January 26, 2006-Filipino Boat Workers

In case I start feeling sorry for myself, here is how the local Filipino boat boys, who work on the boats around here, live. They sleep on the decks of the boats they are hired to take care of, usually under an awning, but outside. For meals they cook on a common charcoal cooker on the dock. They eat white rice ($.45 per kilo) and small fish they catch in the marina (3" long) cooked whole and crumbled on the rice. This is all I see them eat. They put it in a bowl and eat with their fingers, squatting on the dock. One has a wife or girl friend who I see washing her hair on the dock from a hose, or sitting in front of a small bench with a mirror propped on it, putting on some makeup from some small bits she has. They stay up late at night listening to a boom box on the dock.

For a big night out they go across the street to an outdoor Karaoke bar in a gravel parking lot where they can get beers for $.35 and warble off key to video Karaoke. You hear it everywhere in the Philippines, it is a national obsession, Karaoke.

Despite this minimum life, they seem happy, and they are honest, and they are willing to work. I think that if they get desperate they can go live with a mother or father, who probably have a house somewhere, if you can call the two room tin and cement block shacks with ten people living in them around here houses.

I have hired them a few times to do stuff like wash and wax my boat (Two guys, 4 hours, $9.00). Once I hired a guy named Donde to go up the mast and clean and wax it. I could have done this job myself, in fact I have done it, so has Judy, but he was willing, and I paid him $5.75, for 2 hours work, which is more than the minimum wage for a whole day. He asked for this much because he said it was a dangerous job. It was.

I don't quibble much about the price when I hire these guys, because I feel pretty cheap when they get so little compared to what I would work for. I live on $1500/month, they live on about $100, and a few bucks for extra jobs from guys like me makes a difference, Whew! how lucky we are.

Fred Roswold, SV Wings, Luzon

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