Tearing Down

For weeks we've watched as the Sime-Darby building across the street form us in Makati has been gutted, in preparation for its demolition. Everything form inside has been torn out and sent out for salvage. Walls, wiring, flooring, everything. The building is just a post-modern 1960s shell at this point...and less and less of a shell with each passing day!

A few days ago (my usual late posting) we were awoken by the sounds of mallets striking concrete. The crews who had gutted the building are now (even as I type this) destroying the concrete roof of the building, exposing the steel reinforcements for salvage. And they do this by hand.

Look:Note also the protective footwear some are wearing -- flip flops!

These guys have been out there bashing those mallets into the roof now for almost a week. Every day. Eight hours a day. That's endurance!

The only thing that might be worse than standing on top of the building you're tearing down one bash at a time in your flip flops might be that you are also essentially living in it at the same time.

Yep.

These guys don't go home. They live on site until the job is done. After they finish work each day, they clean up, eat, and do their laundry, which hangs on lines below the building each night.

If you check this picture closely, on the left you can see a small wooden enclosure at the bottom of the building:There's a water line there. The guys use this for their laundry and shower.

I do find it odd that it is located directly below, and in plain sight of, our 28-storey condo tower, with 114 units looking right down upon it. That's not exactly a good guarantee of privacy, seeing how there's no roof or door on the thing.