“I’m 71 years old. I got no house, so I put cardboard on floor and sleep here. Sometimes I work and get money to pay for one night at someone’s place and clean my clothes. But sometimes it rain, so you wake up and got clothes still wet, but you wear them still, because what can you do?”
“Uncle, what sort of job do you do?”
“Different job. Once a day at 7pm man come and drive us to Keppel. I drive jeep or van and carry heavy item. I get 15-20 dollar every day I work, but sometimes if got no work then got no pay. So every day have to budget and eat. But the man don’t care if we earn or not, he only take us there and bring us back to Chinatown.”
“Uncle, do you have any family here?”
“I had one family very old but he died right here 3 days ago after falling asleep, no one know what happened. I call police. They come, take report. Other time when people die and you call them, they ask you to come to station, write report and name, and sometimes you get 50 dollars for reporting. Happened 4-5 times already in Chinatown, cannot remember any more. Money very hard to come by you see.”
“Then how do you manage?”
“Eat carefully, always eat 1 dollar bread in morning. Spend about 15 dollars a day, and sometimes sleep at friend’s house, so okay already.. But best day is when you get extra job to fix someone’s car because they don’t know how to fix. That day you get 25 dollar extra. And then you know what you can buy for breakfast? Roti Prata!”
Humans of Singapore
*Comment first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/HumansOfSG?
Source: www.therealsingapore.com
