Go BANANAS
Truly, madly, deeply.. absolutely bananas. After another laidback week in Cairns when we decided to turn down a promising job offer at Gilligan’s, the Ritz of all backpackers.. being, I guess, a bit over and done with the work on the party scenes and the boozing backpackers. Ha ha, go serious! Anyways, after another week in Cairns.. we did something that we had never done before, left the dazzling city life behind and became soul mates with bananas at one of the Tully’s hundred banana farms. I’m still serious :D On Friday morning we checked into the famous Hotel Tully, in the afternoon filled in the contract and promised to love and cherish all bananas we were going to see the week after, and 
Monday morning at 5:45 jumped into the ‘banana bus’ with other ten fellow banana pickers, dressed in the dirtiest clothes and rubber boots. The 8-hour workday started no sooner or later than 6:35 and the first task we got to do was sorting already used banana bags to see which ones were good enough to be thrown away.. oops, to be used again I wanted to say :D Done with the bags, we lined up at the conveyer belt where good and bad bananas were floating in the water and needed to be sorted out before the bunches got into the hands of the evil banana packers, who became twice as evil when they found bad ones coming hand in hand with the good ones. And that happened with a 50-50 probability as half of the times they were evil enough to ‘screw’ the belt at the speed of 100 km/h, which left us just about enough time to break the bunches but no time to sort them out. Obviously, because the only thing we were shown ten million times over and over again was where the breaking point was. No, not ours’ but bananas’. Nicole, with 14 years of banana experience: ‘See that bunch? Break it here. Breaking point. And here. Breaking point. See that? Breaking point. Yes? Breaking point. No? Breaking point. Brrrreaking point!’ By the end of the day we were soaking wet and ‘blessed’ with the worst backache, but if you think we quit, you are wrong, because we went back the day after and after and after again, till on Friday we were moved from the shed to the paddock and given a 2-hour training course on how to strangle.. pardon me, string banana trees to help them through the storms of the coming wet season. And that, my dear friends, is a whole science (fiction) and a special technique. To hear more, please call Nicole on 1800-B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Friday, 3 pm, after 40 hours of hard work with more bananas than I’ve ever seen in my life, we resign the contract and promise we will love and cherish the bananas.. but only as long as they are on our dining table, ripe and ready.. small amounts preferred. Back at the hotel, we throw out the dirty uniform, jump into the shower, jump out, grab our three bags and hit the road the same night back to Cairns. Tully, that is written in to the Australian history as the wettest town Down Under, is written into our mind as truly, madly, deeply bananas, now and forever :) An experience that I’ll never forget and never regret, a week that makes part of my Aussie trip, and a job that has probably taught me more than many others. To appreciate proper work conditions, clean office environment, enjoy lunch breaks that don’t finish on half bite with a bell that reminds you that you gotta get back to work. To appreciate after work chats with colleagues, and not to leave the office at the speed of gone in 60 seconds as if an earthquake was emerging (because I hate my job). To use my brains, and not my physique, to accomplish and fulfill targets which are not set in the number of bananas that pass my conveyer belt every day. To appreciate my phone and my PC and regular team meetings as methods of communication and great brainstorming, and not to yell at each other from one end of the belt to the other. To drive a car, and not a tractor. To live without a continuous fear of snakes, spiders and big green ugly frogs that crawl over my workplace. And most of all, to enjoy my job and remember that the day I don’t have fun at work, will be the day I quit. And to respect all those other people that feel the same way about what they do, no matter if it’s computer science or bananas.
And now.. go bananas!!! :)
Monday morning at 5:45 jumped into the ‘banana bus’ with other ten fellow banana pickers, dressed in the dirtiest clothes and rubber boots. The 8-hour workday started no sooner or later than 6:35 and the first task we got to do was sorting already used banana bags to see which ones were good enough to be thrown away.. oops, to be used again I wanted to say :D Done with the bags, we lined up at the conveyer belt where good and bad bananas were floating in the water and needed to be sorted out before the bunches got into the hands of the evil banana packers, who became twice as evil when they found bad ones coming hand in hand with the good ones. And that happened with a 50-50 probability as half of the times they were evil enough to ‘screw’ the belt at the speed of 100 km/h, which left us just about enough time to break the bunches but no time to sort them out. Obviously, because the only thing we were shown ten million times over and over again was where the breaking point was. No, not ours’ but bananas’. Nicole, with 14 years of banana experience: ‘See that bunch? Break it here. Breaking point. And here. Breaking point. See that? Breaking point. Yes? Breaking point. No? Breaking point. Brrrreaking point!’ By the end of the day we were soaking wet and ‘blessed’ with the worst backache, but if you think we quit, you are wrong, because we went back the day after and after and after again, till on Friday we were moved from the shed to the paddock and given a 2-hour training course on how to strangle.. pardon me, string banana trees to help them through the storms of the coming wet season. And that, my dear friends, is a whole science (fiction) and a special technique. To hear more, please call Nicole on 1800-B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Friday, 3 pm, after 40 hours of hard work with more bananas than I’ve ever seen in my life, we resign the contract and promise we will love and cherish the bananas.. but only as long as they are on our dining table, ripe and ready.. small amounts preferred. Back at the hotel, we throw out the dirty uniform, jump into the shower, jump out, grab our three bags and hit the road the same night back to Cairns. Tully, that is written in to the Australian history as the wettest town Down Under, is written into our mind as truly, madly, deeply bananas, now and forever :) An experience that I’ll never forget and never regret, a week that makes part of my Aussie trip, and a job that has probably taught me more than many others. To appreciate proper work conditions, clean office environment, enjoy lunch breaks that don’t finish on half bite with a bell that reminds you that you gotta get back to work. To appreciate after work chats with colleagues, and not to leave the office at the speed of gone in 60 seconds as if an earthquake was emerging (because I hate my job). To use my brains, and not my physique, to accomplish and fulfill targets which are not set in the number of bananas that pass my conveyer belt every day. To appreciate my phone and my PC and regular team meetings as methods of communication and great brainstorming, and not to yell at each other from one end of the belt to the other. To drive a car, and not a tractor. To live without a continuous fear of snakes, spiders and big green ugly frogs that crawl over my workplace. And most of all, to enjoy my job and remember that the day I don’t have fun at work, will be the day I quit. And to respect all those other people that feel the same way about what they do, no matter if it’s computer science or bananas.And now.. go bananas!!! :)
posted by kairike at 7:08 PM
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