A few days ago, I cleaned up the trash around the airstrip, but I also had to take care of the grass on the runway and its sides. The last time it was mowed was about 3 weeks ago, and it's grown quite a bit since.
For that, I'm using a simple petrol-powered lawn mower. Imagine, the runway is about 3000sqm so there's a lot of walking and pushing involved here.
Before taking it out of the hangar and going ahead with mowing the whole runway, I decided to check the blade first. Definitely a good thing I did so, otherwise it most likely would have been much harder for me to get the job done. The blade needed a good sharpening to make sure it cuts the grass easily and at the same time to remove all the dents caused by the rocks it previously hit.
I removed the blade from the lawn mower and went to the bladesmith in town. His name is Ernesto and I had previously gone to his place to have some bolos sharpened.
A bolo (Tagalog: iták, Ilocano: bunéng, Cebuano: súndang, Hiligaynon: binangon) is a large cutting tool of Filipino origin similar to the machete.
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His place doesn't look anything like a shop. You would actually think it is just an abandoned ruin and wouldn't think somebody works in there.
I handed over the blade to him along with a bolo which also needed to be sharpened. He had a quick look at them and asked whether I'd wait or if I would come back. Since it would only take him 30 minutes, I decided to stay and take the opportunity that I had my camera with me to snap some pictures of the place and him doing the job.
As I mentioned the place is very rough. The whole electric system is very archaic and dodgy. To start his machine, he's actually putting a couple of cables together producing a few sparks before using one of those old big breaker switches to turn the power on.
I'm not even sure the whole place is well protected in case of rain.
If you payed attention to the pictures, you may have thought that these shots were taken on different days. For whatever reason, he decided to change t-shirt after he was done with the first blade .
At the same time, I took a few pictures of the road in front of the place.
After about 30 minutes, both blades were sharp. Total cost Php190 (US $3.85) which some people living here may think is too much, but I think it is pretty reasonable, especially when you compare it to European standards.
I couldn't chat much with him because I don't speak Bisaya and his English was very rudimentary but I did get to understand that he lives a very simple life a few kilometers away with his wife and 5 daughters. He was very kind to agree to let me take some pictures and to even pose with the 2 sharpened blades before I left.
Just like a lot of Filipinos, he is living a very frugal life, trying to make ends meet on a daily basis.
I had a thought about it and I have decided to help him a bit through the Hive. In 1 week, when I can claim the reward from this post, I will donate the whole Hive Dollar value to him. I will convert the amount to Philippines pesos and will hand it over to him. Even if it's not much, I'm sure every little bit would help him. At the same time, I will take a picture which I will post on Hive to prove that I have done it.
Depending on how well this post is received, I may continue a "Who Are They Philippines" series and tell the stories of random people on a regular basis, mostly in the area where I live to start with. The HBD proceeds would always go to them.
See you next week with another picture of Ernesto receiving the reward. 🙂