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Rain, sleet or snow—or even pregnancy—hasn't stopped Jorina Bryant from delivering mail and packages to the 700 residential mailboxes on her Upper Marlboro route.

But the Fort Washington mail carrier doesn't complain about the hard day's work.

"I enjoy what I do," she said. "Every day is different, and I've never had a dull day. The atmosphere is family-like; we help each other out."

Bryant grew up wanting to be a postmaster like her father, Michael Belger. For the past six or seven years he has been a postmaster in Charlotte, N.C. He started working for the Post Office in Washington, D.C. after high school graduation and is now nearing retirement, Bryant said.

In 1997, she took the first step toward that goal when she became a part-time flex postal employee at the Largo-Kettering Post Office in Upper Marlboro. In 2003 she became a mail carrier with her own mail route and is currently training to become a carrier supervisor.

As a carrier supervisor she would no longer deliver mail but instead supervise the mail carriers in the Post Office and observe them on their routes. Carrier supervisors are two positions away from being postmasters.

Her day begins at 8 a.m. and ends around 5 p.m., when she comes home to her three children, Chanel, 10, Kayla, 8, and Jamar, 5.

Bryant spends the first three hours on her feet in the Post Office sorting mail for her route and putting each piece in its labeled slot in the four-tiered, three-sided station.

Postmaster Yvette Wong tells them to go fast; "18 and eight" per minute. This means they put 18 letters and eight flats – or catalogues – in each slot per minute, Bryant said.

Each day she delivers about 642 letters, 1,001 catalogues, 20 packages and mail pre-sorted by a machine.

Once the mail is in the slot, she takes it out – beginning with the bottom left slot of the bottom tier – and moves each stack to the right, rubber bands it and places it upright in trays.

Bryant then rolls her parcel hamper to her station, holding packages sorted by a clerk. She loads the Pennysavers and mail trays into the hamper. Then she uses her scanner – which tracks her location – and scans two of the 10 points. The next seven are on her route and the final one is at the Post Office.

She rolls the parcel hamper out the back door to the curb, backs her mail truck up to the curb, and unloads the mail into the truck.

After buckling up, Bryant sets out on deliveries for the next five or six hours.

"People send out a lot of important stuff," Bryant said. "You can't send everything by fax or e-mail. It's important that we get important letter packages to their destination."

Some days, deliveries are challenging. Bryant has been chased by dogs and sometimes deals with difficult customers. But she prefers a business delivery route because she interacts with customers.

"We work hard and appreciate our customers," Bryant said. "The number one thing is customer satisfaction. We're doing the best we can daily."

She said the public often doesn't understand the difficulty of her job.

"It's not easy; we have to remember a lot, like who gets packages today," Bryant said. "We don't want to make mistakes. We also risk our lives to handle the mail and packages. They could contain anything, like anthrax."

Right now, the volume of mail is down, but it will pick up in the winter months, she said. It is also down because of the internet; people are cutting back on mail.

"I don't think any of us like it when it's slow," Bryant said. "We like to stay busy."

In the winter months – with snow and sleet – mail truck tires are chained, and mail is still delivered.

"We always deliver the mail; in rain, sleet and snow," Bryant said. "They put chains on our tires and we slide down the street. We get the mail out. I can't move my fingers and toes and that's the worst, but you get used to it. When it's hot, you don't even feel hot."

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.

In honor of Labor Day, The Gazette profiled several people who play a role in day-to-day functions in the county. For all the profiles, go to www.gazette.net.