Bayanihan?

I don’t know whether to laugh in amusement or to groan in despair.

I live along the main street in our place. Much to our joy, it has just been concreted. It took only four days to complete the actual job, but the contractor left the pavement with a "No Entry" sign for a month, or so, to keep the vehicles away, thereby giving the just finished concrete some time to harden. But since it is the main road, and is supposed to be an alternate route for the motorists especially during rush hours, many vehicles pass through it. So the sign later proved to be useless as it went unheeded by passing motorists who would just move the post aside to pass through.

At last, 50 days passed, and the contractor came back, not to take the signs away, but to dump some gravel to level out the sidewalk. They left the gravel overnight to finish the work the next day.

I don’t know whether it was impatience or lack of confidence on the outworker, but at sunset, the residents along the street started coming out bringing shovel, pail, and other tools, and did the work themselves. It was like a fiesta that evening—actually, more like bayanihan of some sort. The road was busy and, in the morning, the hilly gravel on the road disappeared leaving the sidewalks, leveled out.

It was a 'nice' surprise to the contractors when they arrived the next day. At first confused at the empty street, the contractors got annoyed when they realized later what had happened. But they couldn’t do anything about it. So they just cleaned the remaining dirt on the road. But the foreman gave some residents a piece of his mind, “Buanga aning mga tawhana uy. Pataka man sila’g kuha’g yuta. Wa na nuon nagkadimao. Didto dapita bungtod, diri, nipis kaayu. Ang uban ani (nga graba) tua sa sulod sa tugkaran.” Not having had proof, they just sighed and went on to do what they could under the circumstance.

Although irritated at what happened, I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

When someone started shoveling, the rest followed. I wouldn’t have done the same, but then, somebody said, “Sugod na’g pala! Di na to sila mobalik pagpatag ani. Sige ka, magpapataypatay ka, mahutdan ka ug graba.” That did it. I told my house help to go and scoop, lest we would be left with no soil to even out our front walk. I wouldn’t want to have our part of the sidewalk uneven. I wouldn't want to be accused of negligence.

When I saw the workers the next day, I couldn’t help my annoyance. We could have done some other more important things instead of doing other people's job--people we paid with our taxes. But then, things couldn’t be undone. So that was that. Like the contractors, we could just sigh, but I didn’t nag---well, just a little. And then shake my head and smile at our folly.