things kept getting pushed a bit further here, a little further there. the things we were promised at the start did not appear...

Things like running water in our house, a stove in our house, occational afternoons off, compensation for the days we worked before we came to the farm, a discussion of further compensation, a working bicycle, occational use of the computer, occational inside work, feedback, quitting work at 6pm, not having to work with the animals, variety in the work.

The few things that did happen: places to store our things, a level floor in our house, electricity, access to food and a kitchen and laundry... were because we constantly brought it up or just did it ourselves. Since the kitchen we were required to use was the farm kitchen, we were always in the way, and they always complained about us using it... even though we spent extra effort cleaning up others messes and organizing it.

We were blamed for everything, dirty bathroom, dogs loose, doors unlocked, although we went out of our way to pick these things up after other people as well as ourselves.

We never got any kind of instruction or information, not about work and not about living... but we were obviously resented for living where we were.

Our work was not valued, and when discussed we were told that we were not worth a full person because we were not experinced farmers. We were eventually told that we deserved less compensation and time off for the same reason.

and everything kept changing, always against us. Now more people will share the bathroom, now your regular job will be the animals, now you must give back one of the keys to the bathroom, now you must not take regular weekends...

© Copyright Mark Canizaro 2000