The neighborhood of Dakota said goodbye to Mr. Albert Etienne Lake, better known as Ali (RIP)

And so our beloved neighborhood of Dakota every day said goodbye to the body of the Lord. Albert Etienne Lake, better known as Ali (RIP). A friday evening at the Dakota Barrio Center completely filled with family, friends, athletes, Saturday afternoon at the Virgin of Fatima Church in Dakota.

A long line again waited outside to enter the church to express their condolences to Ali’s family. A great athlete. Dakota is known for its sweet multicultural people from all over the world. Dakota is like a miniature United Nations. Live in peace with one another with love and respect. It was so nice to hear Erick and Ricky Lake sing the song that he loves to sing in church that toch  everyone with his beautiful voice. How beautifully the choir sang, and how sweetly the shepherd Jairus played the trumpet!

The Lake family is large and well known throughout Aruba. A sweet, quiet and inspired family. Lady Ruth knows them all, and the ones she knows best are Ruby, Ellen, Ricky, Glenroy, Osmar and Ali. They all shine brightly every day in our beloved village of Dakota. It is not unusual to meet many friends and acquaintances at a funeral when you live together in your neighborhood. You join in the sadness for a while at Church and then you meet for a while to reflect on life during meeting in Hong Dakota Take Away or in Dragon Town. Lady Ruth joined her aunt Veneranda and her friend Sonia in Dragon Town and met Gerda, Shirley, Netto, Kado and Edsel, just to name a few.

We were able to have a chat and exchange ideas with Netto, meeting on the first day of the “think common good in your neighborhood” given in our neighborhood Dakota every day. It was in the early afternoon when we spent some time around John Wowo Plaza, watching a very large group of volunteers taking their break with a snack, relaunching a crank and preparing to continue the good work of volunteering to pick up trash in several of Dakota.

And later in the afternoon we met some of them at Dragon Town taking a very cold beer to cool off the heat because the sun was very hot. Their motto is: Together we rise, together we strife: Building common good in your neighborhood. As we passed the field before the Bouwmaatschappij, all the large buckets were filled to the brim with dirt.

One of the volunteers expressed to us that, they are not against the closure of the dumps, but should put big boxes in the villages so that the community can dispose of their African waste. At first there will be a lot of dirt, but when most of it is washed away, the amount will decrease and be above normal. Doesn’t that sound bad?

We asked our friend Gerda to help us put the record in the Music Box in Dragon Town and put Bob Marley’s music on, because it’s crazy out there. A sweet atmosphere with your friends and neighbors. Thank you Veny and Sonia for the company and thank you to our good friend and neighbor Cado the horse for sending us a treat of a chill good cold several times.

We drank chill until we couldn’t breathe anymore. And thank you for the treat of the sweet croquettes and lobster. We send our condolences, consolation and love to Ali Lake’s family, friends and acquaintances, especially to his beautiful wife Editha, and to his children Joally, Albert and Brian and to his grandchildren. And we send our thanks to all the volunteers who have shared in helping to clean up our beloved Dakota neighborhood every day. Thank you for reading our story carefully and thank you for the kind comments received for last week’s story and for the poem dedicated to members of the press on Press Day, which was the first of September. A hug to all of you!