Work, not only nine to five in the morning commute and in the office building cubicle, what is the daily imaginary niche work like?
Here's a feature story from Ten Points: Crazy Careers.
Each issue tells an unusual "crazy" career story, using a unique life adventure of a niche professional to show you a different world.
Author | Eyes of the Night
Edit | Wild grid
Ten point character chronicle original
On April 8, 2022, at 7 p.m. Myanmar time, I transferred 9,800 yuan using WeChat. The fingers trembled slightly, the network was not very powerful, and it took several clicks to show that the transfer was successful.
The debt of 412,000 yuan was finally paid off. Two years of persistence, this moment, all the hard work is released.
Outside the factory dormitory, the moonlight is like water, and I can't help but take the flute and blow "Homesick" over and over again...
Looking up at the bright moon in the sky, a ray of clear light sprinkled on my body, in the night of a foreign country, I could hear my heart beating "poof".
A corner of the Myanmar company dormitory | Courtesy of the author
After three years of entrepreneurship, the result is a lot of debt
In September 2019, my small factory went bankrupt and closed its doors. In the end, it was liquidated, and the debt was 412,000 yuan.
I have been engaged in knitting and garment management for more than ten years, and in 2017 I began to start my own business, renting a factory of about 300 square meters in Changping Town, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, with more than 50 workers. In the first two years, the goods of the large factory were processed after the whole processing, and the busy and busy work was offset by the expenses.
At the beginning of 2019, I increased my investment in loans and independently undertook customer orders, from receiving orders to shipping, one-stop production.
It was originally thought that changing the mode of production and operation would increase profits.
Unexpectedly, everything was difficult at the beginning, coupled with various uncontrollable factors, especially after the customer gradually withdrew orders to Cambodia, where labor costs were lower, I could no longer hold on.
At the end of September, I settled all the wages of more than sixty workers and declared bankruptcy.
Factory exterior | Courtesy of the author
My wife died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage five years ago, and my two sons had just started working after graduating from college, and all the debts had to be repaid by myself.
When I took a shower at night, I suddenly found that the half of my left foot was unconscious, pressurized, and there was no pain. I was horrified and went to the hospital for examination, and the diagnosis was that the sciatic nerve of the lumbar spine was compressing the blood vessels, causing the blood vessels to be poor, and the cause was overwork.
The doctor asked me to rest and recuperate, telling me that the disease was not dangerous for the time being, but if I did not rest well, the consequence would be numbness in the lower limbs or half of the body.
Hearing this, anxiety, uneasiness, and depression discouraged me. I broke the rules of the years and smoked one cigarette after another.
The light and dark changes of cigarette butts in the middle of the night, just like my depressed mood, depressed.
Fortunately, after three months of continuous treatment, the numbness in the left foot gradually disappeared. During this time, I entrusted my friends who worked abroad to help me find a job. With so much debt, I think only by working abroad can I pay it off as soon as possible.
With the help of a friend, I applied for a job in Myanmar, the head of the knitting and garment factory, with a monthly salary of 16,000.
Before going to Myanmar, I wrote an IOU to all the creditors and indicated the time of the installment payment. I don't want to go abroad to work and bear the black name of "Lao Lai".
My biggest creditor, Mr. Hong, owes him nearly two hundred thousand personally.
IOU to Mr. Hong | Courtesy of the author
Mr. Hong runs the business, travels a lot, and it is a bit difficult to find others. I looked for him several times but didn't find him, called him, made an appointment to meet, he was either temporarily in trouble or was entangled in business.
I didn't meet until I was going to Burma. When I offered the IOU, Mr. Hong didn't look at it and tore the IOU in front of me. He also gave me five thousand yuan and told me that he believed that I would be able to turn over and save the money owed to him until the end.
I had the courage to fight. Before going abroad, I rewrote an IOU and sent it to Mr. Hong.
With everything ready, I embarked on the path of the Burmese gold rush.
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Foreign life, how much taste is in the words
On March 3, 2020, at 2:15 p.m., the aircraft took off on time. Sitting on the window seat, looking at the increasingly blurred Guangzhou under the window, my heart surged with sorrow. The anxiety of the unknown and the pressure of debt made me feel a trance.
At 5:30 p.m., the flight landed at Yangon Airport. Walking out of the station, the strangeness came over me, and there were Burmese-speaking Burmese everywhere, and the Chinese of my flight had already gone their separate ways.
According to the factory boss's instructions in advance, I went out of the terminal building to find a driver holding a sign to pick me up, and the sign said my name.
When I found the man holding the sign, we couldn't communicate, and the driver was a Burmese. I took out my passport and identified it for him. After confirming, he helped me carry my luggage to the car.
The factory I went to was in Bosun, Iloquady Province, Myanmar, more than 200 kilometers from Yangon. The language barrier, we had nothing to say, and the dull atmosphere was slightly depressing. Before I left, I forgot to open the mobile phone number for international roaming, the phone could not be called, and WeChat could not be uploaded.
