day pajarillo

Tolebong

ACRYLIC
24″X36″

Tolebong. That’s what I call my favorite uncle. Tolebong was short for Tito Ole or Yolly as he was fondly called. He was the youngest of 14 siblings. He lived with us and used to babysit me. He had a lot of funny stories about me because I wasn’t an ordinary child. 

We spent our vacations with him, especially me. When I wasn’t school age yet, he would bring me with him to go home to Talisay. He had a balsa tucked in some corner of the lake close to our house. We would spend afternoons just cruising in the shallow water where I could jump in and swim. Sometimes my cousins would join us, as would my childhood neighbors from the city. I remember when he was younger he grew his hair very long, like a mermaid. He was very tall and slim and he was like a hero to me when I look at him pushing the raft using a long bamboo pole.