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This is the story of how this project started.

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The day that my dog Mia died was the exact month after my birthday. She was thirteen years old. I guess that is old for a dog. But she was special to me because she was the very first dog I had. My birthday is on May 25th and she died on June 25th. Mia was very important to me because she was fun and she was the nicest dog I had ever met. I love you to the moon and back Mia!

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I got Perry way back in 2016, and I loved him. We played so much and he spent the whole day licking my face. Unfortunately he died 3 months before my birthday... exactly on September 23, 2019 at 11:50 PM where the picture was taken. When my mom and dad told me he died, I broke down in tears punching the walls and you won’t believe me, I almost died. A car was coming and I was literally having a panic attack at that moment, so yeah. But I’m still here, alive and completely fine, so don’t worry about it. He was lying by the side of the road where water flows (do you know what that’s called?) with his tongue out and eyes open like if he got trapped in a Genjutsu like Kotoamatsukami or Tsukuyomi or something like that,  and he was like if he had seen a ghost, obviously he was dead and we didn’t know why. We believe it was a heart attack because he was a Shih- Tzu and he was only 4 years old and escaped and didn’t know where he was, but we mostly think it was rat poison...
He was the best dog ever and he’s now gone but hey...
Good things don’t last forever, and I have 2 kitties that aren’t even 1 year old.

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My story is when I first moved into the house that I’m living right now. One thing I remember is the sticky part under my stairs, you know there was glue because it's an iron and wooden stair so you can see it and it's solid when I see them they look like if the stairs are crying or something like that because the glue looks like a droplet of water so I don’t know it looks like it’s feeling pain from everybody stepping it.

My dog, he always stayed down and never wanted to come up. He felt very scared to go up because if my parents found him, then I don’t know what would happen. But now in quarantine he is in love with going up the stairs, he even peed down on the living room. At first my mom didn't want to happen again. She gave the dog a warning and then he started doing it over and over again until ONE day he PEED UPSTAIRS on MY MOM”S BATHROOM. My mom didn’t even want him again inside the house, only in my backyard.

The next thing that happened was that My dog started to want to sleep with me or maybe backwards I wanted to sleep with him everything was good until week 4 of sleeping with me if I wasn’t in the house he would be there in my bed sleeping and my mom would get mad at me because she smelled  the bed because it smelled like dog. And let’s just say that a bed smelling like a dog wouldn’t smell too good.

My room, I was the only one in my family who didn’t get to choose his room because I was the last one to go up the “stairs” but I was like six and there were no STAIRS. It was so scary my brother and sister had to help me get up. When I was up they immediately chose her room and I didn’t even know we were choosing rooms. But nowadays my brother who I think has the best room is saying my room is bigger than his which it is but I like smaller rooms because it feels comfortable to me. I even once told him if he wanted to change rooms and guess what he said NO. He has a better room too because the internet connection goes super fast in his room and he has plugging things in each part of his room. I was so jealous! My mother and father obviously had the best room, bed, closet, bathroom I didn’t complain about it because they deserve having that room. They bought their house they choose the room they want.

In the end we all got to live in this precious house which I don’t ever wanna move out in my whole entire “child-teenager” life that is still going on. I know it seems like I don’t really love my room but I love everything about my house. I'll tell you some weird but perfect thing about my house. We are going to MAYBE make my sister’s room a cinema because she moved out with her husband (oh yeah sorry for not telling you, my sister is married and moved out 6 months ago). She moved out by mistake but now she does not regret it.

Ok let’s talk about the weird but perfect things in my house. I can still see the glue under the stairs but it is perfect because I feel “bad” for them. I know it sounds so weird but uh I don’t really know.

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Once I was in a trip with my family in Sweden and we were skiing super fast and I couldn't stop and in a big mountain I fell off. I was holding with one hand and my mom helped me up and came down. That’s why my mom is the best mom.

