As if driving on busy roads of Metro Manila were not a huge task enough, take a “jeepney” and watch a its driver maneuver the thoroughfares. He must multi-task. He must watch where he is going and how because fellow jeepney drivers are every which way competing for passengers along the road and at every street corner. Top that with tall, long public buses, cars, pedicabs, motorbikes/bikes, delivery trucks of sorts, and taxis jamming the paths. Inside a jeepney, the driver must not only tune out the honking transport around, but he must also listen keenly to passengers telling him where they’re going as they pay fares. He must quickly think how much to charge, get his left or right hand stir the wheel and masterfully get his other hand rummage through various coin and currency denominations so that he could give back to passengers their correct changes; passengers do not always pay with exact changes, you observe. He must mind passengers asking to stop at certain spots and places along the way. He must internalize all stopping points of passengers so that he does not get screamed at for not appropriately delivering them to their destinations. He must bear from time to time, screaming babies and children on laps of their parents who are cantankerously admonishing them to behave or to be quiet. Add to all those goings and comings the noise of running engines and the terrible heat brought by sweltering hot weather or messy, miserable rainy weather. I would never take a jeepney driver’s job! I am, however, thankful and appreciative of their resilience and determination to earn a living and to help their fellow folks go about and around.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Backbones: Jeepney Driver
64 ...
As if driving on busy roads of Metro Manila were not a huge task enough, take a “jeepney” and watch a its driver maneuver the thoroughfares. He must multi-task. He must watch where he is going and how because fellow jeepney drivers are every which way competing for passengers along the road and at every street corner. Top that with tall, long public buses, cars, pedicabs, motorbikes/bikes, delivery trucks of sorts, and taxis jamming the paths. Inside a jeepney, the driver must not only tune out the honking transport around, but he must also listen keenly to passengers telling him where they’re going as they pay fares. He must quickly think how much to charge, get his left or right hand stir the wheel and masterfully get his other hand rummage through various coin and currency denominations so that he could give back to passengers their correct changes; passengers do not always pay with exact changes, you observe. He must mind passengers asking to stop at certain spots and places along the way. He must internalize all stopping points of passengers so that he does not get screamed at for not appropriately delivering them to their destinations. He must bear from time to time, screaming babies and children on laps of their parents who are cantankerously admonishing them to behave or to be quiet. Add to all those goings and comings the noise of running engines and the terrible heat brought by sweltering hot weather or messy, miserable rainy weather. I would never take a jeepney driver’s job! I am, however, thankful and appreciative of their resilience and determination to earn a living and to help their fellow folks go about and around.
As if driving on busy roads of Metro Manila were not a huge task enough, take a “jeepney” and watch a its driver maneuver the thoroughfares. He must multi-task. He must watch where he is going and how because fellow jeepney drivers are every which way competing for passengers along the road and at every street corner. Top that with tall, long public buses, cars, pedicabs, motorbikes/bikes, delivery trucks of sorts, and taxis jamming the paths. Inside a jeepney, the driver must not only tune out the honking transport around, but he must also listen keenly to passengers telling him where they’re going as they pay fares. He must quickly think how much to charge, get his left or right hand stir the wheel and masterfully get his other hand rummage through various coin and currency denominations so that he could give back to passengers their correct changes; passengers do not always pay with exact changes, you observe. He must mind passengers asking to stop at certain spots and places along the way. He must internalize all stopping points of passengers so that he does not get screamed at for not appropriately delivering them to their destinations. He must bear from time to time, screaming babies and children on laps of their parents who are cantankerously admonishing them to behave or to be quiet. Add to all those goings and comings the noise of running engines and the terrible heat brought by sweltering hot weather or messy, miserable rainy weather. I would never take a jeepney driver’s job! I am, however, thankful and appreciative of their resilience and determination to earn a living and to help their fellow folks go about and around.
Backbones: Bus Driver’s Sidekick
63 ...
On a given day you are on a public bus, and you are not occupied by pressing matters, observe a fare collector snake in and out of his moving transport. Watch him expertly move about, stop at every bus pew and collect fares from passengers. You wonder, yet get awed by how he could memorize amounts to properly charge passengers for distances they are going, ticket them, and make correct changes. Be amazed how he could do all tasks while also spotting through windows for potential passengers at upcoming junctions. Listen to flowery words he uses to convince bystanders to take his bus and not the one behind or the ones coming that very way his driver takes. Listen to him shout out and tell passengers to move back and around the already tightly-filled bus so that he and his driver could get more bodies packed into the vehicle. Think about how he does his tasks day in and out. It would not be hard to sympathize with his seemingly nonchalant, yet equally challenging drive to keep his wits intact!
