Journey to Bundaberg Part 2

We stayed at Lyelta Motel first as there was no vacancy at Workers and Divers. I actually stayed with an old bloke in a dorm room. There’s supposed to have only double-decker beds but surprisingly, I saw an empty double bed in there. I did not sleep on the latter, afraid that it could be for someone else. This bloke, my roommate, to whom was called Phil was a funny lame lazy bloke. Why? Simply because he never or very seldom showered, very seldom go out of the room, jobless, had a strong country aussie slang, not talkative, not disturbing, and most surprisingly, caring person. Because I had work the next day, I usually slept very early, as early as 9pm. And guess what, he would ask me if he wanted the light to be switched off and the sound turned down. Lols. See how caring he was. I always told Miza and Ili that this apek was very weird because he never left the room and lied down on the bed WHOLE day watching tv. How interesting and weird!

(ma, ili's, and miza's room)

Anyway, talking about my job here, sadly, I was jobless the day after I arrived. As much as I knew it was Sunday and there was not going to be many jobs available on that day, I felt a little down because Miza and Ili would be working, on cherry tomatoes farm. Yet, I told myself to not give up. Actually, I brought along my diary with me to jot down what would be happening to me. That night, I asked a lot of questions, thousand and one questions about why God brought me to this place and what He wants me to do and why didn’t I get any job as He has promised, etc etc etc. It was exactly at a silent moment after my whinging that something came into my mind, ‘Stop asking so many questions, listen. Be patient’. It’s interesting to note that each time I am impatient, I was reminded of the simple story Bishop used to tell me about Jesus: His great patience to wait until He came to age of 30 to start preaching, spreading and performing miracles despite the fact that He knows he is the Son of God.

I spent the next day, Sunday reading through some scriptures in the Bible. Someone had a request for me a few days ago, one and the only request is to bring the Bible with me and to read it whenever I am free. I read plenty of stories, but too lazy to write them down. Reflectively, I should be writing something down next time. Ermm, learning to write something down, at least something. The next thing I did was listening to Ipod. As far as my worries still prevailed a little, I like to listen to a more spiritual music. Really loves the song by Emmanuel Worship, ‘God will make a way’. Its first sentence had already struck my heart: no need to worry about yesterday, no need to panic this life you save, something is coming can’t you see it, God will make a way through the desert. I smiled finally. Evening came, and work list for the next day was finally out. The feeling before looking at it was awful. I never liked this kind of thing because you’d never know what you might be doing the next day. Even if you have an awesome job today, you might see yourself in cherry tomatoes farm the next day. Uncertain jobs, that’s what I meant. But when I saw my name under a capsicum farm, I was totally excited and praising God in my heart.

The next three days I worked on the same capsicum farm. Again, the feelings before checking work list I told u remained unpredictable and anticipating. As much as I had surrendered myself to Him, there is a sense of uncertainties as to where He would be bringing me. It’s His plan that is working in me. And I wanted it to be such because I believe He will not let me do things that He knows I can’t do and handle. This peace and comfort were what remained in me. I still read Bible u know though not writing anything down.

Working on a capsicum farm was experiential, interesting and easy. Everyday, I had to wake up at 4am. There would be a van from Workers and Divers to pick me and my friends up. Our work started at 5am everyday. Then, it was still spring, and it was cool in the morning, the perfect time to work. By the way, as summer was approaching, dawn breaks earlier in the morning. Usually, by 4.30a.m., you’ll see the sun starting to shine on ‘beautiful’ plantations in Bundaberg. My job basically was to pick capsicums. As capsicum grows low on ground - probably 12 inches is the highest height a capsicum plant can grow, I had to bend my body down and pluck them and put them in a big bucket. One row of capsicum plantation is probably 200 meters, and I had to drag a bucket of green capsicums along the row. It’s not easy at first to learn how to pick the right capsicums because any capsicum that is too small, a little reddish, or even too greenish would not be acceptable. Yet, it’s interesting to have learnt to identify good capsicums from bad ones. Our boss was a good bloke. He would give us 10 minutes break for each completing row (trust me, my experience had me believed that there’s no boss that would give free break). He is an Italian and hardly speaks good English, not to mention aussie country slang. Aaa… he’s so funny each time he spoke to us. At the end of the first day of work, my leg muscles ached. Very painful because I’d not trained my leg for a long time. Yet the work was great, the money was great, the people were great, and I really loved it.

(me n Jan Beulker - a German fren who worked at the same farm as me, capsicum)