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So suddenly my grandma passed away. Every single summer we went and visited her in Italy and we always, and when I mean always, were happy and very calm.  One summer she became sick and we brought her here to the D.R. with us so she wouldn’t be alone. So before she died we gave her way too much love, medical attention, and that is way too good like she deserved it because she was a WONDERFUL woman  (she got sick because she used to smoke ) but I couldn’t even say goodbye because they didn't let me in because it was corona time and people say kids are transporters of corona virus. I  just watched my grandma from the window and my mom saying good things to her and I sent kisses to her through the window and when my mom told me she passed away I was devastated and very very sad but kinda happy because she was not suffering anymore and in a better place now… Actually we don't know if we keep her house or sell it? I don't know but I think we are going to keep it after all. We can go there again and stay there (the house) but yeah I think we are keeping it from selling it to my dad's brother.  I still know she is in my heart and taking care of me and keeping an eye on my dad's bro because he used to be very naughty jsjsjsjsjs, and when he comes by he always gets my leg and starts tickling me and pinching me, jejejeje and here she is  and I love her a lot! And I say this from my heart, not my brain heart.

Those were SUPER MEMORIES!  and I will always love her ❤️

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My great grandmother’s name was Maria. She was a really nice person with everyone. She went to church all Sundays without  flaw. The way she died was: When she was crossing the streets in the countryside, she fell so hard, and she was 90-95 years old!

Can you really imagine the pain she felt? She was a really good person with everybody. When my mom and my grandma knew about it, it was the first time I saw them crying. I don’t know why I did not cry, but something was for sure, I didn’t feel anything.

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My grandma wants to sell her house because it is too big for her but I don’t think she knows how many memories I have in that house. I think she has lived in  that house for like 33 years? My mom moved there when she was seven and she lived with my two uncles that are older than her and my grandma. My  grandma got divorced then she married my other grandpa which had four kids so they moved together to a big house and there were seven kids in a house and three dogs. My other grandpa (my mom’s dad) I never got to know  him well. We used to eat there every Friday with my cousins but my cousins don’t go anymore because they're “big” so it’s just me and Mauro. There was a dog named Tanga , everyone loved her. When we opened the door for her she would start running towards the pool with all my cousins (seventeen cousins) .But she died like six years ago.Then my grandma got a new dog named Tango. Tango loved my aunt so much, when she got home to eat he would go running and crying. We never do pool parties anymore like we used to.   this picture is old but I have a bunch of more cousins.

(This is half of my amount of cousins)

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This isn't really about me, it’s more about my parents, then myself. This isn't gonna be long and detailed because I was there, but as a baby. Before I was born my parents were struggling money wise, but a company named SODEXO picked my dad up and it was amazing. We got a new house and moved to where dad lived (me and my mom were in Germany). I never knew how much this would  change my life because I was like two years old  but I was happy it was an average house. It wasn’t a mansion, but an upgrade indeed.                                                                                                                                                                                        When we got there it felt like a resort, it was very refreshing because it was in winter so my fingers didn't freeze if I was outside for too long. I remember talking about Spanish words and my first word was “grama” and everything was warm, it felt like everywhere I went was like a beach, even the house, it felt like coming home from vacation, if that makes sense, it was IMMACULATE . Years later, my dad started his own company, now it's the 22nd best place to work in the DR and I am proud to say that.

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-Home, home is a place where you of course, you sleep and all of that but for me I feel reunited with my family. My family is in the States and in Panama and when I visit them I feel like I haven’t seen them in 3 years and it feels good to see them again. But it’s really hard to let go… like the song. I know that song from my Uncle Dustin who sang it before he left.

Living in the DR, not being close to family is a challenge. Sometimes you can feel sad, frustrated, confused and that's OK-

No one is perfect. I miss my family and I wish I could just teleport home. Because I feel FREE, like anything is possible. Like if you could run all the way to the moon without getting out of breath, without getting tired. Because everything is possible.

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When I was around 6 years old me and my family went on our boat and we were on our way to Derrumbao (it's a beach that we always go to around Bani).

One of the memories is that while we were on the boat it suddenly stopped going and my dad and his friend didn't know what happened so we went to check it out and something got stuck in the engine but nobody was small enough so I had to jump out into the deep water and rip out what was stuck and it was a big plastic bag.

The day that the plastic bag got stuck on our boat, the reason that moment stayed with me for so long is because I was younger, I was like 5 or 6 so when I went down there I was pooping myself because I thought a shark or something like that was gonna bite or eat me and I was so scared I cried and I almost didn't do it but my dad forced me because  I was the smallest. I was really mad at him after.

