Between a Halal butcher shop, a Barber Shop and a supermarket open 24 hours a day, Abdoullay Diallo He remained in the background in a corner of the street, but with a smile that gave him away. She had recently seen on television that his tenth had been awarded. Life smiled on him, but in some way it also rewarded him: “In Mauritius I embarked on a boat to the Canary Islands, it took us five days to get there, there the Red Cross helped me a lot and, after a few months, I managed to reach Llagostera, where I had some acquaintances,” he recalls. And now, when luck finally makes an appearance, he can’t help but think that “when I arrived everything was very difficult, but now I will be able to breathe a little.”
a while before Nada Lakbir, a 9-year-old girl from Salta of Moroccan origin, was puffing down Àngel Guimerà Street, picking up a tenth with the softness of her fingers. It was 92023, the fifth prize. She stopped before the cameras and, without allowing herself the luxury of catching her breath, she blurted it out, plain and simple: “she’s my turn!” Her innocence, I confess, touched us, before we ran to beg her to keep her number in the pocket of her jersey. “And your parents?” we asked. “Now my father will come,” she hastened to answer, with eyes that said it all.
And the merit, in large part, is his. The day before in the afternoon he had accompanied his father, Marzouk Lakbir, to buy a tenth and, as parents do, I had let him choose the number, without knowing that, hours later, he would be awarded 6,000 euros (at first, however, they did not know when it was their turn). “I liked it a lot because it ended in 23, which is the year we are ending now, and it made me laugh,” he recalled. “The prize is more his than mine,” joked his father, who assured that he will use the prize money to go on a “small” vacation, although he confessed that, with six children, he will save a pinch for his studies.
Two police officers, who had gone to the lottery administration, recommended the father not to say it “too loudly” and to approach the administration when things “have calmed down a little.” However, he did not want to hide: “Why do I have to hide? I am very proud that I won the lottery,” he said.
From the portal of a building located right in front of the lottery administration he went down Marine Light, who works as a caregiver for an elderly person. She had a photo on her cell phone of the tenth and asked the journalists if this was the one she had touched. Upon confirmation, she assured that she is “very happy” and that she will use the money for her children, who are in her country of origin, Honduras.
Luck also smiled on another resident of Salt, Assumpció Brugués, who was going with the shopping cart to the market when he stopped at the lottery administration. He remembered that the number he had bought a month ago ended in 23 and, when he had heard the whole number on the radio, he had verified that, indeed, it was his. “I don’t know what I’ll do with the money,” he confessed, not knowing how much he had gotten at first. Her husband, who was waiting for him at the door, assured, laughing, that “we will not change the Christmas menu.”
Related news
The owners of the lottery administration, Mireia and Ismael Muela and Carles Vallejo, they took over the business a month and a half ago because the previous owners retired. Arrive and grind: “It is a great joy to give a fifth prize, it has been sold mainly over the counter to the people of the neighborhood and the town, and that makes us even more excited.” In total, vThey finished 52 series of tenth and distributed more than 3.1 million euros.
The administration is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Catalonia, according to the Idescat Territorial Socioeconomic Index. It is an area with a strong presence of a migrant population, mostly young, with few opportunities to access formal training or the labor market. In recent days, there have been evictions in the neighborhood that have led to confrontations with the police.