A story from my time in an alaskan fish plant

I decided to start writing some, or blogging? I'm not really sure, and I'm very new at this so please give me feedback on areas I could work on. Anyway this is an experience of mine.

When I was fresh out of Highschool I signed up to be a factory worker at a salmon cannery in Alaska, I was flown out on a charter flight that was filled to capacity with other workers. The plane was full of a diverse group of people stemming from all corners of the earth. It was nothing upon comparing it to the sea of faces I saw upon my arrival. Every person seemed to have there own story of hard times and trials worn onto there faces and bodies, there own personal reasons for making this expedition that all seemed to outweigh my own. I felt very privileged that my sole reason for being up there was just to earn some summer money and see the last frontier.

One person I met that stands out in my mind to this day, is a man whose name I never learned. He was large samoan man, with a heavy build that I had seen on a few occasions. We sometimes played music together when I would go and hang out with the samoan group, it was really just a lot people playing percussive instruments (spoons, cans, snaps..) and singing, but there wasn't exactly a guitarcenter up there and people wanted to relax with some good rhythms. I never got his name because he didn't speak any english, but he always seemed very nice.

Now, if you got fired from this company they would drive you to the end of the gate with a check made out to you with whatever money you made, but it was on you to find your way home, mind you this was a very rural town and doing so seemed like a very intimidating feat.

Everything was communal there showers, laundry, bathrooms, even the 6' x 12' rooms housed three. One day this samoan guy who's name I never knew was doing his laundry, he had his clothing in the dryer and was taking a nap. Another worker was doing his laundry and was annoyed that the drying cycle was finished and he was still napping on the couch. So, instead of politely waking him up to get his laundry out he started kicking the couch and screaming at him to get his ass up, or something, it really didn't matter seeings how he couldn't understand him anyways. I can only imagine the confusion and hostility he must've felt by some belligerent person waking him up with nothing but aggression. He got up and pushed him away, a fight broke out and I'm pretty sure the belligerent kid got his nose broken. The fight was quickly broken up, as most are, but it was done in a very public place and management quickly caught wind.

Maybe an hour later they drove the samoan man whose name I never knew to the end of the gate where they left him. I'm not sure if we were even a week into the season, all I knew was that we hadn't made very much money yet. We only made a little above minimum wage and the way you would make money was by the 16 hour shifts we would work everyday, but in the beginning of the season, certainly within the first week we weren't getting those 16 hour days. They dropped him off at that gate with what I could only guess would be a disappointing amount of money, shy of what I'm assuming the staggering airfare would be to get back to samoa.

I never saw him again, and I'm not sure if he ever made it home. I would talk with friends of his asking about him, seeing if anyone every heard from him, but no one ever had news on his arrival home or his whereabouts. I hope he got home and everything turned out well for him and he's doing good, but I'll never really know. That moment always stayed with me though, watching the wrong man being marched away to find his way home with no money, a suitcase of clothes and absolutely no knowledge of the common language. As the belligerent and hostile one returned to work.

I still think about him now and again, wondering how his story went after walking out that gate. It sunk in deep, the coldness he was given, how unfair the situation was, he couldn't even tell his side of the story. I'd wonder if it ever weighs on the management or on the antagonist , probably not, the antagonist never seemed to feel any remorse for him and it seemed routine for the management, he wasn't the last one marched to the gate. I hope he's doing alright, the samoan man whose name I never learned, he could play some spoons.