DAY 1:
I had just woken up. It was our final day of travelling in the bag, my name is Carmine. I am a rice grain from a farm not far and after what felt like days of waiting, I’ve finally arrived at the kitchen, my new home. As soon as I saw the room the first thing I noticed after the nice smell, was seeing two campaign rallies off to the side of the ramp that me and the fellow immigrants were coming off from. There were two parties, one run by the main leader behind a party called the Spice Independence Party, Secretary Cauliflower, and another run by a Cucumber with a party called the Greens Party. One group was holding signs that were saying “welcome to the kitchen” and the others were saying “we have too many of you here go back!” I was already prepared for this kind of response since there was reasons to be suspicious and worry about how we might effect them, but it was quite jarring having all these foods be so up front and center with their stances for the new grains in town.
It was time for us to get off and walk through the crowds to the immigration cupboard. It was interesting seeing the kitchen and the amount of ads that were placed around the kitchen from the big pantries to the small utensil. I knew that there was a lot of criminal rice grains that were coming along with me and I wish there was a way to not really be associated with them but oh well hopefully the justice process will catch them as best as they can. I am not like those rice grains I promise that. Anyways, when we got to the cupboard they started asking me questions like “how much do you make a year” why are you coming to this kitchen and I explained that back on my farm there was a horrible mold infection that I had to move from.
After all of these they decided to post us up in a very fancy hotel at the top shelf. It was a crazy experience and perspective over the rest of the kitchen but I wondered “why me” like if I’m gonna be honest, all we really needed was a small room and we could’ve made due with that but I’m not gonna complain. I decided to walk to the living room which was broadcasting the news at the time and I couldn’t believe it.
I saw me on the tv. I saw a lot of news cameras while we were coming off the bag but there must have been some stock photographer that caught a picture of me because I swapped channels to the Spice Independence channel and I saw me again in the same picture. At this point I started to listen to what they had to say and it definitely was very interesting. They were making claims that the kitchen just couldn’t take the capacity for more grains and they were going to need to start making some deportations. I was quite worried at first since I was only here as a refugee so from now on I will try to keep on my best behavior and contribute as much as I can to this kitchen. I also heard how they were talking about how while we were in these high shelf hotels there were small scraps that could only afford to stick with the floor. Of course I started to feel bad since yeah, it wasn’t very fair that we were so privileged but it confused me since this wasn’t our fault. It was the governments decision to put us here. I don’t know that really confused me.
After that I decided to turn off the tv and start writing this diary entry. Sorry it was so short. I was a little baglagged but I hope I can make the next one more detailed since I’ll try to find a job tomorrow.
DAY 2:
It’s day 2 of my time here in the kitchen and today is the day when I go to the immigration pantry for my new documents. I plan on leaving my hotel early so I can learn more about this place before I fully move in, so I’ll get on a walk around while venturing to the immigration pantry.
I started my walk from the hotel onto the streets and I immediately started to see big ads in a language I couldn’t quite understand plastered all over everywhere about some type of election for president. I heard that this kitchen was having its election cycle soon, but I wasn’t so sure that plastering your big messages all over where people commute would be the best decision since they’re just trying to get their grind on for the day. Another thing I noticed was that there was a nice smell coming from an Asian rice grains stand. He was speaking this different language I didn’t get but from what I understood, I could tell that he was selling phosphorus and potassium for sunlight. I was a little hungry, so I was going to get some, but I was a little worried since I didn’t speak the language since I was a Persian rice grain. But what happened next really inspired me. I asked for some raw potassium that I would process later, and he immediately recognized my rice grain accent and started to speak my native language. He gave me my potassium and asked me if I came from the bag that came in yesterday since I came from the hotel but didn’t look at the part. I first thought it was a little rude to ask like that, but I answered yes anyways because I was happy someone close by understood me, he told me his name was Min and to ask him if I had any more questions and to get a phone to translate and learn the language. I thought that was really sweet of him and he even wrote down his phone number for me. I kind of thought he might have been trying to get with me and was a little suspicious, but he was pretty charming, so I’ll give it a pass for now but maybe not later. Pretty soon I was on my way to the immigration pantry after surveilling my surroundings, I guess even if they put me in a really high shelf hotel it’s still a low-income area because there were so a lot of wilting foods around me it was a little off putting but it was I’d take this 5 times over what I had to deal with at home.
I finally made it to the immigration pantry and holy there was a big line. I knew that obviously I wasn’t the only one coming from the outbreak but I swear there was more grains waiting than those who came from the bag. It turns out that there were more people waiting there than those that came from the bag and this kitchen had an over migrant issue and they were at full capacity. So I got into line and waited around 5 hours to finally get in the pantry. It was a hot line where I had to wait in the scorching sun for these stupid papers but when I finally got in what I was told next made me appalled at this system they’ve developed. I followed the line into a nicely furnished office with a can of tuna with glasses who spoke my language. She told me that unfortunately my papers have been delayed for the next week and I was going to need to wait.
But what was I supposed to do with no papers, walk around? How was I supposed to possibly survive with no documentation for a week? I can’t get anything yet, they told me the next door over would handle it. I walked in and they handed me $200 and got me to leave. I was completely flabbergasted and considered going to the next kitchen over to survive because how was this possibly gonna be enough to get my feet off the ground. After I left I went back to the hotel. The concierge warned me I was gonna have only 3 days left here before they were going to need to kick me out for the next shipment of people and that I was going to need to find a job to survive.
