Forgetfulness is normal, it’s not always pathological

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/forgetfulness-is-normal-its-not-always-pathological/

University Students Deliver a Detailed Report to the Aruba Timeshare Association

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/university-students-deliver-a-detailed-report-to-the-aruba-timeshare-association/

Sarampi = Measles

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/sarampi-measles/

Student Apartments and Social Housing

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/student-apartments-and-social-housing/

Fashion at your fingertips

https://batibleki.wheninaruba.com/fashion-at-your-fingertips/

Famed local designer Ronchi de Cuba will be giving an 8-week fashion workshop in the incubator of Cas di Cultura, to locals, 15+, at no fee, from March 2nd to April 30th.

This is an invaluable opportunity for those aspiring to become fashion designers, with an interest in the technicality of collections, the life cycle of fashion, discovering their own personal aesthetics, learning about capitals of fashion around the globe and mastering all design principles, in an interactive, twice a week. Monday & Thursday, from 6 to 8, course.

He promises students a full review of casting, hair, make up, music, choreography, in preparation for the graduation show.

Designer Ronchi de Cuba has for the past 33 years dressed us, showing us a fun time at fashion shows, at model competitions, at Knockout Models and Koma Models auditions, at Aruba in Style events, at Art Fashion in San Nicolaas, and at the annual Aruba Fashion Week.

He carries his own label TRB, Trash by Ronchi, in his store and atelier in town, from where he dresses politician and socialites, including the previous Prime Minister and the Minister Finance and the current Minister of Tourism. He was active this year designing dresses for the island’s Children and Youth queens of popular Carnival groups.

His most important contribution to our island is his Pygmalion effect, he regularly invites local teens to join modeling classes, they bring him their braces and pimples and low self-esteem and at the end of the course they all transform into swans, gorgeous, self-confident, male and female models, with runway and camera experience, having completely changed the way they look at the world and how the world looks at them!

Ronchi reports he fell into fashion watching his grandmother, mother and aunts get meticulously dressed, following the fashion dictates of their time. In high school he was allowed to exercise his creativity and put on elaborate shows, which ended him in design school, and defined the trajectory of his life.

While being a college dropout in 1989, he started presenting shows, anyway, and giving modeling classes, then in 1993, five years into his intuitive adventures in fashion he went back to school to the Miami Institute of Fine Art and Design to finish his degree. He was ready for the world stage.

Since then he has been presenting several collections each year, under different labels, and became the ultimate ambassador of chic on the island.

As a designer Ronchi laments the decline of style, and the cheapening of mass fashions and would like to see the consumer more informed about the quality of the fabric and the design, before making the investment in the purchase.

The workshop was Lotte’s idea, Lotte van den Heuvel, from Cas Di Cultura, and Ronchi is enthusiastic about the initiative. At the end of eight weeks graduates will put on a fashion show, with their own designs on display. This will not be a sewing class, all students are expected to have mastered that, and they will be challenged in many ways, deconstructing garments, reconstructing them, turning existing designs inside out and upside down, and in the process, they will discover who they are as creatives.

At Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, Valentine’s Day is not only celebrated at the table or under the stars, but also through the art of meaningful gifting. This season, the resort invites guests and locals alike to discover a different expression of love at Seráfina Boutique, an adults-only boutique curated to reflect the same intimate spirit as the resort itself.

More than a boutique, Seráfina is a destination for gifts that tell a story. Each piece is selected with intention, offering couples the chance to surprise one another with something deeply personal, beautifully made, and often found nowhere else on the island.

From exclusive greeting cards designed especially for Seráfina to soft pillows adorned with playful and romantic quotes, the boutique celebrates love through thoughtful details that feel both personal and joyful. These are keepsakes meant to be cherished long after Valentine’s Day has passed, serving as gentle reminders of shared moments, laughter, and connection.

For couples seeking to deepen intimacy, Seráfina offers a refined collection of romance and wellness-inspired couples’ accessories, thoughtfully selected to encourage closeness, curiosity, and shared experiences. Elegant massage oils, sensual self-care essentials, and interactive couple-focused games are presented with the same discretion, quality, and sophistication that define the Bucuti & Tara experience.

Beauty and wellbeing take center stage with the island’s most extensive selection of K-Skin Care products, known for their luxurious formulas and wellness-forward philosophy. These offerings make especially meaningful Valentine’s gifts for those who view self-care as an essential expression of love.

Jewelry lovers will discover handcrafted pieces by local Aruban artisans alongside refined designs from European talent, available exclusively at Seráfina. Each piece is selected for its craftsmanship and individuality, ensuring every gift feels intentional and anything but ordinary.

The experience is completed with a carefully curated collection of dresses, resort wear, and beachwear that balances timeless elegance with a contemporary edge. Many designs and brands are available only at Seráfina, making them ideal for those seeking something truly special for an upcoming getaway or a romantic evening on the island.

Just like the resort itself, Seráfina Boutique is rooted in authenticity, quality, and emotional connection, offering an adults-only environment where intimacy and discretion are thoughtfully prioritized. It is a place where Valentine’s gifting becomes more than tradition; it becomes a personal gesture, guided by care and intention.

This Valentine’s Day, Bucuti & Tara invites guests and locals to step inside Seráfina and discover gifts that celebrate love in all its forms, quietly luxurious, deeply personal, and unmistakably unique.

The media shared the good news about student apartments in Oranjestad. The former prosecutors’ building on the side of Zara, facing the ocean will be repurposed by architect Raffy Kock and the *FCCA to offer 21 student apartments.

The target audience?

