The life unknown to me

I never imagined that this month will be a fascinating month. Since the first day of April till today, I've experienced alot of things

After I finished writing my article on ' the dreamer', my sister read the article and forwarded it to her Whatsapp status for people to read. To her surprise, a coursemate of hers told her that he would guide me on graphic designing. When she told me, I was jumping for joy because I never imagined that my dreams would be answered that fast.

I chatted the guy up and he explained to me on what to do. I don't even know how to thank him because I'm sure he is God sent. I'm so excited because this is the first time I'm telling or writing about something that made me feel bad and I've realized how good it is to talk about things be it good or bad.

For the past two days, I didn't have time to come to read.cash to write because alot of things came up which I want to tell you guys about.

On Saturday that is 2nd of April, a friend of my mum stopped by the house to greet her. He asked my mum whether we'd ( my sis and I) like to work during the strike and my mum told him yes but we haven't gotten a job in the meantime . So he told my mum about a factory and the factory can employ us, that he has a friend who is a manager there.

My mum asked for the price, and it looked fair. So she asked him “what kind of factory job is it?” and he said“ he isn't sure, we'll know about it when we start”. She asked when can we start, and he said on Monday, that is, 4th of April. But he said we shouldn't dress too much that the place doesn't require fashion. And he said we should be there before 7am.

So yesterday morning, I got up so early around 5:30 am and I got to the factory company around past six. The manager took us to his inspector, his inspector is a Lebanese man. The Lebanese man looked nice but he told us he only had space for one person but he said he'll see what he can do.

He took us to where they make peanut, the place looked discouraging and it was filled with people who were battling with speaking good English, they mostly looked like drop outs. He show us a lady who will be our trainer on what we were to do.

The lady told us how the work will be, that the work starts from 7am and ends by 7pm and also there is day and night shift. That is, if you work in the day this week, you will work in the night next week.

I was already feeling discouraged because I can't give 12 hours a day to a factory work for little pay and also there is no time to rest because it's an everyday job except Sundays, the only reason why I didn't say much at first when she said all those things is because I didn't know the work I'll be doing there yet and also my mum's friend wanted to help out, I didn't want t look ungrateful.

She also said that only one person can work in the day and the other has to cone in the night. I decided to stay while my sister went back home.

On waiting for her to tell me what to do, I was looking around and saw that the place was filled with manual labourers but I didn't say anything because I wasn't expecting to work there. She came back after some time and only told me to write my name, she didn't ask for anything else like my phone number or my house address or even a guarantor. It was already a red flag for me because I don't know why a work place won't have records of their employees. Like what if something happens to them, who will they contact?.

She took me to where they manufacture the peanut. My work was to carry 17kg of flour and 21 kg of ground with a big bucket of syrup and mix everything together in a big machine, the problem with the machine is that I have to put my hand in the machine and be rolling the flour with the groundnut and syrup so that everything will be even and the groundnuts won't stick together.

It was so heavy and hard to turn, I did it 10 times till I was asked to go for a break by 12 noon, the break is for 1 hour. A girl named blessing came to introduce herself to me and showed me around.

The factory makes peanuts, sweet and sausage rolls. But we're in the peanut session, I asked her that were we going to swap with the remaining workers in the packaging unit because the packing unit was easier than the manufacturing unit but she said no that where they put us is where we'll stay except they move us there themselves. I asked her for how long has she been doing this job, she said for a year that it gets easier as time goes by.

I already knew in my mind that I can never get used to that kind of work. I chatted my sister up and told her not to come in the night that it wasn't worth it.

After the 1 hour break elapsed, I wanted to run away but it didn't look right in my eyes because somebody brought me in the first place, I won't want the man to have a bad record. I continued the work and was patiently waited for 7pm to reach so that I'll reach home and never come back.

The Lebanese man came to check on the progress on the work and saw me, he said the tiredness in my face and said" it's been long you've don't this kind of work right don't worry you'll get used to it", I tried to explain to him that there must have been a misunderstanding because I've never don't that kind of work before in my life. He didn't get me so I just kept quiet.

Around 5 pm after I've already done 15 rounds, I couldn't do it again, my whole body was paining me, a girl came to take over from me and was telling me that I need to put it more effort because they do like 22 to 25 rounds per day. I was shocked because it looked to them like Asif I wasn't trying my best.

Blessing came to ask me if I was coming the next day, I said no. She laughed because she thought I was joking. Around 6.30 pm, we were asked to clean up all what we used to that night shift worked will take over. I cleaned up everywhere, greeted everybody and went home.

On getting home, my mum's friend called to ask how it was. I told him I'm not strong enough to that kind of work. He told me to at least do it work a month and I told him that if I do it for more than a day, I'll fall sick.

He understood and apologized and told me that he'll find an easier work for me. I don't want him to worry because I know what's good for me, besides I'm already comfortable in read.cash and I am happy I'll soon start my graphic designing class.