Thanks to a certain minister for the inspiration.
Recently with the help of a Bangladeshi
man, we cleared and tidied the space in front of my house, you know, the small
space right outside the fence? I had some heliconias’ growing there, though it
grew a little too wild and a little too bushy. The flowers were beautiful but
then like I said, it was just too bushy and I got tired of having to trim the
plants every now and then. However, the main reason for the clean-up was due to
a friend’s suggestion. He said that I could make it neater and plant a variety
of other plants. It was a pretty good
idea and I was running out of space to plant stuff inside, I figured I’d plant
and pot a couple of fruit trees together with some flowering plants. We spent
around 2 hours or so just cutting down the plants, digging out the tough roots,
flattening the ground and using bricks and stones to make an outer border to
where the plants would go. It was a pretty tiring experience but seeing that we
got the job done in a couple of hours, it was worth it. Sure I had to pay the
guy some money, but hey!
A few days later, after
gathering/buying some bricks and drain stones; I called up the Bangladeshi guy
to come over; this time to cement the rocks. He brought a friend with him. It started
to drizzle the minute we started placing the stones, we got started anyway. I also bought some old wood from my neighbor
and was busy sawing some of them because they were too long. It took us about 3
hours to complete the job.it wasn’t great and I still have to plant the trees
and the smaller plants. It was something. My objective for writing this piece
is to perhaps emphasize on how tiring manual labor can get. It gets pretty damn
tiring if you were to do it more than a couple of hours. I was fortunate that
the sun was not glaring on the days we set to work. Maybe I am not used to it
but once you get your hands dirty and your body sweaty, you’d get the idea.
When I heard about this minister’s
comment on how we should work more, I mean we know how these people are, though
some of their remarks are just too bloody ignorant and they have their special
ways to continually surprise us. After
just working for let’s just say 4 hours of wood sawing and picking up stones
and arranging them. I was pretty much done for the day. After getting the job
done, I had something to eat and took a nap. I also had to sleep early that
night. Don’t get me wrong I am a pretty active person. Asking someone who does
a pretty draining job—be it physically or mentally to get another is just utterly
inconsiderate and inhumane.