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| Ricky, Lawrie (Mickey) and Ruben. |
Ruben’s Restaurante on Guerrero Avenue in
Centro once again rocked with laughter as dozens of volunteers wrangled a herd
of excited kids.
January 6th or Three Kings Day or El Día de Reyes is a special time on Isla
Mujeres, and all of Mexico. It is the culmination of the twelve days of
Christmas and commemorates the three wise men arriving with gifts for the baby
Jesus.
The children of Mexico look forward to this
holiday as gifts are traditionally exchanged on this date, and not on Christmas
day. In Mexico and many other Latin American countries, it is the three wise
men, not Santa, who are the bearers of gifts for the children.
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| Flip-flop Santa John Pasnau and young friend |
However, Isla Mujeres has a very special
Santa Claus, John Pasnau, who wearing his red velvet suit and flip-flops,
arrives on Three Kings Day to distribute gifts to the local kids. Once again
Santa had tears of joy in his eyes as he handed the presents to the children.
Then the army of volunteers took over and Santa was in charge of handing out big
hugs.
The helpers made sure every boy or girl received a present, a cold drink,
hot dogs or tamales and ice cream cones.
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| Minnie and kids - Lisa Godfrey photo |
Lawrie and I have for the past three years
put in a short appearance as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, but we only last about
forty-five minutes before the heat of the costumes renders us semi-unconscious.
We traditionally press our family members and friends into service as Mouse-Minders.
We can’t see very well through the eye holes and the kids like to rush towards
us, wrapping their arms around our legs. Our Mouse-Minders, Chuck and Marcy
Watt, Richard and Linda Grierson try to keep us upright and on our feet. If the
kids saw Mickey or Minnie fall, and our heads roll down the street, wouldn’t be
a good thing. We love participating in the Three Kings Day, even in just a
small way.
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| Haleigh, Denise, Ruben, Lisa - Lisa's photos |
There are so many people involved in this
event that was started by Ruben Chavez Martinez just three years ago. I decided
this year to include notes from some of the folks who have been involved from
the start. Here are a few of their stories.
Gail
Stewart, Sandwich Jefa: This
is the third year I ended up in charge of sandwich making. I don’t know
how that happened. How does a NY woman with three Masters degrees end up
being responsible for making 750 ham and cheese sandwiches on a little island
in Mexico? I have no idea. It was nice to have both our original
crew members and several first timers, the Sandwichettes! (The name if feminine but included men as
well as women).
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| Happy kid - Lisa Godfrey photo |
This year, Trina Noakes of CARM and Isla
Animals donated all the funds for the sandwich fixings. Maria Delgado
came as my interpreter for the meat and cheese buying, 18 kilos of each.
I was afraid my Spanish wasn’t good enough, and they would throw out the crazy
Gringa who thought she could order so much! But, no biggie!
Ordered, went back 2 hours later...got it!
I had eighty loaves of bread in my front
room. Mike dreamt they’d turn into fishes!
The team made all of the sandwiches in 1:15 minutes, with about one
cup of mayonnaise to spare. I was amazed, but after three years of
this, the organization of it was pretty easy. And everyone was cheerful and
fun, and got ‘er done!
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| Family on 1st vacation to Isla - helping out. LGodfrey pic |
Gail
also wrote: A word about the teenagers helping hand
out the tamales. One of the local churches made the 500 tamales and Ruben’s
Kids paid for them. But there were three American kids distributing them, and
all speaking fluent Spanish.
Who were they? Three kids from Des
Moines Iowa who majored in Spanish in college. They family was scheduled
to vacation in Puerto Rico, but had to change their plans. They ended up on
Isla. It was their first time, and they loved it. I asked them if they would
come back, in unison they all said, Yes! They were great workers, two
girls and a boy. The boy, dishing out all those tamales, had never had one
before, but we convinced him to have one. He liked it! A day later I ran into the “Tamale Family” again
and asked their names, Clay, Rachel, Sierra, Austin, and Elijah Tarbell.
 |
| Sandwish Jefa Gail on left - Lisa Godfrey photo |
And the
hot dog station: Marrien Neilson and Steve Ferree were
chiefs of that crew, they shopped for dogs, precooked them, brought grill,
etc. Jeff Somann and Rick Stern helped on the grill. The assembly
line was Mike Davanzo, roll opener and aluminum foil puller, Ginger Somann
placed dogs in buns, Katie Knapp Hill wrapped them and handed them out.
