Journey to Bundaberg Part 3

My period of working at the capsicum farm was not long. 3 days. It was short because the market price for it was low, and my boss was not willing to sell it for any cheaper than a certain price. It ended up that we as casual workers had to stop working by 9 am. 4 hours of work only for the whole day. In me and my friends’ mind, we were not happy because not only could we not work for long hours, the boss told us that there won’t be any work until next Monday. And it was Wednesday that day. Another uncertain day I would have tomorrow I thought. Another one.

I really loved working at the capsicum farm. It’s easy and the boss’s nice, kind and generous. How I wished I could work there longer. That day and the next few days I prayed that the farm would have a better market price.

The next day, I got a work, a work at a sweet potatoes farm. The farm is called MRB farm. Of 8 peoples’ working there, 1 came from Istonia and 3 came from South Korea and 3 were from Japan, and I alone a Malaysian. Basically, this farm has huge massive wide lands for different types of crops, including watermelon and zucchini. But the sweet potatoes farm is the biggest. On the first day, I did planting, weeding, plucking and packing. Planting is surprisingly easy as compared to last year. The one I had last year was a contract job – 1 meter is 12 cent, and I suffered horribly. This farm does not offer contract job to planting and any other jobs except vining. In this farm, we do not have fix work for each day. On some days, we did plucking and packing; and on some days, we did vining, planting and plucking. So our work basically rotated around these few work.

Weeding is one of the simplest jobs ever. Basically we just need to walk along a row and pull out unwanted plants around it. There was one day that we weeded for the whole day, from 6-12pm. No… it’s not good. Thinking at first that it would be a pleasant day ahead, we went exhausted from pulling those stubborn weed below.

Staying a life as a backpacker has given a wholesome experience about why people want to backpack, how they go about backpacking without bringing much money on them, what keeps them motivated to go about fruitpicking without feeling bored, and what brings them here in Australia. There are the good and the bad things about backpacking. And I am glad that my arrival this year has offered me many opportunities to see the world, the good side of Bundaberg than the bad, to see how our never-fair racial-discriminated world is acting towards the not-so-privileged ones. And I have met new friends: friends who helped me on the farm, friends who celebrated my birthday, friends who cooked for me, friends who offered help when help is needed, friends who bring back watermelon, and friends who forgive me for splashing water on him during work. It’s been such an experiential unexpected journey to be at Bundaberg this year. And I praised and thanked Jesus for it.