The only thing you can do is look at the exotic scenery outside the car window. It's nearly dusk, and Yangon is shrouded in the setting sun. On the edge of the city, rows of low, humble houses on the side of the road quickly fell backwards from the windows of the cars.
The road to Bürseng is being rebuilt and many sections are crowded with vehicles. Stop and go, when I arrived at the factory, it was already 10 p.m.
The next day, after meeting with the factory boss, the foreign working life officially began.
The owner is a Native of Hong Kong and the factory is located in an industrial area in Boson City. I manage two workshops, five Chinese masters, twenty Burmese team leaders, and 1,200 Burmese workers.
Myanmar factory workshop | Courtesy of the author
The factory arranged a full-time translator for me, surnamed Li, a native of northern Burma, and the young man was a descendant of Chinese descent and spoke Mandarin very standardly.
Xiao Li told me that the factory does not have a Burmese staff dormitory, and the workers are picked up and dropped off by factory car morning and evening. These factory cars are the kind of simple passenger cars with carriages and fences, and the two seats are cast with stainless steel on both sides of the carriages, which can accommodate about thirty people.
Workers have to take an hour and a half drive as far away as possible. Work hours are 7:30 a.m., 4 p.m., and lunch breaks for half an hour. Closed on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Burmese workers bring their own meals for lunch, and the factory does not include food and accommodation.
Just started working, a little unaccustomed. Myanmar's climate is divided into two seasons, drought and humidity, with the rainy season from mid-May to October, with several rains almost every day; From November to mid-May is the dry season, which is dry for a long time without rain, and the sun is dry.
The factory is a tin house, although the roof is high, but the workshop temperature is also high. Every day, as soon as I entered the workshop, the sweat on my body came out, and I was wet from the previous day's shift. The climate was uncomfortable, and after a month, the body lost several pounds.
The factory is relatively large, there are more than sixty Chinese management, the boss hired a Chinese chef to cook for us, and the food is also delicious.
Maybe it was God's favor, I hadn't been sick in the two years of paying off my debts, not even a small cold.
I have no other expenses than buying the necessities of life every month. During the epidemic period, the factory strictly prohibited Chinese masters from going out, and organized a collective outing every two weeks to purchase daily necessities.
Boson is a provincial capital city in Myanmar, but its urban size is only comparable to that of a fourth-tier county in China. Two main streets and several side streets, rent a small three-wheeler carrying passengers, and in less than an hour, you can run through the streets of the city.
Myanmar's largest river, the Irrawaddy River, runs by the city. Boson's only supermarket with a little size, Yiyiwo New Supermarket, was built by the river.
Washin Supermarket, Burson City, Myanmar | Courtesy of the author
Supermarket waiters are very welcome Chinese, in their eyes, Chinese have money and especially like to spend money. Every time I go to the supermarket, my Chinese colleagues make a big purchase of food and drinks. It was just me, as soon as I entered the supermarket, went straight to the target and bought only a small amount of toothpaste, toothbrushes and other toiletries.
At the supermarket cash register, the cashier always looked at me suspiciously, meaning that you are also Chinese, why did you buy so little.
A few times, they even pointed to the food shelves in the supermarket and asked me to buy more. Later, I simply asked my colleagues to help me bring it back.
I was known for being a cutter in the factory, and in the two years I had been paying off my debts, I had barely bought snacks, let alone fruit.
I stomped my face under my feet, hoping that after paying off the debt, I would pick up the broken face little by little and put it back on my face.
But my life is not the worst, compared to the Burmese workers, I am already much better. I've observed the lunch they bring, and except for a very small number of people who bring some fish, most of them are a box of lunches, a pinch of oilless hollow cabbage, or white potatoes and bean sprouts, and rarely see vegetables with oily and fishy smells. As a result, many workers are malnourished.
There is a serious preference for sons and daughters here, and boys mostly do not go to work to play. As a result, ninety percent of the factory girls come, and on the day of the payroll, there are many parents, husbands or brothers outside the factory door to get the money.
Malnutrition caused workers in factories to faint. Not long after arriving, one day a girl in the ironing department of the workshop, whose sweater had just been half-burned, suddenly fell to the ground.
Just as I was inspecting there, I quickly helped up and pinched people. The translator Xiao Li told me lightly that she was hungry, did not have enough to eat, and would wake up in a moment.
The girl soon woke up and struggled to get on with her work. I asked her to take a break, and she refused. I took out of my pocket the remaining 50,000 (KYG) pocket money that month and asked her to buy some nutritional supplements.
The next day at work, Xiao Li asked the girl what nutritional products she bought, and the girl said that she didn't buy it, there was no rice at home, and gave the money to the family to buy rice.
