TINKERBELL’S DIVING CHRONICLES

JESUSA MAE SUMAOANG TinkerBell’s DIVING CHRONICLES

Iwas watching Tinkerbell with my baby cousin, and the scene shows Fairy Mary, the head of the Tinker Fairies, where Tinkerbell belongs, dismissing Tinkerbell when she brought back what they refer to as Lost Things, from the beach. For the older fairy, lost things are nothing but trash, and thinks that they are useless. But being a tinker fairy, whose talent is to fix and create things, Tinkerbell thinks otherwise, and decides to keep them, rather than disposing of them, as Fairy Mary told her to do. That specific scene reminded me of a famous Filipina vlogger that lives in Florida, USA.

Her name is Rona Meloche, popularly known as Inday Roning. She’s a Filipina vlogger married to an American, and lives in Florida, USA. She works as a part-time pet nanny and driver in the morning, and a dumpster diver at night. Dumpster diving refers to the act of salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial, and construction containers, in order to find items that are discarded by their owners, but deemed useful for the picker. Hello, mga kaibigan, kalkal basura na naman tayo, is Inday Roning’s usual greeting in her vlogs. She really proved the phrase, may kayamanan/pera sa basura, to be true. In her interview with PEP.ph, she mentioned that she is able to save PHP 75K a month for her groceries and other necessities, just from dumpster diving.

Inday would document herself rummaging various dumpsters for any useful items, such as appliances, fruits, vegetables, chocolates, juices, shoes, lotions, masks, pastas, ice creams, meat, fish, and many more. She often goes dumpster diving along with her friend, Abby, at 9 in the evening, an hour after the grocery stores and supermarkets would close. At first, she would only randomly check the trash piles from her neighborhood, and get usable items. According to her, it’s already a common scenario in the US, to just throw anything away, even if it’s only slightly damaged, has dents, or if the box gets torn a little.

When it comes to consumables, she carefully inspects them, because she feeds them to her family, and shares them with her friends. Ayoko namang mapahamak sila, so I need to be educated about these things, she expresses. She also would show how she cleans the items she picks up by using a bit of water, and baking soda, before she cooks and serves them to her family. In most of her vlogs, it can be seen how she and her husband Chris, enjoy their dinners, although he’s often quiet. Their daughter Christiana on the other hand, tends to feast on a

lot of greens. Rona however, would eat kamayan style, with one foot planted on the chair, just like how we Filipinos would normally eat.

This habit doesn’t only entertain her household, but also her virtual audience. Her husband expressed how proud he is of Rona, because her dumpster diving adventures help them save a lot for their groceries, and he finds his wife’s hauling really interesting. He also expressed that Rona was doing a great job, and she was enjoying it, so he just let’s her do what she does. When asked if dumpster diving was prohibited, Rona answered that it wasn’t, as long as it doesn’t have No Trespassing. In one of her vlogs, a staff from an establishment near the dumpster they were rummaging approached them, so Rona asked if its fine for them and her friend to continue dumpster diving, and the staff didn’t stop them, rather, the said staff gave them the items that the staff was suppose to throw away.

Netizens who watched her vlogs call her dumpster diving as being madiskarte. For Rona, being practical and humble matters a lot. So iyan, mga kaibigan, diskarte lang iyan. Hindi tayo mahihiya. Bakit tayo mahihiya? Hindi naman tayo mag-feeling datu, she expresses. Rona grew up in a family that does farming as a source of income, which allowed her to learn how to be practical and resourceful. In the Brigada interview, Rona became a bit emotional, because she thought of the people that don’t have anything to eat, that’s why she at times would do giveaways of her hauls, so as to share them to those who really need it. According to her, dumpster diving comes from her heart, remembering how she grew up on a farm. She mentioned that she was proud of her job, and that she was glad she could help others from her dumpster diving adventures.

Rona’s story made us realize how important it is to not waste anything, and to not take the things that we have for granted, because we don’t know how much others would wish for the things that we just throw away. Her story also taught us that there’s nothing wrong with being resourceful and practical, because it could help us in many ways. Her story will forever serve as an inspiration for us, and something that we will always learn from.

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