Food and friends in Davao, Philippines 🇵🇭

It's been 11 days since I arrived at the OMF Davao Center, and my experience here has been quite different from my time in Japan—and that was intentional. While Japan was all about sightseeing, Davao marks the start of a new chapter where I’m focusing on growing my coaching business and doing some volunteering. I haven’t done much exploring of the area, and for a moment, I wondered if I "should have" done more. As a coach, I know "should have" is a yellow flag phrase, so I reflected on it. The conclusion? No, I’ve spent my time exactly the way I wanted to. 

I’ve made meaningful progress with both work and volunteering, but more importantly, I’ve enjoyed unrushed moments exchanging life stories with new friends, and indulging in the incredible variety of local fruits, and have expanded my culinary horizons. I’ve tried mangosteen, lanzones, dragon fruit, unbelievably sweet pineapple, several kinds of bananas (who knew there were so many beyond the standard yellow ones?), sweet(!) avocados, and even durian. Now, durian supposedly "grows on you," but even after a second attempt, it still hasn’t grown on me—though it does taste better than it smells, but that’s a low bar 😂.

I'll be leaving Davao with a bunch of new recipe ideas and a fresh perspective on ingredients. My favorite discovery? Smoothies combining fruits and vegetables with just water as a base. Who knew cucumber and pineapple could taste so good together? 😋 And cilantro—an herb I’m usually not very fond of —paired with limonsito (a tiny lime) brings an unexpectedly delicious twist to green smoothies.

Food aside, the true highlight of my stay in Davao has been the friendships I've formed. In just a week and a half, people who were strangers when I arrived celebrated my birthday with me.

The dinner included potatoes (!!!) and a heavenly pistachio sans rival cake—think Great British Bakeoff-level meringue layers with pistachio cream 😍.

As for the potatoes, that’s a rare treat here in the Philippines, and being German, I was starting to feel some withdrawal after three weeks without them 😂.

I did manage to squeeze in a day trip to Costa Marina with a new friend, which was fantastic. Check out my album for a few photos. By the way, I’ve decided to combine all my pictures into one album for the entire trip, instead of dividing them by country as I originally planned to make it easier on all of you.

I have five more days here before heading to Cebu for some sightseeing and water fun, followed by a trip to Hong Kong for even more adventures. After that, I’ll make my way to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I’ll spend another two-plus weeks working—though it hardly feels like work when I’m enjoying it so much and learning every day.

Keep an eye out for more updates from Cebu and Hong Kong soon!

With gratitude,

Renate