Makum Tea Factory

If you stand outside our place in Makum, you can hear the trains passing by since we are right near the Makum Railway Station. The noise is just something we got used to over the years. Inside the Makum Tea Factory, it is a different kind of sound with the machines running and the leaves being moved around. It is a big space but it feels small when we have a lot of tea coming in at once. We spend our days checking on the batches and making sure everything is moving along. The air inside always feels a bit heavy and smells very strong of green leaves. Most of the staff live nearby so we all know each other well. We don't really have any fancy decorations on the walls or anything like that. It’s just a factory where we do the work that needs doing. Sometimes the machinery breaks down and we have to spend half the day fixing it with grease all over our clothes. That’s just how it goes here. Being so close to the station makes it easy for transport, which is good. We keep our boots by the door because the floors get dusty quite fast. It is not a quiet job, but it is steady. We just keep our heads down and focus on the tea. It is honest work and we have been doing it this way for a long time now.