Leeton is a small town with 6,733 inhabitants, located in New South Wales, 580 km west of Sydney and 450 km north of Melbourne. The town is located in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, which is one of the best agricultural places in Australia, where citrus fruits, apricots, wine, wheat, and rice are mainly grown.
Clement and Anaelle, school friends of Flou, are still in Leeton and have been working hard for SunRice for five months. SunRice is one of the largest companies in Australia and they are very proud to be able to grow their own rice in Australia.
After our long journey through the red center of Australia, we arrive in Leeton at 9pm. We have lost about 20 degrees in a few hours. It is still nice and warm in the car, but when we get out, we quickly realize that shorts are not appropriate here. Clement and Anaelle welcome us to their home with a warm welcome. Time passes slowly and we have to wait a long time before we can start working. The first thing we are invited to is an interview, in which we learn a lot about SunRice. Then we have to take a test. We are given several pages on which we have to master speed and weight calculations. The math problems are difficult and we are a bit nervous. But the lady who interviews us seems pretty relaxed and explains to us that everyone is initially intimidated. In the end, it doesn't seem to matter much, and honestly, I don't think anyone looks at or has ever looked at the results. After this interview, we had to wait again. Almost a whole week passed until we finally received a response from SunRice. They would be happy to hire us, but we have to pass a medical fitness test in advance. We were given an appointment a few days later.
During the long wait, I applied for a new passport, as mine will expire in December. I have to organize many documents, including a deregistration certificate and my birth certificate from Germany. I panic, my papers just won't arrive, and on the website of the German Embassy, I am warned about extended processing times due to an update in September and October. In the end, I asked my father to send the papers again, this time choosing the express option. Well, here you learn: if you spend enough money, you can actually send a letter around the world within three working days! My papers have arrived and the same evening we set off for Melbourne to the German Embassy. The next morning, I can speak German to my heart's content. Half an hour later and a lot of money less, I leave the one-room embassy again and we start the long journey back to Leeton.
Next, we go for a medical examination. We are each examined for three-quarters of an hour. We take a vision and hearing test, some strength exercises, and a drug test. Pulse and blood pressure are measured, and for five minutes we have to climb stairs to measure our pulse and blood pressure again. We are shown how to properly lift heavy objects from the floor or put them on a shelf. In the end, I am told that I am fit, but a little more exercise wouldn't hurt.
Then, a few days later, we can finally start working. For the first four hours, we sit at the computer, just like at Webster, we have to read a lot about the company, pest control, safety, and general rules, and answer a few questions. Then we finally get to see the inside of the factory. We work in the rice cake department. There are regular rice cakes or ones with flavor, "Sour Cream and Chives," "Sundried Tomato and Basil," and "Seasalt and Vinegar." There are also small rice cake MiniBites, which come in cheese and chicken flavor in addition to the others. We work in different places. The rice cakes themselves are made by large machines, and the rice is popped between two hot plates within four seconds. Then they run on a conveyor belt, are drizzled with oil and flavor, and are directed onto a vibrating rain gutter in the Flavor Room. Here we stand, at the other end of the "rain gutter," where there is a bolt that jumps up and shows us how many rice cakes we need to take. There should be between 26 and 28, not less than 195g but not more than 210g. These rice cakes are then clamped between two more bolts and go into the next machine, where they are packed. Then the packed rice cakes go into a rotating metal bowl from which we (at another workstation) take them out again and pack them into boxes. The boxes have to be stored on pallets later, and the pallets have to be taken to another room where the forklifts pick them up and prepare them for further transport. We rotate in the Flavor Room every half an hour. That's good because it keeps us from getting into the same routine too quickly.
Then I often work in the room where the MiniBites are packed. Here, all the rice cakes are already packed in small plastic bags, and on another conveyor belt, we have to place four or two of them at short intervals. The conveyor belt runs very fast and we have little time to do other things alongside it. Eight of the small packages are then packed into another machine into another package. These are then packed into boxes and stacked on pallets, just like in the Flavor Room. With time, of course, we learn where to get new boxes, how to change the tape on the boxing machines, and other little things. We are never bored and there is always something to do - okay, sometimes it can be pretty boring. The real challenge is that we work in shifts and change the time every week. In our first week, we work from 6 am to 2 pm, Monday to Friday. In the second week, we work from 10 pm to 6 am, starting Sunday evening, and the weekend already starts on Friday morning. In the third week, we work from 2 pm to 10 pm, Monday to Friday. The good thing is that we have a short break or a lunch break every two hours. Sometimes we can do overtime. That means our supervisors come to us and ask if we can stay four hours longer or come four hours before the shift starts. Ultimately, we work quite a lot and lose track of time. It is exhausting to change the time every week, and I constantly feel tired, but I also find it interesting because each week feels somehow new. We work for SunRice for a total of five weeks, and I can only say good things. The company pays attention to its workers and even I, the little backpacker, feel like a part of the whole. Care is taken to ensure that we don't do the same job for too long, and we get enough breaks. And as a little bonus, every break is paid, which means that in a regular shift, we get paid for eight hours but actually work only seven. All in all, we had a good time, which went surprisingly fast.
