A Series of Fortunate Events

Sitting in bed after a delicious meal, full and tired – but happy. Today was our first day off since the 17^th of October. The first chance I have to sit down and put all the stories I have been writing in my head for the last three weeks.

I left off on somewhat of a negative note – no work, overheating car, hot and bothered. So I am all the more excited to finally be writing down our series of fortunate events…

Adios, Hot Momma

All the finger-crossing, knocking-on-wood, hoping-and-praying or mechanical tricks could not save our perfectly equipped but mechanically challenged (to put it nicely) van that we lovingly dubbed Hot Momma. She spent some time at Darren’s (our trusty mechanic here in Katherine), who did everything in his power (except fix the engine for 3000$) to cool her down. The last resorts were some bottles of liquid stuff that is supposed to seal leaks from the inside – to no avail. Her temper(ature) just kept rising every time we took her out.

But due to another very fortunate event (more specifics later), we moved into a real room two weeks ago and decided to try our luck at selling her. Since we never really got the chance to love her, the way a traveler should love his/her home on wheels, that decision came easy. We put an ad up on gumtree.com and two days later met up with a Korean couple who had just arrived in Australia and had realized that having an own means of transportation makes life so much easier. They did not seem interested in all the cool stuff I showed them in and around the van – and just remarked on how camping experienced we must be. Then they test drove it around the block… or more like Moritz test drove it for them, because he didn’t seem to know how to drive a manual car. Hmmm… She was more interested in inviting me to a cup of ice cream in the supermarket (which she visits every day). The second test drive was more of a test hobble hobble croak hobble hobble croak. He tried and decided he needed a bit more practice.

The next day, we brought them Hot Momma and said our goodbyes.

Believe me, we felt like complete jerks and our conscience was killing us. I mean, we know how it feels to be sold a dud. We have already accepted that karma will get to us and we will probably be born as ants in our next life, only to be fried on the pavement by a kid with a looking glass. But oh well… Given our situation – no money and shitty car – and theirs – too much money and no car (and no clue about cars or driving whatsoever) – it also kind of felt like fate was throwing us a bone, here in Katherine, NT.

(New) Wheels Keep On Turning

Although we were alright without a car and knew that people would give us a ride into town every once in a while if we needed to, by some strange coincidence, we ended up with a new set of wheels within the week. One of our fellow shed-workers decided he had had enough of the mangoes and booked a flight to Nepal (jealous!). Once again, the puzzle pieces matched. Us – a little bit more money, no car – him – enough money, car. So he sold us his ‘95 Holden Commodore Acclaim station wagon for 600$. It looks like it belongs onto a junk yard (though there might actually be more attractive vehicles there), but the V6 engine still roars and took us to 140km/h in a flash – without overheating! Of course, it has a few questionable character traits… Such as a trunk that doesn’t stay open without a stick holding it up, a glove compartment that falls into your lap when you open it, the fabric of the ceiling held in place by thumb tacks and a crack or two in the windshield and a seemingly endless amount of dust and dirt left by the previous owner. But the one thing we definitely need to get fixed is the driver’s door. The former owner had had a little run in with a post on the sidewalk, while driving under the influence with the door open. It is a bit bent out of shape and doesn’t really open and close as it should. That wouldn’t be too much of a problem, if it weren’t for the window not closing anymore. So at the moment, Moritz gets to climb in over the passenger side or through the window (though when he does it, it does not look quite as cool as in the Dukes of Hazard).

Tomorrow we will take another quick trip into town (now that we can go into town on our own volition and actually be quick) and look for a wrecker that has an extra door lying around.

Our new wheels - still need a name though...

Night And Day OR Hi Ho Hi Ho, It’s Off To Work We Go

One day, about two and a half weeks ago, Moritz came to me with a proposal from Marie, the owner of Manbulloo and our big boss. She offered us a position on the night shift. Doesn’t sound too enticing, huh? Well, in addition to making us the supervisors of the nightshift (meaning more responsibility and a tad bit more money), she would throw in an air-conditioned room rent-free. So, sleeping in the van for 60$/person/week and working during the hottest hours as a packer (Moritz already was supervisor) VS sleeping in a free air-con room and becoming the bosses of the packers…?

I am not much of a night person. So I was a bit nervous about that, but the deal was just too good to pass up.

So now we live in a room that has a bed and a table in it and a hole in the wall. That hole leads into the kitchen, which all the bosses and managers (our neighbors left and right) use. After a few nights with only a standing up bed frame covered with a blanket between us and the sounds and smells of said kitchen, we covered it with a long piece of cardboard (+ the bedframe and blanket). There’s still a couple of centimeters open at the top, a crack that lets in some light, the occasional conversation between bosses or the mouthwatering smell of a steak we could never afford at the moment – but other than that our improvised sliding door works quite well.

