Back in January 2010 I was trying to book a flight to the island of Hispaniola which inhabits two countries Haiti & Dominican Republic. Suddenly the American Airlines website ticker read EARTHQUAKE TREMORS FELT IN HAITI! My trip was obviously postponed & for the following month my friends & I in Miami helped collecting Food & Clothes for the Haiti Earthquake Victims.

Come February 2010 I found my self flying over that same devastating country where millions of families lost what little that had to begin with. My trip was to visit Dominican Republic the land where my father was from. The country was rich with culture yet its inhabitants were very poor while still being very proud of their heritage. I learned much about the culture as well as about my father & his upbringing. I witnessed teenagers in cybercafes logging onto facebook in the mall, yet on my way back to my aunts home I witnessed young boys barefooted in a wooden wagon being pulled by a mule asking for water or food. That broke me emotionally & made me very confused on how poverty does not discriminate. Its safe to say that my luggage was a lot lighter on my way back to Miami. But there's still one more thing I had to do before the taxi took me to the airport. I took off my new Nike Air Max 90's that I had purchased just for this trip & tied the shoelaces together & flung them onto the Tv wires that web the streets of Santo Domingo. As the taxi started to take off I turned to watch the neighborhood kids race to climb the trees that would lead them to the gift that had evidently fallen from the sky.

Cheers to another great Birthday . . .