Junk Characters In Message Queue Task

I have a strange situation in an Message queue task in SSIS.
I serialize an object in a C# application and add that to an MSMQ as a string. I also ensure that I set the label to "String Message" so that my Message Queue Task can actually receive the message as a String message to variable.

I created an SSIS package that has an Message Queue listener that feeds into a Script task inside a for-each loop.
For each message that I obtain, I invoke a script task that retrieves the value of the variable and then processes this information.

When I enter the entry into the MSMQ, it goes in perfectly fine (since I also tested retrieving this entry from a C# app). However when I use the same logic on the SSIS package using the Script task, I get junk chinese characters.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Any feedback would be great!

Anup

Here is the code for the script task:
mports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Math
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime

Public Class ScriptMain

Public Sub Main()
Dim statusMessage As String
statusMessage = CType(ReadVariable("ReviewerHealthXmlMessage"), String)
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(statusMessage)
Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success

End Sub

Private Function ReadVariable(ByVal varName As String) As Object
Dim result As Object

Try
Dim vars As Variables
Dts.VariableDispenser.LockForRead(varName)
Dts.VariableDispenser.GetVariables(vars)
Try
result = vars(varName).Value
Catch ex As Exception
Throw ex
Finally
vars.Unlock()
End Try
Catch ex As Exception
Throw ex
End Try

Return result
End Function

Private Sub WriteVariable(ByVal varName As String, ByVal varValue As Object)
Try
Dim vars As Variables
Dts.VariableDispenser.LockForWrite(varName)
Dts.VariableDispenser.GetVariables(vars)
Try
vars(varName).Value = varValue
Catch ex As Exception
Throw ex
Finally
vars.Unlock()
End Try
Catch ex As Exception
Throw ex
End Try
End Sub

End Class