On a given day you are on a public bus, and you are not occupied by pressing matters, observe a fare collector snake in and out of his moving transport. Watch him expertly move about, stop at every bus pew and collect fares from passengers. You wonder, yet get awed by how he could memorize amounts to properly charge passengers for distances they are going, ticket them, and make correct changes. Be amazed how he could do all tasks while also spotting through windows for potential passengers at upcoming junctions. Listen to flowery words he uses to convince bystanders to take his bus and not the one behind or the ones coming that very way his driver takes. Listen to him shout out and tell passengers to move back and around the already tightly-filled bus so that he and his driver could get more bodies packed into the vehicle. Think about how he does his tasks day in and out. It would not be hard to sympathize with his seemingly nonchalant, yet equally challenging drive to keep his wits intact!
Monday, July 13, 2015
Backbones: Window-Screen Changer
62 ...
A house, however small, requires maintenance. Window screens, for instance, get brittle and then break in time. If you do not replace them when they so require, you could bring into your home dreadful pests and unwanted insects, deadly mosquitoes, for instance. Unless you could do well the task yourself, it is best you find and hire someone who knows what he must do. Because I certainly do not know how to, I decide to take my two "holey" screen windows to an aluminum and screen workshop. An older man-in-charge tells me how much the cost of the job, and then he makes me wait for the window screens to get changed. With an authoritarian voice, he calls a young man about twenty, who responds to his summon. They confer about the job. The young man then examines my sorry-looking screen windows, and right there and then, he rips out the torn screen from each of the frames. He tosses them under his work table, looks at bales of new screen material, and he picks the appropriate one to use. He measures and cuts just enough of the screen pieces. After that, he fits the frames with just the right size screen sheets. With precision, he inserts the edges with the help of only a "running roller" on hand. I could see that the new screen edges go right into the frame crevices without a fight. He completes the task by securing a rubber cord cushion pressed into the edges and going all around the window framework. In a gif the screen sheets are as snug as they could be. What do you know? Spiff and new, the screen windows are ready to go back where they belong; just like that, the young master worker mesmerizes me with his skill!
A house, however small, requires maintenance. Window screens, for instance, get brittle and then break in time. If you do not replace them when they so require, you could bring into your home dreadful pests and unwanted insects, deadly mosquitoes, for instance. Unless you could do well the task yourself, it is best you find and hire someone who knows what he must do. Because I certainly do not know how to, I decide to take my two "holey" screen windows to an aluminum and screen workshop. An older man-in-charge tells me how much the cost of the job, and then he makes me wait for the window screens to get changed. With an authoritarian voice, he calls a young man about twenty, who responds to his summon. They confer about the job. The young man then examines my sorry-looking screen windows, and right there and then, he rips out the torn screen from each of the frames. He tosses them under his work table, looks at bales of new screen material, and he picks the appropriate one to use. He measures and cuts just enough of the screen pieces. After that, he fits the frames with just the right size screen sheets. With precision, he inserts the edges with the help of only a "running roller" on hand. I could see that the new screen edges go right into the frame crevices without a fight. He completes the task by securing a rubber cord cushion pressed into the edges and going all around the window framework. In a gif the screen sheets are as snug as they could be. What do you know? Spiff and new, the screen windows are ready to go back where they belong; just like that, the young master worker mesmerizes me with his skill!
Backbones: Welder
61 ...
With pieces of new and salvaged metal, fit still for an ordered
project, Gilbert examines his treasure find.
He makes a drawing of a box on paper scrap, and then he brings out from
his almost dilapidated backpack, a saw blade; he puts it aside. He figures metal sizes to be cut and he preps
a 4x4 cushion wood board in which to cut his visualized project - box cages for
two air-conditioning units. Equipped
only with a saw blade, he begins the arduous metal cutting task under the
scorching heat of the sun. Next he
unravels from a sack-bag a rented welding machine. There was no extension cord he could use to
connect the machine to an electrical outlet; he rummages for something else in
his backpack. Out from it emerges a coil
of cords. He inspects them, and soon, he
exposes wires that he would then connect to the electrical outlet indoors. Without proper protective clothing and
gloves, he begins to labor.
Fireworks-like spurts come out of welding rods and gun as Gilbert puts
into shape one box cage. He repeats the
process for a second cage. Gilbert, puny
and lanky for a thirty-eight year old construction worker, produces an amazing
work of art, one must admit, with meager tools and plenty of artisanship!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)