As I have posted before, I work at a plant that processes and packages fresh fruit and veggies for grocery store chains and restaurants. Daily, we package enough food to feed between 2.5 and 3 million people.....that's a lot of food!
The majority of the workers are immigrants from various Latin American nations....Mexico, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and the like. The English language is in the minority for sure. I speak a little Spanish....not enough to carry on full conversations with folks, but enough to communicate the basics....how many boxes or pallets of kiwi, avacado, cucumbers we have to run, how many boxes or pallets we have left to go before we are done with a certain item. Sometimes my conversational Spanish is just enough to make me look like an idiot...but the Spanish speakers do appreciate my efforts to speak to them in their native tongue and my efforts to learn more of the language.
Language barrier aside....I have been well received by Spanish speaking workers. I know most of them by name, and most of them know my name....they either call my Tim, Timoteo (the Spanish form of Timothy) or Gringo Loco (loosely translates as Crazy White Boy). Most of the time they call me Tim or Timoteo....one gal (a real hottie from the Dominican Republic) speaks very good English...she calls me Timothy...she says she likes my name a lot....two of my American female co-workers say that Bioalma...the Dominican Republic hottie....likes more about me than just my name.
Well...there are advantages to being this well liked by my co-workers and supervisors. Today, the line I was on was packing broccoli. 680 boxes of broccoli..each box holding 8 1-pound boxes. As the 50 pound boxes of broccoli were being dumped on the tables, and as the broccoli was being cut down to fit onto the trays...a lot of small pieces of broccoli pile up. These small pieces are tossed into blue 55 gallon barrels, and in turn those blue barrels are dumped into a large blue dumpster, which in turn is emptied into one of 3 farm trucks...along with all the other rejected/scrap fruit and veggies from the various lines and departments...and all that rejected fruit/veggie mix is trucked to a handful of hog farms in our area and used to feed pigs. I like to say that I turn brussel sprouts into bacon...which in my book is cooler than turning water into wine...no offense to Jesus or anything.
Well...I decided that I was in the mood for some nice steamed broccoli florets.....so I grabbed a pink packing tray bag and loaded it with about 5 pounds of those small broccoli pieces. When Chris, the weekend supervisor came by....I told him my intentions and he said "go for it". Later, Adolpho...the senior line leader...brought over two nice cucumbers left over from when Line 2 was packing cukes. And again later he brought over two very nice large peppers...one red and one yellow....and added them to my goodie bad.
Later in the afternoon, there were 8 large boxes of cabbage that needed to be taken to the scales, weighed, then put into the cooler. The lead tow motor driver was up to his eyeballs in work, all of the pallet jack drivers were more than busy....so the lead tow motor man pointed me out to Chris....and told him that I am tow motor and pallet jack certified and that I could do the job. Chris came to me and asked if I was comfortable driving a tow motor.....I told him that I am comfortable driving anything with wheels. So off the production line I go, onto a nice yellow tow motor and take on the task of getting those half ton boxes of cabbages weight certified and stored into the proper cooler.
After I had left the line, the line switched to running and packing Roma tomatoes. As I was doing the cabbage work, the department finished up for the day....did their clean up....as I was heading back to pick up the last box of cabbage...I asked one of the gals on the line if my goodie bag had been saved. She looked at me, smiled, and said "Yes, Timoteo....I moved your bag to the side and added a pack of Roma tomatoes for you." And sure enough....after I parked the tow motor and got it plugged in....there was my goodie bag...with the additional pack of 10 fat, juicy red Roma Tomatoes.
Yeah...being liked by your co-workers and supervisors....it has its rewards. Now, I'm off to the kitchen to steam up a nice big meal of broccoli florets, seasoned with lime juice and freshly ground black pepper, and sauteed peppers. Maybe grill up a chicken breast or two to go with all that tasty veggies
Tim
</label>........HAPPY EASTER ALL!!!
Originally Posted by Jagdflieger
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