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原文
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TEA PLUCKING
For a few hours on 3 days I went tea plucking, one day
I went to plant tea and one day I did weeding and mulching.
I was working in different divisions with different groups
of workers. I was always welcomed very friendly and the ladies
helped me a lot.
Especially the first day I must have looked
somewhat clumsy. The whole group watched me and laughed a lot
on my tries, in a very nice way. I slipped a few times, missed
the basked when I tossed the tea leaves back and once my
basket even fell down. They showed me how to pluck the tea,
how to put the apron, the umbrella and the basket, which is
carried with a headband on the back, an unknown technique
in Germany. They rolled up my sleeves, put back my hair, which
kept falling into my face, gave me a plastic foil to put around
my waist to keep my pants dry, they showed me which bushes
I should pluck and where I should go. When it was a little steep
they hold my hand. They hardly spoke any English and I didn’t
speak any Nepali, so it was communication by smiles and gestures.
I enjoyed it very much. Most of the time I had to concentrate on
what I was doing and on keeping my things together. It’s not so
easy to move with this kind of basket and the umbrella between
tea bushes in the mountains when you are not used to it.
Sometimes I just enjoyed the feeling of working in this group,
in the rain, breaking off the young and beautiful shoots, feeling
the strong bush against the legs and the soft ground under the feet.
One day part of a group gathered around me, broke a betel nut
into pieces, every lady got a piece and said her name, then we
were friends.
In the divisions where I was tea plucking they observed me,
but after a little while they got back to their work.
When I went to do the planting in a different division one
lady helped me to do it and the rest of the crew was watching
me all morning. It is a strange sensation, when you are being
observed like this. But I also enjoyed planting.
It is something very special to touch earth and plant a bush
which will live for about 80 years, producing a lot of new tea.
In Makaibari earth is soft and good smelling. There are a lot of
earthworms. When I finished and the earth on my hands dried,
they were of a nice red and shimmered in the sunlight due to
the mica. It was a beautiful moment when I hold them under the
fresh and clean water of a rivulet running through the plantation.
For me this work was a pleasant experience. For the workers it
is hard work. Hard especially because they have to do it day in
day out for one year after the other.
To do those things I depended on the help of the assistant managers
who were so nice to take me to the groups of workers, introduced me
to them, explained to me in English what I was supposed to do and
took the whole responsibility. I am very grateful to all three of
them, they really took good care of me.
In the mornings, before I could go to the plantation, and also sometimes
in the evenings, I often had to wait for the assistant managers or Rajah
Banerjee in the office. I spent a lot of time sitting in one of the rooms,
watching the men doing their work or chatting with one of them, drinking
one, two or three cups of tea. (I mostly drank green tea and in the plantation
it’s not so easy to find a toilet, so my bladder got trained to hold a lot.)
I had enough time to experience the office. The most surprising thing is,
that all the ‘paperwork’ really is paperwork, everything is properly
written down in on of many books being piled up everywhere in an
incomprehensible order. The only computer’s job seems to be the
electronic mailing system.
I found Makaibari to be a very pleasant place to be. I was treated very
friendly and was given a lot of attention. Although I was a little sick
during the first week I was happy all the time, enjoying to be where I
was and grateful that I was given the chance to meet such wonderful people.
Nowadays a lot of happenings seem to say that it is impossible to change
something towards the good. Most people of my age think, that things have
to be changed, but they have lost motivation and hope. Makaibari is an
example that good things can be successfully created.
There a lot of dreams, ideals, wishes of a right, balanced, just and fair
life with society and nature have become reality. And quite a lot of people
have found the purpose for a peaceful and dynamic life without violence,
hate or extremism. People can love and respect each other and themselves
more than in most other places on earth.
