Today I got up at 4:15 am to prepare for my first day on the mango farm (Pappalados Farm).

The bus (van) picked me up at 4:30 and we drove half an hour to the farm (3 other guys from  my hostel and me ). As we arrived there, we saw many guys with spots in their faces and I had already heard about the mango sap burn and mango rash.

So I asked them whether mango rash looks like that. They agreed. I felt very uncomfortable after that information but, nevertheless started to work after a short introduction by the boss. I was in a team of 5 guys. There are four working-steps in picking mangoes: One guy drives the tractor ( on the tractor is a huge tank with water in it), two guys pick the mangoes from the top of a trailer with long sticks with nets at the end ( like cherry picking sticks), one guy washes the mangoes, and the last one collects the mangoes from the ground or the ones, the two others couldn’t reach.

In our team we agreed to the rule that each guy has to do each working step  and that he has to change to the next step, when one bin is full. It’s paid per bin ( 100 AUD per bin divided by 5 guys). :I It’s okay. After 5 hours working and doing every working-step twice the first one got a sap burn on his finger. It looked awful, there were blisters all over his finger, and he was suffering terrrible pain. (The caustic sap of the mangoes may not come into contact with your skin, because it causes really serious burns). Once the stem is removed from the fruit, the mango releases this highly caustic sap, which can burn both the fruit and your skin. To avoid a sap burn and preventing a mango rash you always  have to pick mangoes away from your body. 🙂 But sometimes it’s hard, and you are always in a hurry, because you and the whole team  want to earn good money, and so, if you are not very careful, you can easily get a sap burn. After 13 hours work with one break (drinking, eating and taking off your wet clothes, wet because of sweat) I hadn’t got a mango sap burn and returned – very happy and exhausted – to my hostel and enjoyed eating a mango with Jan ). Wow, they are so tasty, especially since I know what hard work it is to get them. Tomorrow I will work again 🙂 Hopefully I won’t get burned neither from the sun nor from the mangoes. 😛

Sorry about the blurred pictures, my camera got water in it and now the display doesn’t work  anymore.