Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Jobs Part 1

Hey guys, just thought I would blog on the variety of jobs that I have done here in Aus.

Job 1
My first job...hmmm...was the easiest, though the money was not enough. My late Australian mother offered to pay me for cleaning her house, just 3 months after I arrived here in Aus. It was 2 days a week, for 2 hours. I think she felt pity on me being the poor student that I was. At least it gave me pocket money and it really felt good to treat my very close friends to a nice expensive dinners with the money that I had accumulated. After sometime, my Aus mother being the nice or embarrassing lady that she was went around her cul-de-sac, telling her neighbours that her Kenyan daughter is willing to earn some money for any job...
Job 2
And so I got my second job. One of the neigbours offered me a babysitting job. This was also a really good job. I think I was really lucky to take care of 3 really nice and well-behaved children. However, sometimes it was really frustrating. The last born, a really cute little boy would run around the cul-de-sac in the nude, so you had to run after him. This family had a pool, so the kids had swimming days, and that little boy would dive into the pool and stay under water for what seemed like an hour but was it like 10 minutes, and I would think to myself, 'if this boy dies what the hell am I going to do?' Luckily he never did.
It happened that my Aus mother became really sick and I had to move out of her home. I quit the babysitting job but kept cleaning my Aus mothers house. I decided to get another job.
Job 3
This was the worst job ever. The only advantage was that the salary was in cash and tax free and transport was ok. I had to take a bus and 2 trains, but that was not a problem.
The job was not that hard but the people who I worked with, the environment was just terrible. So, my third job was in a dog food factory. It was like an 8-10 hour job with a 5 minute tea break and a 30 minute lunch break. So, I would be standing like for 7 hours or 9 hours. Anyway, my position was sealing the dog food and I was never good at it. The women were always telling me how my sealing was crap and were always trying to show me how to do it. So, it was like 5 women, showing me how to seal in 5 different ways. Yet, they expected me to seal perfectly through all that confusion.
There was this woman, she was very talkative and that was the reason that she was not liked by the other women. The other women tried to instill their hatred of that woman in me from day one. They would tell me not to listen to what she says, they would tell me that if I sat with or next to her during the tea and lunch breaks, I would face their wrath. So, what I did during my lunch breaks; I would sit on my own and keep to myself. Their hatred for that woman escalated that one of the women threw dog food on her face.
Then the environment of the factory- It was a mabati factory, it had a musty smell, slaughtered Kangaroos would hang from the ceiling waiting to minced, Kangaroo blood was all over the floor mixed with rain water because the roofs were leaking, the place was dark, everyone was gloomy. Going home was another problem. Walking was so hard because of standing for 7 or 9 hours a day. I would walk with my legs apart and I would really stink. In the end I looked like syphilitic street kid. I could not take it any more, so I quit. Then came more bad news. My Aus mother passed way, so there was no cleaning for me to do. I was then jobless for like 3 weeks.
Job 4
So, I got a job at an egg factory as an egg packer. This was another frustrating job. The supervisor make the eggs machine work like twice as fast, so the eggs would just accumulate and break and again everyone would be shouting at you telling you you are not working as fast, the eggs would get onto your clothes. Getting to and from was a problem. There were no buses in that area, so I would catch a taxi every morning at 6 am and every evening at 6pm. I was really wasting money. This was a full-time job by the way, which I did during the summer holidays. Getting home as I mentioned above, was a problem until this nice Macedonian woman offered to be giving me lifts home. I ended up leaving the job when I went back to school. The employers told me that I needed to be there full time, so I quit.
Job 5
Then I became a kitchen-hand at a stadium's conference facilities. My position included serving the main meal and dessert, clearing and washing dishes. By the way, we would serve like over 2000 guests.
The serving process was so rushed and people would end up pouring food everywhere. The process was also hushed because the conference/dining area was next to the kitchen. The head chef would tell us, 'You wouldn't want them to know that there's a kitchen here, would you now?'
The job was really hard (imagine clearing and wahing 2000 dinner plates, spoons and forks, 2000 tea cups and desserts plates) but fun as I was working with some 2 Kenyan guys. We would finish like at 4am. Again there was no transport. Lucky for me the 2 kenyan guys made friends with some Iraqi guy who they asked for transport help to the train station. The Iraqi guys car, was driven by his hippie girlfriend, a woman who was extra jumpy and happy. At the back seat was this big white hairy dog, that was panting non-stop, then there was dog hair everywhere and the car was a mkebe, probably a 1965-75 small car. You can imagine the journey to the train station, extremely uncomfortable-you are squeezed in the back seat with 2 guys and a dog, you don't want dog hair to get on your clothes, so it's like you are sitting in the air, the dog is panting like hell, the dog breath was suspended in the air, mixed with the smell of incense from the hippie chics clothes. The car sounded like it was going to die any minute and the hippie chic would jump and turn her head to face us, asking silly questions. I was like thinking, 'woman please keep your eyes on the road.' To make things even worse, I had to make small talk (which I hate as I am reserved/introverted), then the small talk was coupled with awkward silences. At the end, the awkward silences were the best option.
Even after catching a train, I still needed to catch a taxi. I would earn like $80 and would spend $20-$30 on the taxi, which was very frustrating. It wasn't long before I quit this job as well.

Enough of my blabbing. Take care. Cheers

5 comments:

Orkoiyot said...

ROFL(!!!)@ "...then the small talk was coupled with awkward silences. At the end, the awkward silences were the best option" and also the sitting in the air to avoid getting dog hair on your clad. Much needed laughter, i must say!

I guess your patience & tolerance levels have increased million-fold.

Its as great as always hearing from you. So are you currently working?

POTASH said...

Lol...okay i had checkad and dissed you a major one on the dog food gig but blogger has messed my comment...oops. can't type it again.
well but anyway, in life yo uhave to begin at the bottom...sometimes like in your case...down dirty.

v-key said...

@Kibet, yes i am currently working, look for Jobs Part 2 blog.

@Potash... I always get dissed by people(family members included) when I tell them I worked in a dog factory...

Chatterly said...

This post is simply hilarious...the thing junguz have with their dogs, surely i dont think i will ever understand!
big lol at big hairy white dog panting nonstop and sitting in the air!

Anonymous said...

I'm in th US and probably don't understand how hard getting a job in Oz is, forgive my ignorance. 7 jobs in 5 years? I truly hope you don't fall into the same rut as some pals I see here. Graduating and having no internship experience in your major that only leads to frustrating job searches. Worst part is some pals have resigned to menial jobs ... after graduating!

Keep striving, all the best.