The upside to moving into the room next to the kitchen is that we get to use it. A real stove, an oven, a toaster, a toaster-oven, a microwave and a water boiler and even a little room in the freezer – pure luxury after cooking on butane gas burners in the howling wind. And now that we are earning a bit, we’ve been allowing ourselves the occasional piece of meat and more vegetables (that are not carrots). So this week it was a big pack of ground beef and a giant bell pepper. Just to put this in perspective for you – 1,2kg of ground beef cost around 6$ (the absolute cheapest you can buy, usually beef starts at around 13$/kg) and one single red bell pepper cost us almost 5$! That kind of baffled me, being used to three bell peppers for 80 cents in Berlin… But damn, did that Bolognese taste good. And so did the burritos we made for dinner the next day. And the chili con carne the day after that. And I’m sure we will enjoy the tub of frozen chili some day soon as well. Now that we are really working, good food with real nutrients has become essential. Without a few vitamins, minerals and proteins every once in a while, we would probably shrivel up or collapse or something. We do still eat our fair share of instant noodles, canned stuff and toast, but every once in a while I get to enjoy cooking again and we both can get excited about a bell pepper.

An example of one of our "deluxe" dinners - a tiny steak, potatoes, sauteed onions and a salad (cooked by me)

An example of one of our post-work snacks - canned tuna thai curry style with toast and/or rice (cooked by Moritz:"Here you go, honey. Enjoy!")

But to actually find the time and energy to cook (or clean or read or write or watch a movie or…) has become increasingly difficult. A bit over a week ago, we started working at 7pm (before that is was 4pm). The sun starts setting behind the shed, as we make our way to start our shift.

While Moritz was made supervisor before we moved to the night shift, he basically just does his thing. He was brought in to save the day and turn a bunch of lazy and chaotic stackers into a functioning team – with success. He has some quirky characters to keep in check, but it seems to be going quite well.

I, on the other hand, didn’t really know what to expect. All I had seen of Carol’s job (my supervisor on the day shift), was that she ran around a lot. And after a day of following her footsteps and getting trained in the job, I knew why. My responsibilities range from making sure all the materials are there – providing stickers for the machines, cleaning these machines, lugging boxes of inlets from storage to the tables, having band aids on the ready etc. – to making sure the process of getting the mangoes into the boxes runs smoothly – keeping an eye on the graders and watching that they throw away the bad stuff (and only bad stuff), coordinating with the quality controller (another Berliner girl) who checks the packed boxes, moving around the packers so the bins don’t overflow etc. I also coordinate the clean up, lug around big blue crates of mangoes to bring back to the sizing machine, stand by the conveyor belt, examine the trays and take back the occasional tray to the packer to tell him/her what’s wrong with it. In between I make sure the shed stays tidy, the time sheets are filled out and there is a constant supply of cool drinking water. And finally, I pack. So yes, basically I run around a lot.

We take a 15min break at 9:30, a 30min “lunch” break at midnight and another 15min Smoko between 2:30 and 3:15, depending on how many bins of fruit are left. The last week has been 10-11h of work, meaning up to 12h in the shed. Our muscles are sore, our backs hurt, the soles of my feet protest loudly when I slip on my shoes (though I must say that I am forever grateful for mommy dearest making be buy some good shoes that I would have never ever before bought or worn – they are saving my life! And definitely no longer look like I bought them 2 months ago). We have bruises all over our legs – I have a big fat one that looks like the Australian continent on the top of my thigh from resting boxes of mangoes on it and a few little ones. Moritz’s legs look a little like leopard print from pallet jacks, walking into belts and tables and stuff like that. I spent the last few days working with my wrist bandaged up, because it was getting quite painful to bend (in either direction). And Moritz smashed his thumb with a hammer yesterday. And although it did finally stop bleeding after a few hours, it will probably turn a nice dark shade of purple in the next days.

So you can only imagine how much our bodies are enjoying this evening off, lying in bed, moving nothing but our fingers on the keyboard (and the occasional wave of the hand to get rid of a bug).

But generally, the body can get used to everything. And putting it to the test the way we have been has once again proven this fact. I could have never imagined myself working a night shift, sleeping during the day and doing this 7 days a week. But surprisingly, after a few days, my body clock has done a 180. We wake up in the afternoon – at first automatically between 3pm and 4pm, but lately only thanks to an alarm around 5pm.

