We Hate ONIONS!!!

---

G'day Mate!

So since we wrote our last blog we have been busy. As you know we were going to St George to pick onions. We arrived in St George and were picked up by the man in charge and after a quick trip to IGA we were taken to our accommodation. On the first day we seriously considered leaving. We were a bit shocked at the standards - the dirty showers, the smelly water, the dirty toilets, the fact we had bunk beds and no privacy and there were so many flies!! BUT I am proud to say for once in my life I put my normal clean standards to one side and we decided to make the best of it, after all we needed the money! It got easier day by day, you get used to the smell of fart water that surrounds the entire camp and we started to get to know people, we were lucky to have a good bunch of people on our camp. People did come and go, some left because they couldn't take the standards of living, others were kicked out for enqiuring with other farmers for other jobs or being too lary, but on most cases there were people to replace them before they had even left!

When work was about to begin we did an induction and were sold lights and scissors at prices more than they were worth being told we will recieve a percentage back if they were returned in good condition at the end. I would like to point out though that even when we got the percentage back they were still making a nice profit out of us - funny, I thought we were there to make money?

So work was to begin that night but we had to get up at 5am in the morning to do a trial run. We were back at camp by 10am and feeling shattered after only 3 hours work, but at this point we were still in good spirits thinking it wasn't so bad and they say it gets easier. Oh dear, were we wrong. 8pm that night after about 2 hours sleep we were collected and taken to the onion farm. We were told on average that we would be working 8-10 hours a night but we got back around 8am after 12 hours work, again shattered and still not knowing how much we would be getting paid. This was really really hard work. So we looked up the bus times, and planned to leave the next day if standards didnt improve. Neither of us had the strength to work that hard for 12 hours a day! Unfortunately I was unwell that night so couldn't work but to cut a long story short Matt had to beg for a lift back from the farm to camp the next morning as after 12 hours they were still working and we wanted to get the bus back to Brisvegas. Unfortunately, as everyone was still working we didnt get to say goodbye to everyone, but we had a good time meeting you all!

SO now we are back in the city and have been here a week, It took us 3 days to get rid of the onion smell on us. Matt has found a job in sales and starts Monday, I am still looking, but we have found a flat share for mid Nov - Jan which will save us a ton of money and we feel much happier. We don't think we'll give up on fruit picking, but we haven't eaten onions since leaving. The smell makes us feel sick. Maybe next time we will pick something nice and fruity like strawberries or grapes 😊

---