Tuesday, October 12, 2010

'Chicken Joy'


The sun would set at around 8pm in Port Wakefield these days. While I am writing this, the sun has already set, but for me and my job, the day isn’t over yet.

Twenty thousand chickens were taken out of our sheds last midnight... we collected the dead birds from the sheds this morning, and did some mechanical, electronics and plumbing works this afternoon. At 3pm, I received a call from the dressing plant—sixteen thousand birds will be going before dawn tomorrow. This means that I have to do the same pre-catch ‘rituals’ that I did last night, and then starve the birds starting midnight so they could empty their crop before the early morning harvest starts. And tomorrow at eight, the collection of the dead chooks will again commence...

...there are a lot of exhausting stories behind the juicy-licious roasted chicken of Red Rooster or the crispy, spicy fried chicken of KFC... and that is the life of a poultry farmer, the life that I have chosen for almost three years now.

I don’t know if occupying a house built a hundred meter across the poultry shed is a blessing, and at this moment I have this uncertainty if living in this house is really ‘living’ or is actually ‘working’. I am very grateful to have this gift of sight and I wish I could continue to admire the view from my windows which I, actually, doubt if it is really a scenery or just a mere surroundings. It really takes some efforts to split my mind set between my job from my ‘real life’, and during the harvest season I would temporarily lose the power to differentiate a night from a day.

The wages of sin is death; I admit I am a sinner but I don’t want to ‘die’ while I am still 'living'! I have been desperately looking for some other ways of paying the price of being too ambitious, because I believe that this is not the only way. Currently, I fear that the ‘powerful sticker’ stamped by the Australian Immigration on my Philippine passport has started to lose its potency to sustain the euphoric effect that I felt the day it was granted.

I hope I could figure it out—is this job really hard, or I am just weak?


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6 comments:

animus said...

hi chookminder!
ganito din ang nararamdaman ko pag nawawalan ako ng gana sa trabaho. konting pagmuni-muni lang at pagbabalik tanaw kung bakit ko nga ba ginusto at ipinagdasal ang kinalalagyan ko, voila! back on track na ulit ako. inspired na ulit. :-)
sa susunod try ko ngang kumain ng chicken joy, palagay ko ay may effect din ito sa akin. hehe..

Trainer Y said...

we sometimes get tired of the routinary days we have.. pero ayos lang.. just think of the reasons why youre doing it and why youre there, youll get motivated once again.. :D it'll pass..

at sa chicken joy.. hmmm.. paborito ng mga kdlets ko yan, pagkaminsan, kulang na lang tubuan na kami ng pakpak hehehe

ingat DOC RJ!

BlogusVox said...

Natural lang yang nararamdaman mo. Once you met your goal, the excitement wains after some times.

The next best thing is to find another goal to achieve. How about passing their veterinary license exam, doc?

BTW, how's your Mom?

RJ said...

ANIMUS and
YANAH
Gusto ko 'yong tip niyo. Salamat. U



BLOGUSVOX
Balak ko po talaga mag-veterinary exam dito, pero bago po 'yan, dapat makuha ko po muna ang citizenship para mas magaan ang examination fee, otherwise Au$10,000 ang bayad. Kung papalarin, sa May 3, 2011 ay eligible na po ako for citizenship.

Nanay is on a heavy raw fruit and vege diet. Then naka-isolate pa rin po siya, 'til October 20 pa. Sa 21Oct babalik po sya sa doctor, malalaman ang resulta ng ginawang therapy. Whew!

bertN said...

I know how you feel because I once visited a buddy whose first job in Canada was to tend a turkey farm. It was an OK job but a lot of work. He worked there for a couple of years until found a job at the University of Calgary from where he eventually retired from. Kaunting tiyaga lang - you are well-educated, you'll go places; if you don't, you'll probably own the farm in the future.

RJ said...

BERTN
Haha, I like that. Yes, sana magkakaroon din po ako ng sarili kong poultry farm dito sa Australia in the future. U

Salamat din po sa kwentong ibinahagi niyo, na-inspire ako sa buhay ng friend niyo.