Dear Prospective Volunteer: Please give this letter to your family and/or friends and ask them to hold on to

it for as long as you are in South Africa.

January, 2015
Dear Families and Friends,
Greetings from the South Africa Desk at the U.S. Peace Corps in Washington, D.C.! It is with great pleasure that we
welcome you to the Peace Corps circle of friendship. We receive many questions from family members and friends
of Volunteers about life in South Africa, so we would like to offer you advice and assistance in advance.
1. Irregular Communication. (Please see #3 for the mailing address to Peace Corps' office in Pretoria, the capital
of South Africa) Mail from the United States to Pretoria is fairly reliable; however, mail service within South Africa
is not as efficient and reliable. There is enormous variation in the time it takes for mail and packages to arrive at
Volunteers sites. Generally, Volunteers find that they receive mail and packages from the United States two to four
weeks after it has been sent. The same is true for sending mail from South Africa. Of course, there are exceptional
cases in which a letter or a package might arrive within a shorter period or be substantially delayed. Some mail
simply may not arrive. The destination of mail for Volunteers is as varied as the length of time it takes for mail to
arrive.
We suggest that in your first letters you ask the Volunteer to give an estimate of how long it takes for him/her to
receive your letters, and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. Also,
try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he/she has missed one.
Being a Peace Corps Volunteer is a rewarding experience; however, there will also be times when Volunteers may
write home telling of their "war" stories. Letters might describe recent illnesses, frustration with work, isolation,
lack of resources, etc. While the subject matter may be good reading material, it can often be misinterpreted on the
home front. Volunteers have a wonderful support network in-country that includes counterparts and community
members at their site, other Peace Corps Volunteers, as well as Peace Corps/South Africa staff. The Peace Corps
highest priority is maintaining the health and safety of every Volunteer. Peace Corps/South Africa maintains a
medical unit in Pretoria with two full-time medical officers, who care for the Volunteers primary health care needs.
If the Volunteer requires medical care that is not available in South Africa, he/she will be medically evacuated to the
United States. Fortunately, these are rare circumstances.
If for some reason your communication pattern is broken and you do not hear from your family member, you may
want to contact the South Africa Desk or the Counseling and Outreach Unit (COU) at Peace

Corps Washington at 202-692-1470 or alternatively at 1-855-855-1961 and

selecting option 2, or entering the extension 1470. These numbers may be
used 24 hours a day. Also, in the case of an emergency at home (death in the family, sudden critical
illness, etc.), please do not hesitate to call COU immediately, so that a message can be sent to the Volunteer.
2. Telephone Calls. The telephone system in South Africa is relatively good and service in and out of Pretoria to
the United States is mostly reliable. In the interior of the country, where most of the Volunteers are located, phones
are fewer in number and of decreased reliability. Volunteers do not have residential phones; however, most
Volunteers choose to buy cell phones or use public phones to make and receive international calls. They will be able

to inform you of the actual telephone numbers and the reliability of telephone service once they arrive at their
permanent sites in the country.
The South Africa Desk maintains regular contact with the Peace Corps office in Pretoria through phone calls and email. However, these communication lines are reserved for business only and cannot be used to relay personal
messages. All communication between family members and the Volunteer should be done via international mail,
personal phone calls, or e-mail. Many Volunteers are able to access e-mail at Internet cafes in larger cities and
towns on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on their location.
3. Sending packages. Parents and Volunteers like to send and receive care packages through the mail.
Unfortunately, sending packages can be a frustrating experience for all involved due to occasional thefts and heavy
customs taxes. You may want to try to send inexpensive items through the mail, but there is no guarantee that these
items will arrive. Even though many Volunteers choose to get local post office boxes, you may also use the
following address to send letters and/or packages:
Name of Volunteer, PCV
U. S. Peace Corps
PO Box 9536
Pretoria 0001
SOUTH AFRICA
It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes or bubble envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be
taxed more frequently and might pose as a greater target for theft. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline
tickets), DHL (an express mail service) does operate in Pretoria. If you choose to send items through DHL, you
must address the package to:
Country Director
c/o: U. S. Peace Corps
126 Verdoorn Street
Sunnyside 0028
Pretoria
SOUTH AFRICA
The phone number for the Peace Corps office in South Africa is (27) 12-344-4255, as DHL will need this
information. If you send the item to the Country Director, no liability can be assumed. For more information
about DHL, please call their toll free number, 1-800-CALL-DHL, or visit their web site at www.dhl.com. Other
courier services may operate in Pretoria - DHL is only one possibility.
We hope this information is helpful to you during the time your family member or friend is serving as a Peace
Corps Volunteer in South Africa. We understand how frustrating it is to communicate with your family member
overseas and we appreciate your using this information as a guideline. Please feel free to contact us at the South
Africa Desk in Washington, D.C. if you have any further questions. Our phone number is 1-855-855-1961, ext.
2197, or locally, 202-692-2197.
Sincerely,

Gregory Pachuta
South Africa Country Desk Officer

202-692-2197