Putting the condiments on was hard for the
kids with a toy and milk in hand, so Ken Wanovich became condiment king,
squeezing ketchup or mustard, and telling kids “sorry, no mayonasa!” The gringo
purchasers didn’t think about mayonnaise on a hot dog! That was funny!
Two great rock ‘n roll singers, Ken Wanovich and Mike Davanzo, spent the day
dishing out hot dogs!
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| The boys loving getting sports equipment |
Ruth
Lacey, another original volunteer for the event: I
just want to recognize a young volunteer - Jordan - who helped sort and bag
hundreds of gifts on Friday and also manned the Niños window on
Saturday. He’s on vacation and I think returning to British Columbia any day
now, yet took time out to give back. He was much closer in age to the gift
recipients than the gaggle of jubiladas
that he was working with. He possesses a level of maturity much greater than
his age, and was a delight to work with. I think he deserves lots of kudos.
Day
Grey, food hampers: My daughter sent a photo
of a Reverse Advent Calendar to me. (The concept is to place non-perishable
food items into a hamper instead of removing a piece of chocolate from the
calendar.) I approached Ruben last year with the idea and he said yes, as he
wanted to help the families in need as well as handing out the toys. I
volunteered a good friend of mine Kathy Nicholson into helping. The idea exploded,
in a good way. Each hamper had about thirty to thirty-five items and weighted about
twenty-five pounds each!
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| Food hampers! Deanne Grey photo |
Julie
Andrews Goth, Toy Jefa: My job was organizing the
toy drive and the toy soldiers, the great group of volunteers who helped sort,
pack and hand out the toys. Last year we ran out of gifts and food. This
year our goal was to have more than enough, and that is what we did.
All the toys were separated into age groups
with similar interests: Infant to two years, three to five years, six to nine
year, ten to twelve, and school supplies. Then the toys were counted and
recorded to ensure we had enough for Three Kings Day both on Isla and at Casa
Hogar the orphanage that Ruben’s Kids helps support. At the last minute the
residents of the colonia Guadalapaña said they didn’t have enough toys for
their annual party and Ruben was pleased to share.
Over two thousand toys were donated by the
generous visitors who love this island and its beautiful people. My committee
of women was so unbelievable and Rob was very understanding as we sorted,
assembled and packed up all the toys in our home.
The most touching moment for me was when
Santa hugged and presented a big turquoise ball to Pedro, a young man with
Down’s Syndrome. Pedro cried, Santa cried, and everyone around them cried too! There
are many more stories but this is my favorite.
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| Terri and Sam, two more great volunteers! Jackie Conlon photo |
And from Lawrie and me, thank you to Ruben
Chavez Martinez for starting with this amazing event. And special thanks to Ricky
Za’Ga, Diego Gelmy Gonzalez Garrido and his family, all of the un-named
volunteers, John Pasnau and the board of advisors for Ruben’s Kids for pulling
off another fabulous El Día de Reyes.
You are all amazing!
Cheers
Lynda & Lawrie
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| Making little kids laugh - Jackie's photo |
~
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Yasmin and Jessica are back and the gold they found in Treasure Isla is still haunting them, especially when Carlos, their boss at the Loco Lobo, and Yasmin’s new lover, is kidnapped. No spoilers here, but his captivity and the girls’ efforts to free him, with the help of Carlos’s pals—including local Isla Mujeres fishermen and a Mexico City cop—are the crux of this fast-paced story. Lock has created not only a compelling and authentic setting, but a well-developed ensemble cast. The next Isla mystery can’t come fast enough.
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