A Story of Survival

Alex S. Sale, a seafarer in Ang Pinoy Stories

Jan 14, 2021 • 3 min Read

“Survival can be summed up in three words, NEVER GIVE UP,” said Bear Grylls.

The lockdown since March 2020 and the cessation of cruise line industries made a huge impact on my livelihood as a seafarer. I have been a cruise chef for 20 years. My daughters grew up knowing that I was always somewhere. My wife successfully took on the job of a mother and father. This was our life for 20 years. Then the pandemic happened.

Our new house was fully furnished over a year ago and we enjoyed buying stuff, designing the interiors, cabinets, and appliances. We didn’t know that this pandemic would get worse. We all thought that everything would be just fine in a few months. Of course, we were wrong.

I was on vacation for 9 months. We used up our savings to furnish our house.

With no monthly salary, my wife and I decided to pursue our plan and start a small food business, Prituhan ni Kalbo. Our menu mainly catered to the masa and we had famous street food like kwekwek, fishball, kikiam, squidball, etc. Our bestsellers were our special fried chicken (whole chicken, wings, thigh, and drumsticks) with special gravy, our shanghai, and crispy pata.

Our target market was mainly the people from our village as we had a small stall at home. We also had our online shop. As the days went by, we received many orders and made deliveries while a lot of people visited our stall in the afternoon. Our online shop is receiving messages and inquiries as well.

Prituhan ni Kalbo became known in the Eastwood Community and we had customers from other barangays in Montalban as well as from nearby San Mateo and Marikina, and even as far away as Antipolo and Taytay.

I admit that our small business helped us meet our daily expenses such as electricity, water, and food. The pandemic and the business made our family stronger and brought us closer. We worked as a team and as a family. We each had our roles. I was responsible for the preparation, portioning, and cooking since I have the experience of working as a cruise chef. My wife and my daughters are in charge of our online shop and they answer queries, build connections, and promote our business.

Fast forward to January 2021. I am now onboard while my family at home continues our online business. We don’t have our stall anymore but we plan to open again in the future. What is important now was that I trusted God and what He has given me (my family and my skills) to take me out of a gloomy time and to allow myself to survive. I learned to be resourceful using the same skills that God gave me and I hoped that in God’s time, everything will fall into place.

The world is changing so fast, but inspite of the changes and the threats, my family and I are still thankful for everything that happened in 2020, for the bad things that allowed us to learn a lesson or two, and for the good things that we can always be grateful for. 

We survived 2020.

Chef Alex Sale will be Ang Pinoy’s guest on January 23, 2021, at 8:00 pm at Ang Pinoy, FB Live – Kumusta Kabayan Edition.