Posted on March 14, 2022

Photo by: Sir Russel Owen Viloria

Fe. The chemical symbol for iron, the most-used metal.
Ate Fe. The name of our version of the iron woman, one of the most diligent workers in the campus.

Meet Fe Dalit, 40, a utility worker in Pisay for more than four years now. Currently assigned at the Administration Building, she is that familiar figure who seems to have unlimited stamina – sweeping here, mopping there, gardening here, wiping there, keeping surfaces to their most spotlessly clean state. And! Lifting a water-filled 5-gallon jug is just easy and effortless for her, Hidilyn Diaz just got a new apprentice right here!

Ate Fe’s typical working day begins at 6AM, an hour-and-a-half earlier than required. Before the employees in the Administration Building arrive, her early morning routine of cleaning the offices, corridors, conference room, pantries, and restrooms is almost over. No wonder, her dedication at work is translated in her performance evaluation rating of 4.84, substantiated by numerous positive remarks, a very satisfactory performance indeed, a testament to her diligence.

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are her busiest days. While most employees conclude their eight-hour workday the moment they tap their index finger on the biometrics fingerprint scanner as early as 430PM, Ate Fe is just not done yet because a family is waiting for her to help them in cleaning the house, washing clothes, and doing other domestic tasks for them. Her busiest days end at around 7PM, the time when she finally switches her role from a worker to a wife and mother – such a huge sacrifice she does three times a week to earn extra income for her family.

In January 2020, she decided to leave Pisay for an opportunity to work overseas. Just as when she began working on her application, the pandemic put all her plans to a halt. With her employment in Pisay terminated, she needed to look for other means to earn a living. Her family moved to Alicia, Isabela and initiated a buy-and-sell business of locally produced vegetables, but their startup business ended too soon when strict transportation guidelines were imposed as a result of the pandemic.

Eventually, she and her family decided to go back to Nueva Vizcaya, and she was fortunate to be employed again in an agency in the province that deploys janitorial services for Pisay. But when she thought everything was going on very well, her husband and her mother became ill. The weight of this problem was no match to that 5-gallon water lift. The emotional struggle of seeing her loved ones in such frail conditions brought out her vulnerability. During this challenging episode of her life, Ate Fe is like iron: a hard but brittle substance. No matter how strong she is seen on the outside, she is also fragile on the inside – a character that makes this iron woman more human.

Her mother’s demise less than a year ago still breaks her heart. She wished she could have bought her a rocking chair that could have at least comforted her when she was still alive, but because of her struggle to make both ends meet, she had to set that aside and prioritize their basic needs. She wished she could have given her all she needed –a more comfortable life, medical care, attention, love – but her mother’s time was up. And Ate Fe knows nothing can ever fill that void.

Fortunately, her husband has finally recovered, and he is back in doing the things he used to do: farming, planting vegetables, taking care of their children while Ate Fe is at work, helping her with the household chores and other duties that help relieve Ate Fe after a long and exhausting day. And more importantly, they are back to their bonding moments as a family – spending an afternoon at the capitol grounds once or twice a month, enjoying the place in the company of one another.

As a mother of a 12-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy, Ate Fe is thankful that both her children are doing their school tasks independently, and they help her in the household chores, most especially during the days when she cannot accomplish all these because of the multiple tasks she does at work.

When asked what makes her happy, she said – TRABAHO. If she doesn’t work, she feels weak and sickly, precisely the reason why she is seen in campus to be always on the move, doing chores one after the other. Conversely, when asked what makes her sad, she simply said the absence of work, and in a joke, she quipped, “nu awan trabaho, awan kwarta.”

She realized it must have been God’s plan to not allow her to work overseas – because she would have carried that guilt of losing her mother while she was away, and because her husband and her children need her more than what she could earn abroad.

Looking at the way she performs her duties, and how passionate she is with her work, one would wonder where in the world does she get all the strength to do such physically demanding tasks. She said it is a trait she got form her parents – their industry, their hard work, their diligence. Inside that petite frame is that incredible strength and tough character that forge her unique WOMANNESS.

Meet Ate Fe. More than a utility worker, she is a sister, a friend, a wife, a mother.
A FeMale. An Iron Woman.