c. 2007 Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. _ Being a self-anointed goodwill ambassador the past 12 years was affordable and easy for Fred MacLeod, Shannon Brown and her husband, Lance Cole.

Then came postal rate increases and the end of a special low rate that allowed people to ship printed material in a 66-pound bag overseas by boat. Now the bags _ called M-bags _ can go air mail only, and at up to nearly four times more than the sea rate that MacLeod, Brown and Cole had used.

MacLeod, 68, of Portland, laments that he no longer can afford to send books each month to a grade school teacher and a professor in Ul’yanovsk, Russia.

The “books I sent in May were the last that I can send,” he said. “I can’t afford to send books at over $90” a shipment.

Brown and Cole worked with a U.S.-based nonprofit for eight years to ship four boxes weekly _ more than 50,000 books total _ to Malawi in southeast Africa. The former Peace Corps volunteers started shipping boxes in 1995, a year after returning from Malawi.

In April, they sent 70 boxes, weighing 20 to 50 pounds each, to beat the rate change. They haven’t shipped any books since.

Yvonne Yoerger, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, said low demand forced elimination of the ship-by-sea economy rate, which accounted for 2.7 percent of U.S. Postal Service international mail in 2006.

“The global network of surface transportation is decreasing,” she said.

Now the only available option through the Postal Service is the more expensive air mail.

“We have been getting calls from different charitable organizations,” she said. “Many are religious-affiliated groups that send books to set up libraries in developing countries. I would say that’s predominately the largest group we’ve heard from.”

The M-Bag, described by MacLeod as a heavy plastic bag with a drawstring, is for printed material only and has a 66-pound restriction. Allowed are books, catalogs, commercial advertising, directories, journals, magazines, newspapers, periodicals and some promotional matter. None of what is sent can be related to an invoice or personal correspondence.

M-bags also are used by businesses, although rate changes probably will have less impact on business customers.

“There are still surface shipping options available for businesses, for bulk mailers,” Yoerger said. “Businesses work out their own customized agreement.”

Receipts provided by MacLeod show that his most recent shipment, sent by air mail in June, was $134.30 _ $43.45 for a 10-pound, 1.8-ounce bag of books; and $90.85 for a 22-pound, 11-ounce bag of books.

By comparison, under the economy rate, a September 2006 M-bag shipment was $27.30 for a 25-pound, 5.4-ounce bag of books.

Brown and Cole, also of Portland, won’t use air mail. Brown said they are working with former Peace Corps volunteers to send books in a shipping container in late September. She said the container will hold up to 800 medium-size boxes totaling about 25,000 pounds. It will cost about $8,000, she said, and take six weeks to get to Lilongwe, capitol of Malawi.

“With the shipping container, you really have to be concerned about the infrastructure in the country and who you get to distribute the books,” she said.

By U.S. mail, shipments go to the local post office where the books are addressed, Brown said. Containers deliver only to the dock, she said.

“So, this is going to be a big experiment for us,” Brown said.

MacLeod said the books are about U.S. history and the democratic process. Some are for fourth- and fifth-grade students; others go to a professor at a Russian air force academy.

MacLeod said he buys books _ up to 25 pounds a visit _ for about $25 at a used bookstore in Portland.

“I thought, for $40, $45 a month, I’m doing a lot of good will here between the two countries,” he said.

And, he feels, the rate increase is leaving many others adrift.

“There’s people like me, who have been trying to build up the American image abroad, who are just out of luck.”

(Wade Nkrumah writes for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.)

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