I have a cousin-godchild (Janzel) whose parents had a falling out more than ten years ago. Her mom, Tita F., who was pregnant at the time, took her and fled to Davao, leaving my uncle (her father) with their three other children. I have never seen her since.

My mom has an old address of Tita F.'s sister in Dalyao, Toril. Since we were in Davao City anyway, we decided to try to look her up, in the hopes of getting to see Janzel and my aunt. At the advice of the receptionist at Aljem's, we didn't take a taxi to Toril, because she said the local drivers would know the place better. We had to transfer jeepneys three times just to get to the Toril crossing, where we were supposed to get a tricycle that will take us to the Dalyao area. It sort of felt like Japan all over again, because the jeepney conductors and the tricycle driver kept talking to us in Bisaya (I think), so we had to guess what they were saying.

Eventually, we did find the street. When we asked around, we found out that Tita F.'s sister didn't live in the address anymore. However, as luck would have it, the person we asked was married to another one of Tita F.'s half-sisters! So he invited us to his house instead, and gave us my cousin's latest contact details. And, to make a longish story short, we finally managed to call Janzel, and she went over, and we got to meet her!

She didn't remember me, of course, but she says she remembers my mom. She's already 14 years old, and will be in third year high school next school year. The last time I saw her, she was still a baby!

We invited her to stay the night with us at the inn. She went with us to Eden Garden and the Crocodile Park the next day. After that, we went to the mall to get her some school supplies before we eventually had to say goodbye again. Hopefully, she can visit us here in Manila as well. I know she wants to meet her other siblings, too.

I'll be posting our photos here soonish.


We had a surprising and adventure-filled five days in Davao City. (We had excitement up to the last minute, actually, because our return flight was cancelled at the last minute and we had to rush to get it rebooked! But I already talked about that in a previous post. :D)

However, we didn't get to eat Durian, try Durian coffee, eat at Luz Kinilaw and visit Malagos Garden, the Philippine Eagle Park and GAP Farm. Maybe next time!