I sighed, if there is no job, can not find money, how can the poor live?
The spread of the epidemic has had more and more obvious impacts on production and life, and guests have begun to reduce orders.
In May 2020, in order to reduce expenses, the factory merged the two workshops under our jurisdiction into one workshop. All employees who have worked for less than one year shall be reduced and compensated for one month's salary.
The laid-off workers cling to each other, and those confused eyes seep into my heart little by little.
Anxiety grows exponentially, not knowing the durability of work, and fear of the heavy pressures of debt on one's body. Insomnia is increasing, and confusion makes me a little confused.
I tried my best to adjust my mentality, adapt to the changes in my work under the epidemic, and work hard. In any case, the debt is decreasing little by little.
In April 2021, I came to Myanmar for one year and paid off half of my debts, that is, 210,000 yuan.
12 months' salary, plus 1 month's double grain, plus a 15-day holiday subsidy wage that has not returned to China for one year. Half of the debt remains, and the pressure on the heart has not eased. One day when I looked in the mirror, I suddenly found that the gray hair on my head had increased a lot.
Fifty and know the Destiny. Fifty years old, I work hard here, relying on strong faith to support, in order to survive.
Once, when I was in a video with my son, my eldest son, who had just worked in Beijing, saw the white hair on my head in the video and was so distressed that he burst into tears.
He said, "Dad, come back, my brother and I will help you pay off your debts."
I told him in a snarky tone that Dad could work for another twenty years.
Alien feelings inspire me
There are many temples in Myanmar, every village, and when I am not in a calm mood, I will go to the temples for a walk.
In this country, everyone believes in Buddhism. Although the wages were not high, whenever they came to the grain, they rushed to donate money to the temple. Those temples were built with great splendor, and the monks of the temples were highly respected.
Once, I followed the local group leader to the village temple not far from the factory to worship.
Temples in Burmese villages | Author figure
The gilded glitter of gold on the tall Buddha statue. According to Burmese customs, I took off my shoes and put them next to me, knelt on the futon, folded my hands, and silently prayed to the Buddha statue in my heart, the epidemic will pass quickly, the work will not be out of condition, and I will be blessed to pay off my debts as soon as possible.
After the pilgrimage, looking at the monks with red faces and the tired faces of the worshippers, I suddenly felt that my prayers were deceiving myself.
The incense-filled smoke from the pillars of the temple separated the Buddha from me, and I found that I needed to return to real life to find spiritual support.
In the past year, under the guidance of translator Xiao Li, my Burmese language has been able to communicate with Burmese people.
During this time, I formed a deep friendship with a group leader in the workshop.
Her name was Naduo, and she was a twenty-three-year-old girl. The father died early and the mother fell ill. In order to support her mother and send her younger siblings to school, in addition to factory work, she also has to go to other people's homes to work for short-term jobs on holidays.
Despite her poverty, I saw her happy every day.
The home of the flower | Courtesy of the author
I went to her house once. The three rooms are very simple, narrow and narrow, and the outer dining room and the hall are divided into two rooms. The room was unfurnished, with a few mats on the floor, patched sheets and covers.
But when I watched her family eat, the flower brought the dish to her mother's bowl from time to time (Burmese people are used to grasping food with their hands), and the younger sister was also sensible, and in the house that leaked on all sides, the family was full of smiles.
I asked the flower for the secret of happiness. Na Duo said seriously that she was very content with life, had a mother and younger siblings, and that a family together was the best happiness.
In life, in addition to facing poverty, setbacks, and difficulties, what is important is how to maintain a happy state of mind.
That flower changed me. Outside of work, I picked up hobbies that I had lost over the years and started reading and writing in my spare time.
Reading and writing allowed me to find a side income, and also adjusted my mentality, anxiety gradually disappeared, and people became optimistic and cheerful.
The young man Sumai is also a love I have made in Myanmar, he is a native of Myanmar, translated by the Ministry of Personnel. He was warm and honest, graduated from college, and Chinese said it best.
We often talk about work, books, and life together. I never imagined that I would be able to have so many common languages with a foreign lad. Spanning thousands of kilometers, in a foreign land, I have a brother who has forgotten his life.
Last November, after two years of working in Myanmar, I invited the department to dinner for the first time.
Group photo of the myanmar female team leader of the department | Courtesy of the author
At the after-work dinner on Saturday, everyone had a good time and raised a glass to each other.
At that moment, I felt happy and harmonious, the boundaries of nationalities were broken, and everyone worked towards one goal: for life, for tomorrow.
After paying off my debts this year, I still have spare time to borrow money to buy a house in my hometown county. Wait until you have saved enough money, and then return to your home country to retire.
Time is running out and I'm still working in Myanmar today. In my opinion, I no longer work just to live, but to work for the meaning of life.
Whatever the weather, leave a piece of sunshine in your world.