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On Sunday, my dad and I went to our other apartment to take our bicycles, we took them and straight out of the garage, started riding to Mirador. It was so fun to do it  but the part that I like the least  is when we need to stop at a  traffic light because I feel I am not going to do it well but I do it.  It was a beautiful time in the family. Some minutes later and we were in the Mirador, that was sooooo fun. Then we were riding through the people to get to the straight line of way, then we were in a line of huge 7 kilometers,  we rode and rode and I was doing pretty well for it to be my first time in the Mirador.

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Disney is my favorite place in the world! And I love it so much, but there's a specific trip that is my favorite. So it all started the day of my birthday, we were going to Disney World! But before doing anything, my family sang happy birthday and gave me gifts and made me a really special breakfast, like a tea party. Then after breakfast we started packing and when we were finished we got ready and went to the airport right away. We waited for a full hour until we finally got in the plane and took a 3 hour flight to Orlando. When we arrived we went to the Mickey side of the airport and we waited for the Mickey bus to arrive for like a half an hour and the Mickey bus arrived and we went to Disney, then we went to our hotel, checked in and went to our hotel room  and it was beautiful. There were 2 huge beds and 1 bed that you pulled from the wall and it had a picture from the Princess and the Frog. It was so beautiful, it had a bathroom and a mini kitchen and closet. After that we went and explored the hotel. It had a restaurant and another restaurant, one was theme Vikings and the other one was the same but the first one had music so after we explored the hotel we went to another one but this one had a Mickey Chef. It was so cool! It had all the food and dessert you could imagine so it was so yummy! After that the Chef made nine cupcakes for me  but of course I could not eat all of them so I shared with my family, so we finished and paid the check and went to our hotel. I took a shower and went to bed to go to Magic Kingdom super early.             

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Disney is my favorite place in the world! And I love it so much, but there's a specific trip that is my favorite. So it all started the day of my birthday, we were going to Disney World! But before doing anything, my family sang happy birthday and gave me gifts and made me a really special breakfast, like a tea party. Then after breakfast we started packing and when we were finished we got ready and went to the airport right away. We waited for a full hour until we finally got in the plane and took a 3 hour flight to Orlando. When we arrived we went to the Mickey side of the airport and we waited for the Mickey bus to arrive for like a half an hour and the Mickey bus arrived and we went to Disney, then we went to our hotel, checked in and went to our hotel room  and it was beautiful. There were 2 huge beds and 1 bed that you pulled from the wall and it had a picture from the Princess and the Frog. It was so beautiful, it had a bathroom and a mini kitchen and closet. After that we went and explored the hotel. It had a restaurant and another restaurant, one was theme Vikings and the other one was the same but the first one had music so after we explored the hotel we went to another one but this one had a Mickey Chef. It was so cool! It had all the food and dessert you could imagine so it was so yummy! After that the Chef made nine cupcakes for me  but of course I could not eat all of them so I shared with my family, so we finished and paid the check and went to our hotel. I took a shower and went to bed to go to Magic Kingdom super early.             

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I remember the time that my grandma and I were watching a  Spanish show called "Caso Cerrado" a long time ago but I can  still remember the song of the show. My grandma lives in New  York City, a city known as "the concrete jungle." Well in reality  my mom calls it that. I always hear her sing it in the shower "if  you can make it there you can make it anywhere." There is one  time that I was with my tias and they showed me a film of a doll  and I was scared, like really scared.

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The story with my friends in Valle Nuevo.

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The story with my friends in Valle Nuevo.

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Once, I went to Valle Nuevo with my friends. It was sooo cold. When we arrived, my friend and I were running around the road and then we went to eat in our shack. Then we went to look for wild berries for dessert, and we found some, then hours passed and then we went to sleep in our tents, and I couldn't sleep because it was so cold, then the next day we left. :/

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A person that matters to me is my mom's grandma but for me she is like MY grandma. When I was like 2 to 5 years old, she played with me a lot. Every time I was done with my ballet class, I would always go to my aunt’s house because Abuelita Ligia lived there and we would always play that we had a mini house (her room). We even had a little key and every time I went to visit her I would always knock on the door imagining I was opening it with the key. Sadly one day mom, dad, big sis and I were at  the beach and we had to leave because she passed away in her sleep :( At that time I was like 6 years old and mom didn't tell me what was wrong,  and I was crying because I did not have an idea of why we were going back home until we got there and they told me. I don't really remember how I reacted but at least I got to keep her pashmina.      

