Abong da Apong: Looking back---Crews and breaks

My construction crew consists of the 5 guys I brought in from Olongapo as my primary construction crew specializing in wood carpentry and the rest are locals from around the area. My project manager does the hiring, firing and act as paymaster as well. At the peak of the project, we have as many as 26 crews simultaneously working on various tasks including, carpentry, roofing materials preparation, bamboo flooring preparations, fish pond riprap and Pina as full-time cook. My deal with the 5 construction crew is that I provide lodging and lunch during workdays except Sundays. They provide their own breakfast and supper. They can go home after work every Saturday and start Monday morning. They have to provide their own breakfast and dinner just as the locals do.

Right after the crew’s bahay-kubo and the CR was completed, we immediately worked on the temporary outdoor kitchen or “batalan”.

It only took two days to complete the batalan. It has two burner gas stove, a water faucet, place to hang up coffee cups, drinking glasses, plates and everything we need to cook and serve food for the crew. This batalan serves as our kitchen for almost five months.

our batalan

The pictures below shows the crew preparing and celebrating of a major milestone.

Sundays are mandatory break and free time for everybody. A local barber usually comes in to gave haircut to those who want it. The crew also use this time to do some fishing at the pond.

here a local barber does a housecall

the crew trying to hook some fish for dinner

Some go around gathering vegetables growing around the property,

kohol

The crew even brought their own TV set to watch their favorite basketball game.

Besides fishing, the next favorite past time is watching and feeding those free range chickens and probably discussing which one would be next for arroz-caldo or tinola. There were about 30 or so

assorted chickens when they started and maybe less than 10 when the project ended.