Exchange students of the University of Aruba. The rent will be below market standard, and the income will serve FCCA’s mortgage bank, in its role as a primary local mortgage lender.

Three commercial spaces will be made available street side, designated for businesses catering to the building residents’ social and commercial activities – a cafeteria, a coffee shop, a grocery store?!

All that, in line with the Ministry of Economic Affair and its vision for the urban revival of Oranjestad already in motion with the group promoting renovations on Wilhelminastraat, the one developing Weststraat and the promenade, as well as the upgrades in the Emanstraat / Ellegoogstraat area with Alba Quarters, and Anna Catharina. Also the area around Hotel Centraal, and the former Music Box.

Oranjestad needs people living downtown. Young people inject joy into the bars, restaurants, and shops, creating a dynamic scene. GOA pledged fiscal incentives, I am not sure what these are, but they may help, drive the vision.

FCCA also has plans for the former DIMAS building, for another 21apartments, this year, for which the use has not yet been identified. Flipping the building is an expensive exercise and the FCCA might want to offer it as commercial space, instead of subsidized living quarters.

In talking to Julie Wever of the FCCA about the projects in town, she reported they are also working on social housing in the Kiviti neighborhood, in the St Nicholas area, where 75 town houses are on the drawing board with living quarters downstairs and bedrooms upstairs.

They are also busy with a Cas Paloma project, three story apartment buildings with 120 units. These will be rented at a subsidized rate to the people already registered in the FCCA data base. The subsidize rent is determined by way of a chart and depends on the level of income of the individual asking for housing.

We have been talking about the shortage of houses on the island, and the FCCA is   making efforts in collaboration with the government to find solutions, finance mortgages, and fill the gap in the housing market by supporting low- to middle-income households, promoting homeownership, and boosting community development, under the supervision from the Central Bank of Aruba.

Those of you with good memories remember the FCCA had challenges legally transferring ownership to families who purchased FCCA houses under the lease-to-own agreement.

I have good news, about thirty of the 100 homes have been transferred following the land parceling by DIP which has been on hold 30 years, but they are moving in the right direction and splitting the lots, in preparation for ownership transfer.

The music school donated by the FCCA?

It already has 100 students according to a report by MinPres.

At this point, I must again express my disappointment that the centrally located Caribbean Town ended up in American & Canadian ownership, instead of becoming an affordable local housing project. The terrain was given to the developer for social housing, yet the apartments ended up overpriced and out of range for locals. Lamentably.

Before I go, I must mention that Oranjestad needs a major cleanup. Remove heaps of building debris, clear the weeds, chop up the dead trees. Water all ones that survived all these years without TLC. Fix sidewalks. Fix all foundations or remove them. Dry fountains are depressing. And repair the missing mosaic stones. Look at main street but also at the network of alleys, feeding into the main shopping artery.

Raffy Kock did some work for AVP nine years ago to redesign the street and he can help save it.

Dear Minister of Economic Affairs: By passing a law in which shopkeepers must help maintain their areas clean, we will make hundreds of business-owners our partners in the cleanup. Sweep and scrub the sidewalks in front of your store and pick up the cigarette butts. Listo.

*Fundacion Cas pa Comunidad Arubano (FCCA) is a housing foundation and financial institution in Aruba focused on making affordable and suitable homes accessible to Aruban residents, especially those with limited financial means. It was established in 1979 by the Government of Aruba.

We were recently told by the Department of Public Health that on January 28-29, a passenger on his way to Bonaire stopped in Aruba in transit, and upon his arrival at the neighboring island exhibited symptoms of a disease we thought was eradicated, Measles.

It has been reported that Measles was considered eliminated in the U.S. since 2000, but it is resurging. After years of extremely low levels, cases have surged, regionally and globally. Canada recently lost its measles-free status.

I found a newspaper clipping from 2018 that reports on 1,685 cases, 85% of them in Venezuela. At the time, the disease was already diagnosed in 11 countries and claimed 35 lives.

Measles is highly contagious and harbors the risk of serious complications, such as pneumonia, and brain swelling, encephalitis, that often ends up in hospitalization, and sometimes in death.

What is considered a childhood disease manifests itself in high fever, running nose, dry cough, red, irritated eyes, scratchy throat, tiredness and most famously the red spotty rash. Everywhere.

Why are these outbreaks happening?

Because of low vaccine coverage.

Since the pandemic perhaps before, based on religious considerations, and accessibility, suspicion of vaccines increased – people are hesitant to vaccinate their children, they are mostly misinformed, and the fake news phenomenon has created an anti-vax movement, all over the globe.

That anti-vax movement unites people opposed to vaccines and vaccination programs, while science strongly recommend ONE highly effective weapon, a shot, in two doses, MMR, inoculation against measles, mumps and rubella, at the same time. The MMR provides a strong, long-lasting defense, against the three contagious viruses.

Mumps: A contagious viral disease that swells the cheeks and the jaw area, escorted by many flu symptoms.

Rubella: Also called German Measles. A contagious viral infection. Mild on children and adults but may cause birth defects if contracted by pregnant women.

Recently, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an epidemiological alert due to continued transmission across the Americas and urged countries to strengthen surveillance and vaccination efforts.

Nationwide in early 2026, the CDC reported 733 confirmed U.S. measles cases and multiple outbreaks across many states. Cases have also been linked to specific locations like Disneyland, where recent exposures were confirmed.

Remember vaccination is key. To fend off an outbreak 95% of the community must be vaccinated to protect against an outbreak.

Remember the Herd Immunity concept? Check your vaccination status, you are doing yourself a favor and protecting your community.