it so happened

Present yourself at seven in the morning. Give name and id number for book keeping. Meet the workers. Observe the difference of social interaction: It begins fluently and open. You are asked about your family, relatives, residence. You answer, they reply in remembrance. You feel at ease. They don't know your person. They know your past, fluently. Unlike elsewhere there are almost no pauses in discussion but an instant firing of questions. Here pretentious etiquette does not apply - you have already thought about it, no reason not to ask. They shake your hand and smile and you feel their smile is true. As the hands untangle from one another you make the calculations, you compare: hundreds of handshakes, smiles, nods. The aforementioned thought is valid. The workers are split into teams and you help your group (consisting of two more people) to mount the truck with the necessary tools.
Visit the assigned post and collect the objects told. En route, proceed with social interaction. Where are they from? How old are they? How many children do they have? Once at destination, walk around the area to find the objects. Not all should be collected. Some can be fixed. When the clock strikes 9, sit down for a coffee break. Observe the discussion between your group and the group working at the site. Take mental notes. Remember how the friendly discussion becomes a heated debate. Feel the same fire and angst inside you. These are the people that keep the machine running. They are not the academics, the doctors, or scientists. They are the workers. Without the former, human growth merely delays. Deprived of the latter, you drown in your own shit - literally. Remind yourself of this and pay closer attention: their salaries are reduced without any hint of increase at least for the next three years. They despair and their voices rise. They recall an invasion of their country and their current leaders attempt to erase any memory of it. They blame political figures. One of them lost a brother during the war, others have lost relatives also - dead or missing. They had sisters and mothers raped. You are reminded how the policy of "divide and conquer" implemented by the imperialists is still evident, while they point their fingers at one another blaming political parties. There are truths and their are lies in what they speak. Confusion, after all, is exactly what the nations leaders want at the present moment. Easier to manipulate the new truths to be spoon fed through the mass media. You stand up along with your group and walk along the long corridor which echoes the remaining people's voices still arguing. Pick up any last objects piled up and get in the truck. Drive to the garbage dumping site and help unload. Be aware of being held back from unloading as the "ethnic minority person" takes over. The temperature is at least 40 degrees and humidity 75%.
Leave the site and go back to base. Get new mission objective. Load truck with necessary tools. Leave for new destination. Discuss with group. You will learn how one person in the group keeps farm animals. He will also elaborate on how his daughter became a vegan not because fashion dictates it (like some places you know) but due to experience. After looking after five goats it becomes extremely difficult killing any of them. The uneducated person will seem to be philosophizing. Erase this thought due to lack of approved certifications. He speaks of the realization of gluttony on materials that one does not grow/raise herself. When one buys eggs, he constantly buys eggs. When one has three chickens that give three eggs a day, one learns to use only those and no more. You realise the simplicity of the subject and imagine how many books have been written to express this.
At work take a break at 12 for lunch. Chitchat with the person on site who is sitting with you. She will involve you in the conversation. The economic "crisis", the real estate, job prospects. Intensively, she will strike a new path for conversing about your studies and her older cat being remote from the younger one. You enjoy the conversation.
Return to work but take large breaks in between. These breaks should be double the amount of time spent on actual labour. You spend these breaks either in chitchat mode or in silence, enjoying the subtle breeze that arises every now and again.
You are picked up by another worker to visit another site. He is also friendly and in a conversation mood. Once at the site, you will help him fix certain objects. The woman there, who is quite old, will discuss her recent visits abroad and her characteristic of not arguing about her rights but rather stay quiet. You notice how she repeats for thirty times how she wasn't here but was away on holidays and has just come back. The hammering noise will recede to reveal that she is speaking and her voice will be covered by the uprising noise of the hammering until it recedes again to reveal once more that she is still speaking. This process will continue for one hour. Once the work is done, you take another break. You walk outside and sit on a bench with your fellow worker. He asks about your father's disease - particularly. You describe and as you do, you notice that he is crying. You realise the immense importance of this. That an unknown person will cry over your troubles. You think that he must also have gone through this in order to understand. You enter the truck and return back to base. Once all tools are returned to their place you may leave. A worker drives you back home.
It comes to your attention that you have no real strength over (sen)tenses.