WATP #8 - Meet Trinidad The Laundrywoman + Claudia & Rosalina's HBD Reward

avatar
(Edited)

Hello #Hive,

This is @discoveringarni presenting the 8th Edition of #WhoAreTheyPhilippines. πŸ™‚

I was invited by @whoaretheyph to do this feature as a test. The vision is to expand WATP's reach beyond the South Cebu area by involving some of the major contributors to this project and have them create a feature about a person from their area. It will however be very important to retain the integrity and authenticity that this initiative strives for.

For today's #WhoAreTheyPhilippines (WATP) feature, we are meeting Trinidad, the laundrywoman from Moalboal, Cebu.


Each week, @whoaretheyph drives to a different location and randomly selects one person. Like him, I am an introvert who finds it challenging to engage with strangers. This week, he accompanied me, merely to oversee things, but he left all decisions and responsibilities to me in selecting the destination and the person to be interviewed.

The 4 Hours Search

At 10:30 am, we started our scooter journey from Moalboal Park behind the Municipal Hall. We drove south towards the mountains of Badian. After driving for almost an hour in the middle of nowhere unable to find anyone around, it was already lunch time. This meant we had to wait before resuming our search.

By half past one in the afternoon, we were back on the road towards the scenic hills of Barangay Busay between Moalboal and Badian. The remote concrete road turned into a narrow and steep limestone path and I still hadn't found anyone that ignited a feeling of peace and soulful recognition.

I asked @whoaretheyph to head back to Moalboal towards Barangay Bugho instead. We drove through paths bordered by jungles and steep cliffs which later opened up to rice and corn fields. In my mind, I kept wishing to find someone whom I was really meant to meet.

I spotted a woman watering her plants. I introduced myself and explained the initiative. While I was doing so, I sensed her reservations through her demeanor and true enough, she declined to be interviewed.

How I Met Trinidad

At that time, we had been driving around for close to four hours and I was still looking for someone that felt right. It was getting late and it was almost time for us to pick up our daughter at her friend's place. We headed back towards town.

A woman on the side of the road wearing a purple t-shirt captured my attention. We drove past her while she was harvesting sweet potato leaves in front of her house. I asked @whoarethyph to turn the scooter around.

I immediately greeted her, introduced myself and explained what #WhoAreTheyPhilippines is about as well as asked for her permission to be interviewed. She warmly smiled at me and said yes.

I can get by understanding and speaking a bit of Cebuano but because I am not fluent, I asked her if it was okay if I spoke in Tagalog instead. We both understood each other 90% of the time.
Shortly after we began the interview, her friendly neighbors, driven by curiosity, joined us and enthusiastically offered to jump in to translate whenever needed.

Who is Trinidad?

Trinidad, fondly called by her neighbors as Trining is a 60-year old laundrywoman and a mother of 6 kids. 3 girls and 3 boys. The oldest one is 32 years old and the youngest is 23. Five of them are already married living in different parts of Cebu. Her eyes lit up when she mentioned she has 12 grandchildren.

She has long been separated from her husband and has been living with her youngest son in their tiny house perched on top of a rock overlooking the road.

She was born in Badian and moved to Moalboal after getting married. Her ex-husband is a native of Barangay Paramayon in Poblacion East, where she has been living for the last 19 years.

Throughout her life, her main livelihood is doing laundry by hand for various households. I asked her if there were other types of jobs she toiled in. Trining nonchalantly shared that when she was younger around her 40s, she drove a trisikad part-time, in between laundry jobs in order to make ends meet.

She has lost her main source of income when Covid19 struck. She was forced to stay at home since the beginning of the quarantine. Her youngest son sometimes contributes to pay the bills at home.

Talbos ng Kamote - Sweet Potato Leaves

She happily showed me around her garden during the interview.

She finds joy in gardening daily and tending to her cats and chickens who were running around her house. Here is a picture of her camera-shy cat in her kitchen.

When I asked her what her dreams were, she smiled at me and said in the local dialect that she is contented with life for as long as she could eat three times a day. I asked her twice what her favorite food is and both times her answer was corn.

For my final question, I asked her what was the happiest moment in her life, an event that she would never forget.

Without a second thought she replied, "My birthday."

It was only after delving a bit deeper into the subject that I understood that she was specifically referring to a week ago when all of her family and grandchildren came home to celebrate her 60th birthday.

This concluded my interview with Trining. We said our goodbyes and I promised to return next week.

To contribute to her reward, please upvote this post and share it with your followers by reblogging it.

Thank you all again for your support and see you next week for another feature including Trinidad's reward.


Time for Claudia's & Rosalina's HBD Reward

Claudia and Rosalina were the feature of WATP #7 and the author reward came in last night.

So here is the breakdown for their reward:

Β Β Β HBD 6.927 from post payout
+ HBD 8.000 from @ybanezkim26
+ HBD 4.950 from @wandergirl
+ HBD 4.000 from @kayceeports2020
+ HBD 4.000 from @discoveringarni
+ HBD 4.000 from @jubei333
+ HBD 2.600 from @kneelyrac
+ HBD 2.009 from @josejirafa
+ HBD 2.000 from @iamraincrystal
+ HBD 2.000 from @iamyohann
+ HBD 1.000 from @romeskie
+ HBD 0.953 (HIVE 4.000) from @viking-ventures

= HBD 42.439

This amount converted into the local currency is PHP 1,925.46 so let's round it up to PHP 1,930 to make it easier. This means that they each receive PHP 965.

