Jos’ wallet was somehow left in the car of Alex, his friend, who gave us a nice ride to Italy and to Switzerland. In short, Alex went back to Holland the next early morning while we were still sleeping and the wallet was also gone all the way back to Holland with him. We both just realized that before noon, when we were getting ready to walk in and around the village called Oberdiessbach near Thun. The wallet made us down a bit, kind of blaming ourselves or a bit of blaming each other for not checking the front seats of the car when we arrived and stepped out of the car last midnight. However, we still fortunate as God let us surrounded by good people and friends who helped us generously. So even though we had no cash on hand, somehow we still managed to enjoy our holiday and paid our spending. The wallet was also mailed from Utrecht to Florence by Alex, and it was arranged to arrive in Florence on a day or two after our arrival.
We got a series of numbers, a code from PostNL to trace the package. Guess what? It’s been two weeks since we arrived and yet we haven’t got the package, and sadly, we or it was more I, began to worry. It was a period of test of my patient endurance. Checked on PostNL site and asked the package under the code number at PosteItalia were also not helping. I prayed that night for God’s help to find the wallet coz I believe He knows where it is exactly. That day when Jos has his 1st day meeting at school and I was home alone, browsing the site of PostNL, wondering why the package was remained untraced. Finally, I found the customer service number and gave the number to Jos when he came back home. Jos spoke with one of the customer service shortly after that, and got a new Italian code number to trace the package in Italy. He was also informed that instead of handled by PosteItalia, the package was handled by an Italian Int’l Courier Service called DPD.
We were so happy with the information, immediately googled for DPD site to find their phone number. The next challenge was when Jos calling the phone number and a female voice on the other side said,”Pronto…..bla…bla…bla….” all in Italian, and we both looked at each other’s face, confused, and started to giggled as we both understood NONE of what she just said.
Jos continued,”Sorry, do you speak English? …yes, yes, English, please?” …paused…,”Oh, OK, thank you,”Jos said again. Actually she said that she would get her colleague who speaks English to talk to Jos, then the conversation continued with the other woman who speaks English, “Yes, hello, can you please help me to trace this package?”..paused..and then Jos repeated it once, this time in a slower speed…,”Yes, I’m looking….for….a…package. Yes,….a…package...from Holland” Laughed….paused….,”Yes from 'Ollanda....I have the code,…paused,…no, the code….of the package…yes,….ok, it’s…....(Jos mentioned the code number in English and the lady repeated in Italian and Jos got confused)…he laughed. The colleague who (the previous lady said) speaks English turned out to speak only a little bit of English.
Frustrated, the conversation continued with some pauses in between…then, “Os!", Jos called me. ”Can you help me with numbers?” he suddenly remembered that I have learned and memorized numbers in Italian. So I whispered the code number one by one in Italian to his ear and he repeated it to the lady, and it worked. She said,” Si,..allora,…….il tuo numero….your telephone bla bla..bla.” In the end Jos understood that she asked for our phone number, and she would be searching for the package based on the code, and would be calling us back to let us know.
About two hours later, she indeed called back. Good news, the package was found. The record said, it was attempted to deliver about a week ago, but delivery failed due to wrong address.
The lady said,”Allora….bla…bla…bla...your addresse….bla…bla…campanello.” Jos half giggling,”Eeee ahahaha???!!” …..,”Allora?? My address?? Oh, no, no! No change address! Yes, same address!”……..paused…..,”Sorry???” Jos asked again. The lady continued,”C’e……bla…bla..campanello?” Jos stunned,”Campanello??” (he turned his head to me), “Ossi? What’s campanello?” ……I lifted my shoulder up and immediately typed on Google Translate….campanello=doorbell….so Jos suddenly said,”Ooooo ya, yaaa, ada, adaaa!; doorbellnya ada, bu." Then for a moment we both looked at each other, and began to laugh when we realized that he just replied to her in bahasa Indonesia.
She continued, “Allora….e tu chiama?...your nah-ma(in thick Italian accent)?" Jos replied," My name? Jos! Johannes Koevoet! J..Jakarta..O...oscar...S...seafood, no, no, J..job...but you say it Yos!...yaaa!" She continued," Ah si,si, Jos....Kuve! Si. allora...campanello, Jos? ....allora.....Inviare al tuo domani casa.” “Casa? Our house?, Jos asked. She replied,"Si...your nah-ma ...campanello..belle..casa...Jos?" Jos said," Oh, yes, you mean my name at the doorbell! It's Jos Koevoet, yes, it's written there."
Then she repeated the same sentence,”Si, si.. ….allora…...domani ….inviare...nove al quindici…tomorrow …nove …uno.. cinque.” I said to Jos’ ear,” Nove uno cinque in English. "Nine one five?” Jos repeated. She said,”Si, uno cinque…. quindici!” Hey, quindici is fifteen ,Jos,” I said……...after a while we were thinking hard tried to absorb and digest all the foreign words….., “Oh, ok, tomorrow, deliver between nine to fifteen? Nine to three o’clock, you mean?” Jos asked. “Si, ora…nove ….tre, si, si!,” she replied. "Ok, grazie, ...allora,... ciao, ciao!" we replied happily then the phone hung up.
At the end we finally understood each other, that the courier of DPD will deliver the package to our house tomorrow, between nine to three o’clock, and she wanted to make sure that the name Johannes C. Koevoet (Jos) is stated/printed/written near the door bell / on the mailbox, so the courier will see it, otherwise he might think it's a wrong address again.
We both laughed so hard for quite sometime repeating all those words and the way Jos replied in bahasa!!! Allora!! Campanello!! Si, si! Hahahaha. It was a lot of fun! And the next morning at 11am, the courier of DPD brought a big relieve to us ....the missing wallet has been found!! God is good all the time!
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