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A person that matters to me is my mom's grandma but for me she is like MY grandma. When I was like 2 to 5 years old, she played with me a lot. Every time I was done with my ballet class, I would always go to my aunt’s house because Abuelita Ligia lived there and we would always play that we had a mini house (her room). We even had a little key and every time I went to visit her I would always knock on the door imagining I was opening it with the key. Sadly one day mom, dad, big sis and I were at  the beach and we had to leave because she passed away in her sleep :( At that time I was like 6 years old and mom didn't tell me what was wrong,  and I was crying because I did not have an idea of why we were going back home until we got there and they told me. I don't really remember how I reacted but at least I got to keep her pashmina.      

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📹📹Humans of Dominican Republic By: Matilda Scheker	It was a long ride to the beach in Juan Dolio but it was worth it. The house my aunt and grandma rented was beautiful and big. It was great, my whole family from my mom’s side was going to stay together in the house. You would think there wouldn't be  any space since also the nannies were staying but surprisingly there was. The house was just a big playground field away from the beach. It was really fun. There were two football goals in each part and sometimes my dad, my two cousins, my uncle and I played football together. It was really fun. The only reason we went to the beach was to celebrate my grandma’s birthday. I think that the day we celebrated my grandma's birthday was the best day on the beach, sure we did a bunch of cool  stuff like watching the football games with my dad, my uncle and people that tagged along with us. It was great but on my grandma’s birthday, we were all together and when we were swimming in the beach, that was one of my favorite moments of that day since we were playing, swimming and talking all together. It was the best, not one person missing, that was great. At that moment I felt so happy and lucky because we were all together. We don’t do a lot of family things with that part of my family and when we do, my mom hardly goes because of work, but on that trip we were all there, no exceptions. It was great! I felt great having all of them there and getting to spend like a week with them all together, the whole family I have no more words for it, I don’t know how to describe I was so happy at that moment. I can’t really remember something my grandma said or anyone said except from  “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” But I can remember what I was thinking. This is one of the best days ever!!!  

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📹📹Humans of Dominican Republic By: Matilda Scheker	It was a long ride to the beach in Juan Dolio but it was worth it. The house my aunt and grandma rented was beautiful and big. It was great, my whole family from my mom’s side was going to stay together in the house. You would think there wouldn't be  any space since also the nannies were staying but surprisingly there was. The house was just a big playground field away from the beach. It was really fun. There were two football goals in each part and sometimes my dad, my two cousins, my uncle and I played football together. It was really fun. The only reason we went to the beach was to celebrate my grandma’s birthday. I think that the day we celebrated my grandma's birthday was the best day on the beach, sure we did a bunch of cool  stuff like watching the football games with my dad, my uncle and people that tagged along with us. It was great but on my grandma’s birthday, we were all together and when we were swimming in the beach, that was one of my favorite moments of that day since we were playing, swimming and talking all together. It was the best, not one person missing, that was great. At that moment I felt so happy and lucky because we were all together. We don’t do a lot of family things with that part of my family and when we do, my mom hardly goes because of work, but on that trip we were all there, no exceptions. It was great! I felt great having all of them there and getting to spend like a week with them all together, the whole family I have no more words for it, I don’t know how to describe I was so happy at that moment. I can’t really remember something my grandma said or anyone said except from  “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” But I can remember what I was thinking. This is one of the best days ever!!!  

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My house is my special place because there I have all my memories with my parents and family and friends. My favorite moment is when I got my pool because my friends, my family and I were happy and playing in the pool.

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One day, two weeks ago, it was the weekend and we didn't know what to do and my Dad said, “Let’s go to the mountains to eat” and we said yes. We were going and it was taking so long to get there, it was 45 minutes by car. At the mountains you could see the Airport of Santiago and airplanes go. We could see Moca from over there too and a bit of Santiago, it was really cool. We got there, and for no reason, I got so mad, like literally for no reason I was mad like for 15 minutes and I was mad because we were where all the people were and I wanted to move, but my dad said no because of the place we were having the best view of the restaurant. Well, I said to the waiter: “Can I have a Coke to drink?” and then it came and I took a picture of it but I took pictures that are different, like better than the normal ones. The food came and we started eating. My dad had like this type of chicken that I didn't really know what was, my sister got a burrito but she didn't like it so my dad changed with my sister, and I don’t really remember what I got, the only thing I remember is that I had French fries. And yeah, we ate and we saw that beautiful view for the last time and we got out of there and we went back to Santiago again.