Here is the picture of Claudia and Rosalina receiving their reward.

Thank you to everyone who participated to her reward and especially the above mentioned persons for their contributions as well as @darthknight for his big contribution through an upvote.


What is #WhoAreTheyPhilippines?

#WhoAreTheyPhilippines is a weekly project where I randomly select a person in the area where I live or work. I interview that person, take a few pictures and then post about him/her on the Hive PH Community. After 7 days, when the author reward can be claimed, I convert the whole HBD amount to the local currency (PHP) and hand it over to him/her along with some contributions from some of you.

I am very thankful to all of you for your support, upvotes and contributions. I am glad this initiative is well received.


Check out the previous editions here:

WATP #1 - Ernesto The BladeSmith and Ernesto's HBD Reward
WATP #2 - Marito The Trisikad Driver
WATP #3 - Pampilo The Vulcanizer
WATP #4 - Virgilia The Sari-sari Store Owner
WATP #5 - Eliza the Plant Seller
WATP #6 - Kris the Street Food Seller
WATP #7 - Claudia & Rosalina the Homemakers


Status on the current contributions:

ContributorTotal ContributionUsed ContributionRemaining Contribution
@ybanezkim26
HBD 22.010
HBD 20.010
HBD 2.000
@kayceeports2020
HBD 16.950
HBD 16.950
HBD 0.000
@discoveringarni
HBD 16.000
HBD 10.000
HBD 6.000
@iamraincrystal
HBD 10.000
HBD 4.000
HBD 6.000
@romeskie
HBD 12.000
HBD 6.000
HBD 6.000
@iamyohann
HBD 9.162
HBD 9.162
HBD 0.000
@kneelyrac
HBD 5.911
HBD 5.911
HBD 0.000
@josejirafa
HBD 5.009
HBD 2.009
HBD 3.000
@wandergirl
HBD 4.950
HBD 4.950
HBD 0.000
@jubei333
HBD 4.000
HBD 4.000
HBD 0.000
@viking-ventures
HBD 0.953
HBD 0.953
HBD 0.000


0
0
0.000
20 comments
avatar

Congratulations @whoaretheyph! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You distributed more than 300 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 400 upvotes.
You received more than 1250 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 1500 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:

Feedback from the September 1st Hive Power Up Day
0
0
0.000
avatar

thank you for all that you do! πŸ˜‰πŸ‘πŸΌ we do need more inspiring stories of real people during these challenging times 😊😊

Posted using Dapplr

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

Make it 3 HBD for my contribution for Ate Trinidad. I'll send HBD in a bit. Please say Hi from me! Thanks much!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Will do and thank you for the HBD 10 contribution.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Nice initiative! πŸ˜‡ I and my friends had a somewhat similar plan to how you guys do things for your blog. However, things aren't good on our end right now. But we still hope to resume what we originally planned before.

It was nice to see people taking the initiative to help. Spread the positivity. Thanks! πŸ˜„

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you for the kind words. It's a great feeling to be part a something to help people, even if it is just for a day.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's interesting and educational to read about normal people's life in a country so different from mine. I notice one one of the plants in her garden, the sansevieria. It is a common house plant here in Germany, often seen in offices etc., because it can stand a lot of neglect :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yes, a lot of the plants you can find in offices or homes in Europe are just commonly growing anywhere around here πŸ™‚

0
0
0.000
avatar

I can relate so much with the mild discomfort of talking with strangers as an introvert, @discoveringarni. But we gotta do what we gotta do for their benefit haha.

I'll give 2 HBD for Ate Trining 😁

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you very much for the HBD 2 contribution. Well received and it will be added to Trinidad's reward.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hi Kaycee, indeed, it's so worth it. I'm happy and grateful for meeting Trining. Her openness and attitude towards life have deeply touched me. πŸ™‚

0
0
0.000
avatar

Fabulous story. I'm so happy to hear about them. One thing that would be really helpful in the write-ups is to tell us how much money that is to them... i.e. compared to a weekly/monthly wage...

0
0
0.000
avatar

Considering that salaries can go from php250 to php350 per day for non skilled workers in the province area where we are, this would be a good 3 days worth for them. That is when they are able to find work, which at the moment, because of Covid19, is very rare.
Thanks a lot for the kind feebdack and support.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you. That's so helpful! Real value is more important than exchange rates.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That is true and a good point, thank you. I'll mention it next time.
I have received HBD 2.00 from you. I assume that it is all for Trinidad or would you like to make it HBD 1.00 for Trinidad and the rest for the next feature? Thank you for it.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I've seen these posts reposted by quite a few people from Team PH that I'm following but have to admit never got round to read them till today.

I think it's a great initiative and by the looks of it, it can make a real difference to people's life!!!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you for the kind feedback and support. I'm glad you got round to read it πŸ™‚

0
0
0.000