I am Christian Dale C. Quimintan. I was born on December 09, 1996 at Provincial Hospital in Mati City, Davao Oriental. My mother went through cesarean while delivering her youngest son, which is I, “CD”. My parents call me “CD” because of my initials, which is Christian Dale. My family has 4 members including myself. We lived in a small room in a bus terminal in Tarragona, Davao Oriental when I was 6 years old. We were not that poor but I can safely assume that we had money for food. My father and mother had no work and the only source of income that we had was to sell food to the passengers. As part of the family, I, too, helped in selling food like “puto”, noodles, “bingka”, “mani” and etc. We also had our special “halo-halo” which is only 20 pesos at that time. I am the one who grinds the ice before putting it to the glass then my mother would finish it with her finishing touches. My mother always praised me when I am working hard to earn money. My brother was attending school and he was grade 1. I was not attending school because of financial problems. Every weekday in early morning, my mother and I go to school to sell fresh “puto” and “bingka” to the teachers and students by riding a motorcycle, which is owned by “Angkol Tope”, and every time we pass through the classroom of my brother as I saw him writing his lessons, I was envious. I was fat back then, I mean very fat that my father would always pinch my cheeks when he sees me, every time. He and I are very close. The bus terminal was near to the shore so when my father and I had free time, we always go fishing for dinner. My father throws me to the sea and he kept saying, “langoy jud nak! Kaya nimo na! Kapa-kapa lang,” I thought I was going to die but I trust my father so that’s when I learned to swim.

After 2 years, we received a bad news. We were asked to move to other place because the owner of the