migrants

We’re on day two of hourly pay, even though we were only supposed to do a day of it. We’re fine with that, since by our calculations we’d be making less than minimum wage ($11.30 at the moment) if we were doing contract. We’re not very quick.

There were about 8 new thinners starting today, and it turns out I lived and worked with three of them at the hostel/vineyard in Blenheim – Bobby, from the former East Germany, and twins Edith and Elsie from Taiwan. I feel like a true migrant worker now…great.

We started talking to/complaining with a French couple in the row next to us, and they told us how they like to cook clams, mussels and oysters they collect from the beaches. We didn’t realize you could do that, so they offered to show us how and where and cook dinner with us.

After work, we waited around for low tide, which Anais and Kevin thought was around 8 pm. Apparently it was around 5, which was when we started waiting, but Kevin didn’t want to disappoint and insisted on diving for the clams despite the cold water. He didn’t find very many, and most were tiny, but they say it’s a lot easier at low tide and you get more.

We had a delicious clam and potato red curry dish that Kevin painstakingly prepared in our ill-equipped kitchen. We’re very excited about our new free meat source…I have a feeling we’ll be sick of clams by the time we leave here.