Then there’s the question of food… Last week I craved lunch at breakfast time, breakfast after work and it was all very confusing. By now we have cereals at 5:30pm, “real” food at midnight and a snack after work.

And getting errands done – cleaning, laundry, shopping etc. – takes a bit more coordination and planning. A lot of shops close at 5pm (such as the wreckers from which we still need a new car door), so the alarm needs to be set earlier on days we have to head into town. Laundry has to be thrown in the second we finish work, so the few pieces of clothing dedicated to being thrown away after this job can dry till the next shift. And today, our first evening off, was spent finally cleaning up our one table covered in ¾ kitchen and ¼ bathroom.

Only actual “chill time” suffers a bit. I haven’t done yoga in ages, though it would probably do me quite good right now. I am still reading the same book as 2 weeks ago. And our series is progressing in half episode intervals – half an episode at breakfast and half after work ;) And every second day I (and my tired limbs) wish I could just stay in bed for a little while longer…

But work is work and work is good. Another day another (200) dollar(s) ;) And every time it hurts just a bit too much or I just don’t want to get out of bed or I want to curse them mangoes and Northern Territory and the lot, I remind myself that one measly night of work here might mean a few beautiful days traveling Asia. And that is motivation enough.

Sunrises, Bugs, & Rain (for lack of a better title)

An upside to working the night shift is the previously unimaginable amount of sunrises I have experienced in the last weeks. By the time I get out of the shower, the sky behind our container (have I mentioned that our room is in a big blue container) turns all shades of cotton candy. The outline of mango trees on the paddock is still gray, then slowly the colors emerge and we listen to the world waking up, as the still of the night slowly fades. The birds that used to wake us up are now wakened by us. And by the time we lock ourselves into our dark, cold cave to sleep, we have felt the first pleasantly warm (and not brutally hot) rays of sunlight on our faces. Just as pleasantly warm as those, that blind us when we reemerge from hibernation in the late afternoon. (Though I have to say, that the lack of sunlight has kind of drained the nice tan I had before the switch).

Sunrise and mango trees

Our room in the container

Another little thing that comes with turning into a night owl is the whole new set of creatures. The day has flies and the occasional mosquito, we have moths. They are black and white and annoyingly hyperactive. They wait outside our door and flood in when we open it, or hitch a ride on my back, my hair…. They have become little friends who like to come cuddle with me on top of my blanket, only to wake me when I make sudden moves, by flying right around my face. They are all over the place… The roof of the shed, illuminated by big halogen tubes, is covered in them. They dive into the bins and boxes of mangoes. The other day, I’m sitting on the toilet, wondering what that strange noise is – kind of like water in a tin kettle starting to boil – and look up. More moths. They leave their fine dark dust everywhere…and decide to die in the strangest places. Today I found one inside my sock. So I chase them with a Tupperware and notepad and literally throw them out the door – for around 20minutes an evening.

And with the changing weather, there are so many more and diverse insects around – beetles, flying ants (the ones that fly a few circles and then die) and strange bugs I have never seen before, huuuuge, mean looking ones with long antlers. Maybe the large amount of bugs is why the frogs in the bathroom are no longer in the toilet, but all hiding, neatly in a row, in the creases of the corrugated walls.

Slowly but surely the season is changing. The air is getting more humid and the harsh winds have settled. Two nights ago it rained. Heavenly. We were working, when all of a sudden it just poured. Heavenly. It smelled so good. It felt so good. It was like a sudden burst of energy that I haven’t felt in too long. It made me miss the water, being near it and being in it. The sound was deafening, as it beat down on the steel roofing. The wind was cold and everyone woke up instantly. Some had to run to their tents and try and rescue some stuff. Moritz had to run to the car and tape up our window with a garbage bag.

Aside from lifting my spirits, the rain caused a few blackouts in the shed. Though strangely enough, the lights above the packing tables stayed on, so it made for a great atmosphere (I still regret not having my camera on me). Half of the shed wanted candles and romance, the other half started singing and hoping we’d turn it into a party. We just continued working (but with that little tingle of excitement in the corner of our smiles).

When we clocked out, it was still raining. The day shift was just waking up and climbing out of soggy tents to asses the damages (like a guitar filled to the brim with water, for example). No picking. No work the next day/night.

And that’s why I am here, finally getting to tell whoever reads this blog all about our last weeks here. Finally getting the stories out of my head and onto the page.

This morning, the first sunny morning since the rain, the grass is green, there was dew dripping onto us during our end-of-work cigarette, the trees were blooming red and yellow and the skies were blue.

In life, in travels as in nature…“after the sun comes rain, after the rain comes sun again…”.