To commemorate the upcoming one-year anniversary of our familial addition, we thought it would be fun to buy new children's clothes and ship them off to the Kotlas orphanage. We bought clothes for the kids once before, on our second trip to Russia, when we hand-carried a bag of clothes to the orphanage. Hand-carrying, though, is a pretty straightforward process: you pack a bag and bring it with you wherever you go, until you get to the place you want to leave it.
Shipping, however, is a whole different matter, especially when you have customs to deal with. Shipping to Russia via the post office isn't horribly expensive ($75.00 or so), but the customs requirements seemed confusing and the shipment value was limited, and we really didn't want to screw it up. Also, I understand that mailing packages into Russia can be chancy; items "disappear" between here and there. That might be an outdated perception, but still, we'd rather the package actually get there.
We thought maybe shipping via UPS or FedEx might be a reasonable, if somewhat pricier, alternative. It is indeed an alternative, but "pricier" is an understatement: shipping ranges around $400.
Fortuitously, while looking at a local Russian newspaper, we happened to see an advertisement from Meest (this is an example of when it is handy to know how to read some Russian). They're a Ukrainian firm that ships between the US and Canada and former Soviet states, including Russia. What's more, they have a couple local offices here in metro Detroit (one in Oak Park, one in Warren). Since they ship to Russia pretty much all the time, and cater to the local emigre population, I expect that their success rate in getting through customs and into the hands of the intended recipient is pretty good.
Armed with that as a plan, we shopped around for good quality children's clothes that were on sale. We bought new, and left the tags on: that gives the folks at the orphanage the option of reselling them if they decide they need other things more urgently. This also enabled us to send many more things and stay under the $250.00 limit for paying customs duties. We got a mix of items: sweatshirts, dresses, pants and shirts, socks and underwear. Twelve pounds of kid's clothes, in a cubical cardboard box. We printed off some pictures of Elena from the past year or so and slipped them in too, along with a letter to the folks at the orphanage (poorly translated into Russian via Google).
We dropped the box off with Meest today; their price for shipping here to Kotlas was about $55 (plus $12 insurance, which we opted for). The downside is that the box of clothes is literally going on a slow boat: expected delivery is about two months. That seems terribly slow, but I expect there will still be kids in the orphanage two months from now who can use the clothes.
Shipping, however, is a whole different matter, especially when you have customs to deal with. Shipping to Russia via the post office isn't horribly expensive ($75.00 or so), but the customs requirements seemed confusing and the shipment value was limited, and we really didn't want to screw it up. Also, I understand that mailing packages into Russia can be chancy; items "disappear" between here and there. That might be an outdated perception, but still, we'd rather the package actually get there.
We thought maybe shipping via UPS or FedEx might be a reasonable, if somewhat pricier, alternative. It is indeed an alternative, but "pricier" is an understatement: shipping ranges around $400.
Fortuitously, while looking at a local Russian newspaper, we happened to see an advertisement from Meest (this is an example of when it is handy to know how to read some Russian). They're a Ukrainian firm that ships between the US and Canada and former Soviet states, including Russia. What's more, they have a couple local offices here in metro Detroit (one in Oak Park, one in Warren). Since they ship to Russia pretty much all the time, and cater to the local emigre population, I expect that their success rate in getting through customs and into the hands of the intended recipient is pretty good.
Armed with that as a plan, we shopped around for good quality children's clothes that were on sale. We bought new, and left the tags on: that gives the folks at the orphanage the option of reselling them if they decide they need other things more urgently. This also enabled us to send many more things and stay under the $250.00 limit for paying customs duties. We got a mix of items: sweatshirts, dresses, pants and shirts, socks and underwear. Twelve pounds of kid's clothes, in a cubical cardboard box. We printed off some pictures of Elena from the past year or so and slipped them in too, along with a letter to the folks at the orphanage (poorly translated into Russian via Google).
We dropped the box off with Meest today; their price for shipping here to Kotlas was about $55 (plus $12 insurance, which we opted for). The downside is that the box of clothes is literally going on a slow boat: expected delivery is about two months. That seems terribly slow, but I expect there will still be kids in the orphanage two months from now who can use the clothes.
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