It was quite late in the evening once myself and Erwin finally arrived at my new temporary home in Puning, and we were immediately greeted by two girls from DNS 2014 team - Stef and Gita. They showed us around the house, which I took a liken to straight away! We are a little isolated, surrounded by agricultural fields, though not too far away from towns and a city - Munster. Anyway, the girls made us a cup of coffee and shortly after, Erwin left for his home in the Netherlands while the girls took me dumpster diving with them.
I had a rather restless sleep that night; perhaps nerves or excitement of starting a new job, and the fact it was bloody hot and a mosquito kept bugging me for my blood. I killed that fucking parasite the following morning.
I got up at around 7:30am (a time I currently set my alarm for now) and got myself into my finest work clothes, ate breakfast with the ladies just before my first meeting with my new manager - Antonio. He likes to have daily meetings at 8:30 to discuss any issues and hand out routes for clothes collection. My first impression of these meetings wasn't so good as I seemed to arrive at a time when Antonio had many issues with the girls! I would rather have had abstained from these first couple of meetings, but I guess it meant I could learn from the girl's mistakes and brace myself for future conflicts.
After the first long, drawn out meeting I finally set off with Stef. My initial excitement and enthusiasm I had for this job was quickly quelled not more than five minutes in to unloading heavy bags of clothes from the van into shipping containers. As sweat dripped off from my brow and I gasped for air, I murmured profanities about not wanting to do this for six sodding months. As a languid bloke, any work that requires physical exertion is not going to be my forte; I knew it was going to be hard, but I guess I had underestimated just how hard it was going to be. Being unfit and quite weak, suffice to say I don't think I'm cut out for this job! And I soon started to realise this over the next few days. At least I have an incentive to carry this out though; I just hope I can cope long term. For now, I find solace only in driving around the scenic countryside mountains and bustling towns lined with those traditional timber framed buildings on cobble stoned streets.
For those who are curious about what I do exactly, I collect second hand clothes from many containers dotted around Westfalen area in Germany for Humana. Also, due to many inconsiderate people, we also take trash that gets dumped in them, much to my exasperation. We bag them, compact them and stack them in the van. I usually collect between 1.5 - 2 tonnes per day as does Honza, and we unload them into shipping containers first thing in the morning, where they eventually get sent to second hand shop's in eastern European countries.
Speaking of Honza, he is a fellow 2015 DNSer who had arrived at Puning 5 a few days after me. Stef had left by the time he arrived and once Gita had spent a few days training him, she left too. Unfortunately, Humana only have enough budget to employ two clothes collectors when I think it would be more apt to have four.
When I'm not working, I usually read, practice playing my uke or draw. Usually, by the time I get home in the evening, it's not too long before I hit the sack. Sometimes I'm too knackered and I skip dinner and/or shower and just lay down instead. On Sundays, we have a team meeting via Skype. Our teachers had us do a task for our first meeting; me and Honza had to write and sing a song. So I spent around 30 minutes to write a song about dumpster diving to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine"*
On our days off, me and Honza went to Munster. First time, we walked around the city and took some pictures. Greta and Svetlana visited us one weekend as they were on their way back to Denmark, after travelling around Europe promoting DNS. We spent a couple of evenings in Munster; one we chilled in a shisha lounge and another we went to a club. I'm not much of a dancer so I sat as the guys danced. The girls also helped us with work one day for which I was very grateful for! Recently when we went to Munster, a past DNSer who was staying at Puning 5 also, called Agnes, took us around the city. It was a pleasant day and we had Chinese, took a dog that Agnes looks after for a very long walk, and met up with some of her friends in the evening.
Unfortunately, the pleasantries on our days off wasn't enough to take our minds off from the unpleasantness off our job. I can only speak for myself, but I find myself becoming miserable and I'm getting more and more reluctant to get up in the mornings. This is the sort of monotony I wanted to get away from when I was England. Is the incentive of going to Africa next year enough motivation for me? If I leave Munster, will many people back at tvind be disappointed with me? Will I be disappointed with myself for not finishing this? So much internal conflicts. When I had problems in past jobs, I just kept them bottled up and got on with it. Or quit. But now, it's not so simple as I'm here to save up for our team economy.
Due to mine and Honza's issues, our teacher Michael came and stayed with us for a few days. With him, he brought a positive vibe and motivation for us which is just what we needed I think. I'm not sure if it's a fact that I worked better and more efficiently, but I felt like I did due to his presence. And when he left, it was back to square one.
*To end this on a lighter note, I shall now transcribe my lyrics "An Ode To Dumpster Diving"© (sing to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine").
I like to dumpster dive,
I like to dumpster dive,
When it's eleven o clock at night.
The bins may be empty,
Or we'll be lucky,
And the fruits will still be ripe.
We'll flip open all of the bin lids,
Scavenge anything that's nice.
We'll hold our noses
'Cos they may stink,
But at least we don't pay a dime.
Fruits and veggies,
Cakes and pastries
And about twenty cartons of milk.
