„The Nine Lives of an Asian Huckleberry Finn“
by Noel ‚Gene’ Borja Lungay
Part I : "Way Tubig" no water
Featured artworks, Way Tubig, Egg Tempera 2009, Exhibited, Wen(n) Die Musse Kuesst, Eschwege, Germany
...Growing up on an island in a developing country like Bohol, Philippines means having a daily share of problems.
"I remember in my childhood, when my eldest sister would wake us up early to avoid being late for school, and
we would stand in line for the bathroom, five of us younger ones, still dizzy from the long nightly sleep, if any
at all...."
Near where we lived, once stood the city's old slaughterhouse "Ihawan", where the traffic of the meat industry started
at 12 midnight and would run until early morning. We were always awakened by the brain-piercing squeals of terrified
pigs on death row, and the equally torturing roars of motor from the tricycle vehicles that transported the murdered
animals up the steep road into the heart of Tagbilaran city.
".... the worst thing is when you find out that there is no water coming from the faucets for your morning wash-
routines, and all the reserves consumed already the day before. At times water problems lasted even for a week.
Left with no other choice, we had to proceed to school, soaked in our constant sweating under a brutal humidity.
More than often we found ourselves in school unwashed and wearing unwashed school uniforms..."
Part II: Daghang Tubig, abundance of water
Featured artworks,"Panginhas, Panaum", Tryptich oil on canvas 2009, Exhibited Wen(n) die Musse kuesst, Eschwege, Germany
"...I feel the pain in my ribcage, of air about to explode in my lungs, yet I don't really mind, as my fingers probe
a hole in the sand-coral-shell deformation in the bottom. I hold my breath a bit longer..., then I have it, helpless in
my hand, from a skilled grip, disabled of its only defence against predators, which are its pincers..."
Breath-hold diving for crabs "Kasag" is a seriously learned skill in childhood, and as pre-requisite, one has to learn on
foot during low tide, "Panginhas".. "Pan^o"... or the more advanced way, "panglorop", depending on the method and
on which time of day, or night that they are done. The most exciting of all is "Panglorop", a night hunt which require
a pump gas lamp "Petromax", as the local fishermen call it, mounted on the bow of a "banca", a pacific outrigged canoe.
A good catch is definitely guaranteed during such a hunt, preferably for choiced picks like the bigger crabs "Lambay",
and also sea weed fishes like Seganids, "Danggit" or "Kitong", and other sand settling fishes in the night...
"...I was ten years old when I first caught my first Kasag underwater, using a self-made mini harpoon Pan^a, and
it would take me three more years to be able to pick them up with bare hands or even singlehandedly, without
hurting myself from their pincer bites. Oh how I gleamed with pride and joy then, like passing a hunter's test for
manhood, and having the feeling of earning a place in the family tradition of fishermen."
"As a child, I was always mesmerized by the stories of my late uncle Timmy about how he and his friend Felicing
narrated their feats of under-water hunting and fishing adventures. I remember then as I sat wide-eyed, eager
to listen, and for me each story was as exciting as the last one. My uncle had been my earliest lure towards the
sea, and from time to time I always found my way to visit him in their place along the coast of Garcia Hernandez.
In 2003, when I last visited him, my aunt Lily made soup of two red groupers that I harpooned."
"My close affinity to my uncle and his seaquests would resonate through my extended youth. In the next years
that followed, I would pay heed to a series of significant callings back into the sea."
"It needed only a brief period of time before I realized that the sea had become my great teacher, my joy-bringer,
and my spiritual zone in understanding life."
Part III: Tin-aw na Tubig, clear water
Featured artworks, "Manang" and "Mangrove Lethargy", both 70 x 100 centimeters oil on canvas 2007. Exhibited, "Maribojoc,
Meer, Mangroven, Mythen, Gallery am Schloss, Suedpfalzische kuenstgilde, Bad Bergzabern, Germany, and "Way Kuha"
(Zero Catch), 70 x 100 centimeters oil on canvas, the painting hangs at the Lungay Atelier, Eschwege, Germany
"...I shall continue to be consumed by the fire of wisdom, that I found during my stay in the mangroves, a stay
which spanned almost six years, and staged within the green stretches of natural habitat covering the coastal
areas of Calape, Loon, and Maribojoc, in Bohol, Philippines.
These experiences had triggered alterations towards my perception of life, which allowed me to sow good seeds
of creativity, and at the same time enabled me to harness a high sense of responsibility towards my fellowmen
and my direct environment."
