Farmwork (1)

 I think we have a somewhat romanticised idea of what being a farmer means. Back home, I used to hear from students or friends that their dream is to retire and be a farmer. Grow crops, not having a care in the world. After 3 days of being a farmhand, I can assure you that it is anything but rainbows and butterflies. I have never felt such pain in my life. I have never known some of these muscles that are aching now.

I had thought that I would end the day tired. I see myself fitness-wise as slightly above average - I do weights once in a while, I swim/ run at least once a week, my BMI is in the healthy range (not obese nor sickly thin). I had done 2 years of NS, clearly remembering the field camp and SOC days. I thought I would end the day tired, I didn't see myself being completely wasted. After my first day, I was in so much pain in so many areas of my body I didn't think I would be able to get out of bed the next day. I was contemplating sneding a message to the boss telling him how he was right and this was really tough; perhaps even too tough for me. The boss had me picking strawberries the entire day. From 7.30am to 2.30pm, with a 40 min lunch break in between. 6.5 hours of being on my knees, waddling through the strawberry lines, looking for strawberries that are at least 80% ripe. When my knees started to hurt, I stood up to move between the lines, back hunched, using my hands to sweep the strawberry plants to search for fruits to pick. When my back started to hurt, I went down on my knees again. This repeated itself throughout the day. It was truly back-breaking work. 

One thing I could not quite understand is why the boss would put me down for picking after lunch. We had 9 experienced pickers and 1 complete novice that day. He chose to keep the novice in the fields, together with 3 other experienced, professional, Vietnamnese pickers while sending the rest of the workers into the shed for quality control and packing. I mean, he knew my speed (which was not fast, ok, it was the slowest). He knew it was my first day ever picking. He knew it was going to be tough for me and from a business perspective, not the most ideal for him given the rate at which I was going. But still, he was like no yeah, Weng you continue to pick. On hindsight, perhaps he could have been pushing me to do max to see if I would drop out tomorrow and decide this is not for me (I did think about it). The lady boss dropped me a text later that evening giving me advice to take panadol to help with the pain, and to take another dose of panadol the next morning (if I was planning to come in). 

I went back the next day (Sunday). I needed his letter of employment for MOE. hahaha