Tubs of butter,
Plenty of cheese -
Tonight we shall have a feast!
People may say
That it's disgusting,
But so is wasted food!
So why not take,
What is chucked away
And let's go dumpster diving!
I had a rather restless sleep that night; perhaps nerves or excitement of starting a new job, and the fact it was bloody hot and a mosquito kept bugging me for my blood. I killed that fucking parasite the following morning.
I got up at around 7:30am (a time I currently set my alarm for now) and got myself into my finest work clothes, ate breakfast with the ladies just before my first meeting with my new manager - Antonio. He likes to have daily meetings at 8:30 to discuss any issues and hand out routes for clothes collection. My first impression of these meetings wasn't so good as I seemed to arrive at a time when Antonio had many issues with the girls! I would rather have had abstained from these first couple of meetings, but I guess it meant I could learn from the girl's mistakes and brace myself for future conflicts.
After the first long, drawn out meeting I finally set off with Stef. My initial excitement and enthusiasm I had for this job was quickly quelled not more than five minutes in to unloading heavy bags of clothes from the van into shipping containers. As sweat dripped off from my brow and I gasped for air, I murmured profanities about not wanting to do this for six sodding months. As a languid bloke, any work that requires physical exertion is not going to be my forte; I knew it was going to be hard, but I guess I had underestimated just how hard it was going to be. Being unfit and quite weak, suffice to say I don't think I'm cut out for this job! And I soon started to realise this over the next few days. At least I have an incentive to carry this out though; I just hope I can cope long term. For now, I find solace only in driving around the scenic countryside mountains and bustling towns lined with those traditional timber framed buildings on cobble stoned streets.
For those who are curious about what I do exactly, I collect second hand clothes from many containers dotted around Westfalen area in Germany for Humana. Also, due to many inconsiderate people, we also take trash that gets dumped in them, much to my exasperation. We bag them, compact them and stack them in the van. I usually collect between 1.5 - 2 tonnes per day as does Honza, and we unload them into shipping containers first thing in the morning, where they eventually get sent to second hand shop's in eastern European countries.
Speaking of Honza, he is a fellow 2015 DNSer who had arrived at Puning 5 a few days after me. Stef had left by the time he arrived and once Gita had spent a few days training him, she left too. Unfortunately, Humana only have enough budget to employ two clothes collectors when I think it would be more apt to have four.
When I'm not working, I usually read, practice playing my uke or draw. Usually, by the time I get home in the evening, it's not too long before I hit the sack. Sometimes I'm too knackered and I skip dinner and/or shower and just lay down instead. On Sundays, we have a team meeting via Skype. Our teachers had us do a task for our first meeting; me and Honza had to write and sing a song. So I spent around 30 minutes to write a song about dumpster diving to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine"*
On our days off, me and Honza went to Munster. First time, we walked around the city and took some pictures. Greta and Svetlana visited us one weekend as they were on their way back to Denmark, after travelling around Europe promoting DNS. We spent a couple of evenings in Munster; one we chilled in a shisha lounge and another we went to a club. I'm not much of a dancer so I sat as the guys danced. The girls also helped us with work one day for which I was very grateful for! Recently when we went to Munster, a past DNSer who was staying at Puning 5 also, called Agnes, took us around the city. It was a pleasant day and we had Chinese, took a dog that Agnes looks after for a very long walk, and met up with some of her friends in the evening.
Unfortunately, the pleasantries on our days off wasn't enough to take our minds off from the unpleasantness off our job. I can only speak for myself, but I find myself becoming miserable and I'm getting more and more reluctant to get up in the mornings. This is the sort of monotony I wanted to get away from when I was England. Is the incentive of going to Africa next year enough motivation for me? If I leave Munster, will many people back at tvind be disappointed with me? Will I be disappointed with myself for not finishing this? So much internal conflicts. When I had problems in past jobs, I just kept them bottled up and got on with it. Or quit. But now, it's not so simple as I'm here to save up for our team economy.
Due to mine and Honza's issues, our teacher Michael came and stayed with us for a few days. With him, he brought a positive vibe and motivation for us which is just what we needed I think. I'm not sure if it's a fact that I worked better and more efficiently, but I felt like I did due to his presence. And when he left, it was back to square one.
*To end this on a lighter note, I shall now transcribe my lyrics "An Ode To Dumpster Diving"© (sing to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine").
I like to dumpster dive,
I like to dumpster dive,
When it's eleven o clock at night.
The bins may be empty,
Or we'll be lucky,
And the fruits will still be ripe.
We'll flip open all of the bin lids,
Scavenge anything that's nice.
We'll hold our noses
'Cos they may stink,
But at least we don't pay a dime.
Fruits and veggies,
Cakes and pastries
And about twenty cartons of milk.
Tubs of butter,
Plenty of cheese -
Tonight we shall have a feast!
People may say
That it's disgusting,
But so is wasted food!
So why not take,
What is chucked away
And let's go dumpster diving!
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