys!
Heroes! :-)
What a marvellous story about making postcrossing possible for many people. Hope this idea makes it possible for many people in other countries with the same problem to join postcrossing. Also sharing computers? Lowering postage would be great as well.....!!
That's very interesting to know, and I am glad they found a way around it! Postcrossing for all :D
My post card (direct swap) from the Dominican Republic was treveling for FIVE month (since 6 Jan) and postcard from me isn't come even now..((( So it's great idea to make common box and help brothers in mind-postcrossers)))
If anyone has any good ideas on how to spread the word about Postcrossing in these "other", not-so-big countries, please do join the conversation on the forum: http://forum.postcrossing.com/viewthread.php?tid=87866
We're trying to compile a list, and all the input is welcome! :)
Great idea. Happy postcrossing!
think sometimes we just complain about things without thinking much.
I really draw my hat for such great work, thank you for sharing. Well done!!!
Amazing!! Thank you for the enlightenment! I guess I DO take a lot of things for granted :)
Good job!
I have a card travelling to Dominican Republic, to a private address ~ I hope there are more cards travelling to this user, otherwise it can take ages if I understand well.
Thank you for sharing this story. To hear about Ramon and Dario finding a way around the challenges of this system to help and support their fellow postcrossers is just so inspiring! It warmed my heart.
In many countries, if you want to receive mail, you'll need a PO box, that's true in many places in Africa, in India and so on.
I remember a documentary on a french newspaper called XXI, dedicated to a mailman in Kabul (Afghanistan) and how everyday, delivering mail there was a whole adventure in itself, and how many efforts where required to localize the recipients.
We are very lucky and sometimes don't realize how it is in many countries, especially outside the big cities.
Bravo for the job well-done...
What a great, simple idea! Bravo to you!
Amazing story! Bravo!
Nice article, I think I should thanks to Taiwan's post office! They deliver mails to me everyday... I had once sent a postcard to Dominican Republic, spending 21 days! http://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/TW-1229580
This little story really has just brought a smile to face :)
Love your story. Great way to solve a problem. Happy Postcrossing!
Great idea, congratulations! :)
Hi guys,
Just for the record, the Dominican Republic just passed the DO-1000 mark this morning. The lucky winner of DO-1000 was my friend Ramón, and that postcard is going to the Netherlands. We made a small contest to guess who would get the DO-1000 and to guess the country of destination. I lost both bets. :(
So, officially we're now a four digits country in Postcrossing. I hope DO-10000 won't take that long!
Thanks for reading!
↑ Back to top ↑