I received a package from P last week, which I opened over the weekend. He's one of the Africans that I have exchanged a few emails with recently. A few months ago he sent beaded jewelry from there and asked that I send money or tech gadgets (digital camera, USB drive, etc.) to him, but also money would be okay too, because he can buy locally.

I sent a little money to him and told him not to send the seeds as he was planning. The new package contains the seeds ... and some passengers. There were about 20 of some type of small, black beetle crawling around in the envelope, most of which were in the smaller envelope that contained a type of bean. Hope I squished them all. The last thing I need is the CA Dept of Ag knocking on our door because they traced an infestation of devastating African beetles to our house.

He enclosed a letter as well. One thing in the letter was a mention that I "promised" to send him a camera or money for it. I did no such thing. I wrote that I would look for a used one or send him a little money, which I did. He's expecting me to send $700 to him. Like we have that money just sitting around.

I also have written about J, another similar African, who's expecting me to send money for his college tuition. I wrote to tell him no. He wrote back that he didn't mean to offend and I haven't heard from him since.