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The Audio Long Read

The Balkans’ alternative postal system: an ad-hoc courier’s tale

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Across this fractured region, informal networks rule. So if you need to send something, ask someone who’s already going that way. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:09.3

Welcome to The Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture,

0:14.3

politics and new thinking. For the text version of this and all our long reads,

0:18.2

go to TheGuardian.com for a slash long read.

0:21.8

The Balkan's alternative postal system, an ad hoc courier's tale by Ile Gashi.

0:32.4

Some names have been changed.

0:40.0

It was still dark as I walked down Petrachia street towards the music academy,

0:45.3

disoriented and confused in the early March Sarajevo morning.

0:51.0

From the bell tower of the cathedral right around the corner, six o'clock rang out.

0:58.8

With the last toll of the church bell, the irritating sound of a call pierced my sleepy mind.

1:07.3

Hey, where are you? Radha sounded angry. I glanced at my phone, 602 AM.

1:17.5

Damn cathedral. Had God slept in this morning too?

1:22.7

What's the problem? I'm only two minutes late. I said getting angry myself.

1:28.6

At that moment, I saw her right at the corner of Stadler and Pellevanoša,

1:34.1

exactly where we'd agreed, squatting in front of her car. She spotted me too.

1:40.4

We both put our phones down. Come on, hurry up. She called to me.

1:47.6

Radha doesn't like it when her passengers are late, and not because she can't be patient.

1:53.3

When her job requires patience, she will wait for hours if she has to. But not today.

2:00.5

Radha was on a very tight schedule. At 605 AM, just above Parkusša, we picked up a package.

2:08.6

At Dobryňa 625 AM, a young guy was waiting for us on his way to work in a hotel on the Albanian coast.

2:16.9

Then, at 630 AM in the Mojmolo neighborhood, across from the King Fardmask, the biggest in Sarajevo,

2:24.8

a gift from Saudi Arabia. We picked up a doctor who often takes this ride.

...

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