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Lunch with the Tea Pickers
Mary
Appears in
Published 2013
With the morning’s harvest weighed and bagged, it is now lunchtime. Each day, two tea pickers are chosen to collect all the lunches, which have been lovingly packed by the women’s mothers, sisters or mothers-in-law, and left in bags hanging on trees outside each of their homes. The two women return, arms buckling under the weight of heavy bags stuffed with bottles of drink and parcels of rice and curry.
The tea pickers, who are all women, collect their lunch bags and scatter into small groups. My attention is drawn to one group, who are giggling and affectionately teasing each other. I wander over and start chatting to them while they unwrap their lunch parcels, and am surprised when they pour what appears to be arrack, a strong spirit made from coconuts, into metal cups. One of the women,