Siobhan and I are in a quarry in the Philippines. Yellow shale walls on either side split the quarry in two, trucks in a line, blunder through. I am looking for work there, as a software developer, troubled times in tech.
Read moreOn the phone, I do each interview while the quarry cook prepares the food. Each of us will get a plate, but my interviews take time and by the time my plate comes they have run out of sides, so I have nothing but deep fried dough balls and twelve year old chicken.
I take my plate to the office next to the quarry foreman’s podium. In front of us sit a few other quarry workers. The chicken is really tough, but it would interesting to work here, I think.
And a boy at our table is calling back his manager to see how my call with him went. I will get the job, he says.
But will it be interesting enough or pay well?
Then again, it will be good to be in the Philippines and we can stay somewhere near the beach, pick a place where there are fewer brownouts. I translate how much the pay will be in dollars, but it doesn’t seem like much.
I finish the sangria, but I don’t eat the chicken.
Siobhan offers to clear the table, but first I want to save the cranberries from the sangria, so I pour all of them from the carafe into a single glass. And when I pick up the glass it is much heavier than expected.
As a joke and while Siobhan is distracted, I pour all the cranberries into her glass instead. I put her glass back on the table and Siobhan picks it up with two fingers. Then she holds the base with her other hand, once she realizes the weight.
She gets the joke, and snickers along with me.
Photo by Jean Beaufort via PublicDomainPictures