I was too worried for how I would get a way to survive in this kitchen without any sort of help and not knowing the language so I am going to sleep now. I hope to get to write about a new job tomorrow and hopefully survive the next week.
DAY 3:
Well, it’s day 3 of living in the pantry and I’m not having a good time right now. Yesterday, the immigration pantry told me it’s going to be a little while for my documentation papers to come in and they gave me a measly $200 to get by. I am pretty concerned as I don’t have a way to get by at the moment so I am going to need to find something to do.
I walked out the hotel and started thinking about what I needed to do.
I remembered what that rice grain Min told me to do, to get a phone so I tried to find out where it was. The signs were unfortunately too hard for me to read so I thought I was pretty done for. Fortunately, I remembered that Min’s stand wasn’t that far away. I walked over to the park and found his cart. He greeted me and I was very thankful to meet him since I wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t even be there. He wrote down the directions on a piece of paper I thanked him and went on my way. He’s such a nice grain and I thought that since his line of work doesn’t take a particular set of skills I thought it would be a good idea to maybe go into the nutrient industry.
With the $200 and directions the pantry and Min gave me I went over to the tech store for a new phone so I have a means of communication and a way at understanding this new world around me.
I couldn’t even get the good ones cause they were too expensive but I thought I had nothing to lose so I went ahead and blew all $200 on the best phone I could get since I knew it would be my primary form of understanding and interacting with this new world so it was worth the investment.
The first thing I did with this new phone was call my relatives on the farm and found out that a couple of my family grains were sick and needed a way out as such, I thought I had some level of responsibility to provide that way out for them since I saw first hand how terrible the world can be.
More importantly I needed that way of providing fast before they kick me out of that hotel or else I’m screwed. I loaded up a job application app on this phone and scrolled through as many jobs as I could. There were a lot of jobs that I really wanted to get as we didn’t have such well-paid jobs back home but I didn’t have the credentials for any of them. I noticed that almost every single job required some form of culinary degree, something I didn’t have or have a chance of getting. It wasn’t an enjoyable decision, but I decided to go over to the employment can where they give out jobs to people. I had high hopes since there’s no reason to not put people to work but what I encountered appalled me. The management sardines ended up putting all of the newly immigrated rice grains into a long as heck single file line where they do a quick interview to put them into a job.
Everything seemed cool at first, so I got in line but after an hour of waiting, they decided to put all of the unemployed native foods in the same line as us but all ahead of us causing everyone to have to go further back than when we started. I looked ahead into the front of the line to the section after the interview booth and I saw a couple of grains crying on the ground. I decided to get out of the line to quickly check up on them to see if I could help them out. As I spoke with them, I realized that the situation for me might be more dire than I thought. They were some grains who were like me who had nothing, no documentation, no skills, except a dream of providing for their folks back home. It turns out that this was their 4th time waiting all day for a job and getting declined. They got declined cause there were no “no experience required” positions open which flabbergasted me. There were no jobs to take? We can do work! I didn’t care what I was that I could do I would take anything, but it didn’t seem like I would have any luck here, so I got out and decided to walk back home. As I walked back it felt extremely hopeless. I couldn’t find work, find help, or find opportunities here, it was really bad. I looked up to my dad my whole life and he always told me one thing to me “my voice is power” I thought it was really inspirational back home but over here I thought to myself “what’s the point of having a voice if there’s no one to understand?”
I didn’t have the answer, but it made me start to think if there might be anyone around that could understand me. I thought for a bit and Min came to mind. I had nothing to lose so I walked over to his stand on the way back. I saw his stand and prayed that he would be there. He was. I couldn’t be more relieved. He saw that I was crying a little and comforted me in the stands shop. He took me in and I explained everything that happened today. He thought for a little bit. Moseyed around his shop for a little bit looking for something and came back to me. I was spaced out thinking if there was anything that could happen to save me. Then I looked up and I saw Min writing something down on a paper napkin. He told me to check out the table. I walked over to the table and saw what was written on the paper. I fell to my knees. The napkin only said 2 words and a line at the bottom. “You’re Hired.” I cried tears of joy at Min for letting me be able to work at his stand and he told me that the line at the bottom was a signature to start working. It wasn’t official, there was no paperwork, nothing to verify. It was pure community.
I sobbed while singing to him and wondered what was next. He told me that I would start my first shift tomorrow if I would like and I couldn’t thank him more for this opportunity that they gave to someone like me. I walked out of his stand and wandered over to the hotel. I checked my phone and found out that it came with an actual notes app where I am writing this right now. I pray tomorrow brings an opportunity for myself and my family to see another day and I hope whoever is reading this has a nice night.
Thank you note:
Thank you to whoever is reading this. I hope you enjoyed my little story about this rice grain. I wished there were enough blogs in the semester so that I could’ve done the whole week which was the plan, not just 3 days. But hey, I’m decently happy with how it came out overall, had loads of fun making this and I might even write out the whole week anyways cause of how enjoyable this was. Whatever the case may be I appreciate the time spent you’ve spent reading this and hope you enjoy a good night.
