Written by:
Rodel J. Abalus
Village
plazas where sports, recreation, cultural activities, and at times physical
education classes are held look appealing when there are healthy flowering
plants and plants.
While the three
gardeners/office cleaners were sitting at the Balabag Village plaza of Boracay
Island as they went on their daily work, a chance interview was conducted on August
28, Wednesday afternoon.
It was
learned from Maria Melly Bartolome, 54 years old, who had worked for three (3)
years as a gardener/office cleaner, that if they like a particular plant, they
request from the owners in order to plant at the plaza.
She explained
that compost from the Material Recovery Facility was used in the concrete
box for plants on the southern side of the basketball court of the plaza.
According to
her, that was the reason why the plants were more robust there than the plants
on the eastern side of the plaza.
Meanwhile,
Gelly Seraspi, 37 yrs old, the youngest among the three and had worked on the
job since March 2013, expressed appreciation of the attractiveness of the
garden at the Manoc-Manoc plaza, and at the surroundings of Yapak Village.
Cecilyn
Bartolome, 49 years old, who had worked for three (3) years on the job, offered
the interviewer her improvised seat, made of ply wood, and cautioned Seraspi
for staying under the heat of the sun who answered back in the vernacular in a
mildly joking manner something like the foreigners do the same and that her
father was a half Filipino and half foreigner himself.
Their work
schedule is Mondays to Fridays, and half day on Saturdays and their work also
include cleaning offices.
At the end
of the interview, the three (3) ladies all had a sweet smile as they asked the
interviewer to greet them over the radio.
