one icy morning
This is the scene from Monday til Sunday.
The truck driver, the helper, the middle man, the delivery person with his wooden cart and the bystanders.
The business of selling ice to the fishmongers in the market is pretty straight forward. The truck arrives with blocks of ice which pass through at least a set of hands before reaching the final buyer.
The retailers mostly purchase a whole block of ice and break them up into smaller chunks. They have their own regular clients. Profit is slightly higher than selling one single block of ice to a single customer, but it is more labor intensive and entails a lot of trips back to the truck.
The tool of the trade. A pair of ice tongs, and somewhere in the truck, an ice pick.
The personal life story of the truck helper, however, is something many of the nation’s blue collar workers share. At the age of 32 and having 4 young children, the difficult times are just about to start when his children reach school age. Making ends meet with his income while sending his children to school will prove to be a very difficult challenge in the years to come.
A walk with my camera 
I love your work. My husband and I each have a camera, and although I’ve had mine for three years, I’ve yet to learn how to really use it. It takes great photos on auto settings, but I’d like to get more creative with using manual. Finding the time to play and experiment is the problem….someday.
Keep shooting!
Not without the other issues, these are good pictures
I hope you enjoy our country despite the negative issues about it. have a great day!
There are a lot of issues, alright, and the only way to address them is to bring these issues to light and do something about them. We all should share in the responsibility of making this a better place for everyone.
I agree.
Excellent shots. I identify with this post and the people in the images.
Being industrious means people who need and want better for themselves and their loved ones create industry from which to create growth and sustainability; any way they can. Yeah, there are those funny and seemingly overused words again. The misconception is usually that these good things come from governments filled with bright and well paid thinkers. The reality is that the initiatives comes from the average citizens because their governments are actually often too slow to act adequately.
In an ideal situation, government intervention would not be necessary.
Thought provoking… Great photographs. Really good work my friend
Very cool shots and story. When I read books on history or historical fiction, the ice-trade always fascinates. Thanks for this post!
thanks!
Interesting story! 🙂
We, in the United States, have never been able to grasp the true meaning of poverty. In Korea I saw old people carrying 200 pound bundles of twigs on their backs for 14 miles. This yielded them a few pennies for pay but it was all the work they could find. That was 35 years ago. Things haven’t gotten better.
It’s all too common to see people here working their hands off for wages that will only see them through the day, and on the other side of the coin, there is an unrestrained population growth in this sector of society.
I had a long chat with this person whom I won’t name, and from that I have concluded that things won’t get any better anytime soon. There is a failure of the government to protect the workers, and the bigger failure is that of business owners who cannot understand that their workers are entitled to a decent life.
Unfortunately it all boils down to greed and the almighty dollar. 😦
By the title, I thought the Phils. was already affected by the freaking “global warming”. The story is heartwarming. Thank you once again.
the climate is indeed getting warmer, and business practices are getting colder.
Great posting. Thank you!
thank you likewise
by the title of the blog, I thought we were affected by the freaking “global” warming :):). the story is so heart warming !!! thank you.
An excellent series, a wonderful illustrated story.
thank you
Cool rep 🙂