Umbrella Repairman - Making Money in the Philippines - 1 of 2

Making money in the Philippines isn't easy. This umbrella repairman made 20 pesos for his repair, a bit less than 50 cents American. In the United States if something like an umbrella breaks we throw it and buy a new one. Our daily requirements to live, makes it very hard to find a repairman that would be cheaper than cost of a new imported umbrella. Thus we give our money to another country instead of another countryman.

Here in the Philippines, umbrellas are used all the time. In rainy season to keep the rain off and in hot, sunny weather to keep the sun off. This man a tinkerer. For those that are not familiar with the term, he fixes things. Wisely, he has learned to repair the most common, most popular and most required items used by almost everyone. This is how he has chosen to make money in the Philippines. He repairs electric fans, washing machines and umbrellas. In this video he repairs an umbrella. He was given a broken umbrella. The original pink handle had broken. The shaft/tube had spit open, but the rest of the umbrella was fine. So the tube had to be replaced. In this case the person seeking repair had an extra handle. The umbrella repairman had to put he new handle on. I have seen umbrella repairman in The small towns walking around with a back-pack full of umbrella parts. All different sizes of ribs, ferrules, stretchers, runners, springs runners, tips and top notches in order to be able to repair all types and sizes of umbrellas. This video followed the man through the entire repair process.
Parts of an umbrella:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella#mediaviewer/File:Parts_of_an_Umbrella.svg

Видео Umbrella Repairman - Making Money in the Philippines - 1 of 2 канала Jack Northrup