...At a fisherman's glance, these were ordinary scenes of daily measures- of weary men hitting the comforts of the
afternoon, swelled simply by either the contrasting triumphs of a good catch, or the pride-enforced disclaims of a zero
catch. Nevertheless, they'd all wind up in the usual "Sari-Sari", a village variety store, to chance upon the pretty
daughters of the "Manang", or "Manong" (a visayan title for elders), while they take their turns waiting for their daily
doses of "Tuba". The alcohol, which is from fermented coconut palm, is the favoured adrenalin to boost long exaggerated
stories of how the day or the last night's fishing trips had transpired.
...Fishermen, go into a form of therapy daily, and this involves the stories of the good, or bad catch, that must be told.
These narrative pantomimes are often shared amidst the screams of blasting Karaoke, and steady rounds from the
"Tagay", or a drinker's mediator.
Unnoticed, come the curious young, "Bayong-Bayong", whose very eager hormones hone in on the men's exciting fish
stories, their naive brains easily lured by the false bearings of drunken adulthood. Their mind-lock would somehow be
snapped back into reality by their appearing mothers, who come barking their rude disciplines as the setting sun engulfs
the fading focus of the men's congregations.
...From a higher sense of awareness, my helpless admiration for the fisher folk's divine simplicity equated formulas of
deep understanding within my heart and mind, and have left me images of purity from simple village life. These images
would resonate continuously in my psyche as I proceeded with life in the next coming years.
My retained experiences from the small fishing villages fused in me a sense of clarity, like fixated visual elements of
peace and silence... elements that reveal the still waters of the mangroves.
...These elements would later play Yin Yang contrasts to the unforeseen experiences that followed in the dark gray
labyrinths of Manila, Philippines...
Part IV: Lubog na Tubig, murky water
Featured artworks, "Whisper of the Fly", Detail from a nine-piece, oil on canvas 2003, Exhibited: "Wirklichkeiten" Bad Wilhelmshohe,
Kassel, Germany 2006, and "Mayabang" Arrogance, 80 x 100 centimeters oil on canvas 2004, Exhibited: "Kalye,Kariton,Kabataan"
Manila Philippines, 2004
"...Walking at a steady pace with the youths from the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz, Binondo, Manila, never
caused hindrance to my ever observing eyes which captured images of the morning sun, sidesweeping the brown
gray sidewalks of Blumentritt and Bambang, Manila. The place, at peak hour, pulsated from the hammering mixture
of noise from horns, beat up motor engines, and the wailing of desperate vendors agonized by the daily struggle
to earn their keep. I had been spending my nights in the St. Martin the Porres streetchild center, a center housing
street children and under the care of one of the holiest men I have known in my life. Since months, I have tried to
engage myself in transposing a family legacy of art into the children, which ignited an entirely different awakening
in my spiritual hemispheres."
...The dust and smoke-filled busy intersections, that overflowed with sweating and almost screaming people were like
visual representations of an uncontrolled state of mind. These scenes have revealed a so called Diorama that projected
the existing grander scheme of global poverty.
...Manila, a city in a country that is crippled economically, houses an estimated 12 million people. Its infrastructure
dilemma alone, can already push the brilliant mind of a genius who tries to solve its existing problems into eternal
damnation.
...I ached inside as I looked all around me, seeing the irresponsible surge of global capitalism, painfully visible through the
blotches of plastic packaging littered all over the gray giant prison called a metropolis. It is the same pain I felt each time
I saw a small sachet of shampoo, thinking of all the millions of people who use it everyday, each and everyone lured by
the promises of the giant posters of pretty actresses waving the finest of hairs. Little knowledge is drawn into focus on
how these tiny millions of emptied plastics are handled daily, definitely not by a mythical garbage disposal system.
...Ironically, it is a favorite topic for politicians as they scream their pre electoral speeches, punctuating questions
on why there is flooding all over from clogged-up drainages, which eventually had led to constant breeding of the worst
epidemics caused from water stagnation.
...I tried to end my suffering, as I followed soaped water that flowed out of a woman's laundry pail, down a few open and
stinking gutters that swarmed with "Kariton", or streetcarts. The white foam trailed under the peace of a sleeping youth,
his exhaustion rendering him helpless against the pious flies that worshipped his serene face. The graceful foam had
become murky, and shortly found its way into the lifeless waters of the Pasig river.
