Up until I finished my elementary school, in more than 6 years, I had been helping Inang picking coffee beans especially when it was in high season. Sometimes, I worked when school was in holiday. During holiday, my salary working at Inang's coffee garden was the same as the salary of an adult working at the farm. I did work from morning to late afternoon.
Most of the kids in the village up until now, can do what I used to do especially if their parents are farmers. Â
We got to the farm after walking for almost an hour. We were already in the middle of the coffee garden picking the beans.
"Take that ladder and bring it here," Inang asked me, "we have a lot to pick here on its higher branches".
We rarely talked since we both were concentrating on collecting the beans the most we could. Also, I myself had to be careful as Inang always reminded me to do the work in a correct way.
Now and then, I sucked some beans, the most beautiful beans my hand could find. It tasted sweet.
Time went bye like a blink of an eye! When you enjoy what you do, that is the case most of the time, isn't it?
"Let's get ready. We must go soon," said Inang.
We both put the beans into two sacks. Soon, we walked to Parsikolahan, 30 minutes away from the farm, carrying sack on our head.
Tulang J smiled seeing us coming. He was the agent to whom Inang always sold her coffee beans. He hurriedly helped Inang and myself to put the sack on our heads down to the grown. Then, Tulang J measured the weight of our beans.
"25 kg, Amboru", he said.