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My grandpa who died three years ago, was the best grandpa you could ever ask for, when he was sick he would still do stuff with me, and most of the time when he had the infection that killed him, we would still watch marathons together, and we stayed up for hours watching them until he went to sleep, and a moment I still don't forget is when we played football for the first time, he was SUPER good. But like 2 months after that he died. One thing he told me was to never be afraid of death because it just comes and takes you at any point of your life.

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When I was little I had a baby brother. His name was Eduardo. He was kind, cute and beautiful. He was the last brother. First my brother, then me and then Eduardo. At that time I was one year and one month old and my older brother was three years and eleven months old. When Eduardo was born he had breathing problems and the next day or a few hours later he passed away, then my mom told me all of this and I was with no words, in that time I didn’t cry but I sometimes feel him.

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So last year we went to a hotel and my brother and I took a beautiful picture that soon became my favorite. Manu is a very special and a little naïve person to me. We both love and care for each other, but the majority of the time we fight and beat up each other. But to be honest, we feel good that we do  it.  Manu copies me all the time, because to him I am his figure and he does what I do, that is why in his head he is like, ‘’Wow Cami I am going to do that too’’, and in my mind is like ‘’Dude aren't you tired of seeing me?’’ Every Time I am with him I am happy inside because I know he loves me and I love him too.

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One time I was trying to get my parents some popcorn but I was young then, like 4 or 5 years old. I put the popcorn on a styrofoam plate and then put it in the microwave. Blue electricity was flashing and then a flame came out so I ran to my parents room but it was locked, at this point I was afraid of what my dad would say about this and if the kitchen would blow up and burn the house down. I called the maid and she opened the door. My dad came out and I told him what happened so he ran down and grabbed the fire extinguisher and now the fire was bigger but he took it out. I knew that he knew what he was doing, so I was ok.

“Ethan, if you didn’t call me earlier, the kitchen would have blown up.”

“Ok.”

“You did a good job.”

“Ok?”

So after I called my dad, I had grabbed some of our stuff and ran out. My brother was just chilling on the couch. My dad grabbed the burnt popcorn and opened it. I said it was a gift for him . So he grabbed some and ate it. He said it was good but his face said it all.

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My Mom says my Dad knew I was going to be a girl since they found out they were having a baby. He immediately said: "We're having a girl and her name is Christina."
I had him for almost 46 years and each and every one of my birthdays together, he was the first one to call and tell me the story of the day I was born, "...and the nurse put you in my arms, and you looked at me with your big eyes." He then always added: "You know mijita,  they say that a person can feel the presence of God the first time they hold their firstborn in their arms..."
We loved each other like crazy, and even though sometimes he drove "me" crazy, I can see how much I'm like him, physically and spiritually.  He always said I was "igualita a él, pero la versión mejorada."
My Dad passed away this year. He battled with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma for almost 12 years.  He was a true warrior because patients of this type of cancer  have an overall survival-rate of 5 years, but his desire to live and to see his grand-children grow was truly inspiring.
I know he hasn't left me, he just did in physical form. When I ask him something, he answers, if I need help, he helps me. He will always be with me, forever and ever, and we will keep loving each other like crazy.
This picture is from 2011 and we were at Playa Bonita, Las Terrenas.

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We went to the movies to watch a movie, just my mom and I. I was so excited because I had never gone to the movies alone with my mom except when I was a kid and also the majority of the time was with my dad when I went alone. When we watched the movie it was great, she kept kissing me and telling me “mi gorda estoy tan orgullosa de ti.'' That just made my heart feel better. She said it so many times and I just love how it feels when your mom is proud of you. Then we went to eat at KFC because it was the only restaurant open at that time, and it was so tasty because I had never tried KFC before because my mom doesn't like me eating junk food. We got home and I slept, and I dreamed that I was so fortunate to have my mom.