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| Ruben and Sister Fabuola |
He’s not a large man; the top of his head barely
reaches to my shoulders, but he has a huge heart.
Standing beside him in Casa
Hogar, the orphanage on the mainland portion of Isla
Mujeres, I watched as the tears streamed down
his face.
“They don’t have family.” He quietly said.
After surviving a life-changing event, Ruben
Chavez Martinez, the proprietor of Ruben’s Restaurante on Isla Mujeres, has a
new goal in life.
His mission is to give back to the community and to make
little kids shriek with laughter.
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| Mickey, Ruben, Minnie, January event |
He sponsors the Three Kings Day event held annually at
his restaurant. January 6th is an important date for Catholics in Mexico, celebrating when the three wise
men purportedly arrived in Bethlehem with gifts for baby Jesus.
It’s
the day when children hope to receive gifts from the three kings, instead of on
December 25th from Santa Claus.
Same idea. Different culture.
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| Sign for the orphanage |
Ruben, until very recently, was also the main
supporter of Casa Hogar. Every Friday afternoon, he left his restaurant to cook a
hot meal for the dozen or so children living at the orphanage. The number of
kids he was feeding soon became twenty-five youngsters, and then forty.
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| Nico, Terri, Ruben, Ricky, and John |
He now has a small but dedicated group of volunteers working under the name of Ruben’s Kids, who help by fundraising and carrying out a myriad of other tasks all related to Ruben’s desire to make kids happy.
Every month, the group purchases stacks of pizzas and grilled
chickens to feed the Casa Hogar residents, plus all the kids waiting anxiously
at the gate.
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| Kids eager to help |
Once a month, the volunteers do a shopping run to Costco to purchase a truckload of the essentials like toilet paper, beans,
rice, and cooking oil.
Quite recently, islander John Pasnau discovered
that the freezer at Casa Hogar is functional, and he stocked it with meat,
hopefully enough to last until the next buying trip.
There is a limited amount of living space, and
currently, only twelve girls and four nuns live full-time at Casa Hogar. The
girls, ranging in age from babies to teenagers, sleep six to a room in clean, well-maintained bunk beds that are covered with brightly coloured bedspreads.
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| Inside one of the bedrooms |
There
are about another two dozen kids who, due to various problems at home, are not living
in a safe environment.
They are daytime boarders, seeking a bit of love and
comfort from the nuns.
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| Waiting at the gates hoping for a meal |
Two weeks ago, I met up with islanders Jeanette
Laurence and Mikell Thompson on the Ultramar passenger boat. We were all on
our way to Casa Hogar.
Once we landed in Puerto Juarez, we negotiated with
different taxi drivers, finally finding one that knew (approximately) where we
wanted to go, and gave us a fair price to get there.
As it turned out, he needed
to ask for directions twice, from the municipal police, but we eventually arrived
at our destination. He got a nice tip because it was a much longer distance
than we had anticipated.
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| The four sisters do everything |
Casa Hogar is located deep inside Rancho Viejo. It is
an area of continental Isla Mujeres that I knew existed, but had never seen.
The community appears to be depressed, with not much in the way of industry,
commercial establishments, and seemingly no attractions for tourists. The area
is poor. Very poor.
As soon as the supply truck arrived at Casa Hogar, dozens
of youngsters eagerly tried to be helpful, carrying boxes of cereal or tins of
food inside the building.
Everyone pitched in - Jeanette Laurence, Mikell
Thompson, Terri Tywan, Nico Tywan, John Pasnau, Ruben Chavez, and Ricky Za’Ga -
trying their best to ensure every child had something to eat.
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| Terri and I dishing up food |
The dozen or so accompanying parents were hopeful,
but in the end, hungry. There just wasn’t enough food to include them.
By
counting the pizza slices, ten boxes with eight slices in each box, we
calculated we had fed seventy-some-odd kids and the four nuns who care for them.
As you can imagine, this project is a never-ending
labour of love for Ruben and his partner, Ricky Za’ga.
If you can help in any small way, please friend
Ruben’s Kids on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/RubensKids/
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| Jeanette, Lynda, Sister, Mikell, John |
Cheers from paradise,
Lynda & Lawrie
Available in online book stores!
Grab your copy, and join the adventure!
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