What Makes A Truly Wise Filipino or Known As “The Wais Pinoy” from Illustrado
On the nth day, God said, “Let there be a shower of resourcefulness.” And all Pinoys rushed outdoors, eager to grab the freebie from heaven. Many brought out containers—wine bottles, tabos, timbas, palangganitas, palangganas, steel drums, and what have you—to save some for the rainy, er, dreary days.
Consequently, some have become more amusingly or annoyingly wais than others.
Long Live the Lumens (and Lola Obangs)
Recession or not, truly wais Pinoys know how to make tipid all they can! So aside from going to the mall and enjoying free A/C (and free water c/o the fast food, free taste c/o the grocery, free reading c/o the bookstore, free sightseeing c/o the shops), we wait for the magic word that’s “Sale!” Three-day, midnight, factory, bazaar (where “tawad” and “wholesale” are the secret codes) sale: these are the times we look forward to every year of our lives to shop for what we need (or don’t) at half the cost, which is the minimum requirement. Some rolls of tissue paper to last ‘til our next lifetime, bed sheets and bath towels of all sizes, complete sets of frying pans and cooking pots, Christmas cards in April, swimwear in December—as long as they’re on sale, we’ll certainly find a use for them…somehow. Well, what are those balikbayan boxes for? Someone back home may be in dire need of a tissue roll.
With the wais Pinoy, nothing ever goes to waste, too. We find even the cow’s bone marrow, the pig’s intestines, the chicken’s feet, the fish’s eyes, uh, appetizing, don’t we? Never mind aesthetics, anything edible is precious. One meal’s leftover is usually served for the next meal and another and even the day/s after (especially if it’s adobo, the dish that never gets spoiled no matter what), until the platter is licked clean. Even Muning would be too embarrassed to check if there’s a morsel left by any chance. Otherwise, leftover meat and veggies can be chopped into bits to whip up a helping of gourmet fried rice. Oh, and lest we forget, another amazing recycling feat, remember the teabag—that which serves us until its last trace of flavor, giving color to several cups of hot water. And we still refuse to toss it aside without putting it on swelling eye bags!
Indeed, recycling works wonders. So we bring home plastic utensils and Styrofoam cups from fast food chains, along with ketchup sachets, to form part of our “For Kiddie Parties” tableware collection. For our stay-in house guests, any hotel’s complimentary kit (mini shampoo bottles/bath soap/shower caps/toothbrushes/toothpaste tubes/matches) and flight “giveaways” (salt/pepper/sugar/butter/jam packets or sleep mask/ear plugs/blankets/magazines)—which we keep for souvenir’s sake, so we say—come in handy. We turn shopping bags into garbage bags, soft drink bottles into water pitchers, and gin bottles—your choice of bilog or lapad—into cooking oil containers. Glossy magazine pages and even the newspaper’s comics section are transformed into fashionable book and notebook covers.
So, careful with unwrapping those presents! The wrapper and ribbon can still be used for someone else’s birthday present or the next Christmas party decor. And if what’s inside the package doesn’t work much for you, recycling gifts—done very discreetly—is a wais practice, too.
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