SEASONAL STORY BORDERS ON CRAZINESS : TROOP OF SANTAS GET TOYS TO MEXICAN ORPHANS.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Sit back and enjoy this one because it's got all the elements of a great yarn - a convoluted convoluted /con·vo·lut·ed/ (kon?vo-lldbomact´ed) rolled together or coiled. plot, weird humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was and a happy ending. Don't try to understand it, though, because there are just some things that get lost in the translation in the turbulent U.S.-Mexico border relationship. Even NAFTA NAFTA in full North American Free Trade Agreement Trade pact signed by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico in 1992, which took effect in 1994. Inspired by the success of the European Community in reducing trade barriers among its members, NAFTA created the world's couldn't help salvage this one. Just before Christmas, I wrote about a ministry in Arleta that was wrapped up in red tape at the Tijuana border trying to get a truckload truck·load n. The quantity that a truck can hold. truckload n → camión m lleno of toys and blankets to an orphanage ORPHANAGE, Eng. law. By the custom of London, when a freeman of that city dies, his estate is divided into three parts, as follows: one third part to the widow; another, to the children advanced by him in his lifetime, which is called the orphanage; and the other third part may be by him it runs in a little city called Vincente Guerrero, 180 miles south of the border. The fact that this ministry has been making this same Christmas trip for the past 30 years had no impact on the Mexican guards at the Otay Mesa border, where all trucks cross into Tijuana. Without the official stamp of approval, these presents and supplies were not coming into Mexico - orphans or no orphans waiting for them. And that's where the story sat Christmas Eve, as ministry officials had no luck rounding up a government official on either side of the border willing to sign off on the border crossing. What happened next has the makings for a remake of the old Keystone Kops Keystone Kops the slapstick film comedians specializing in wild chases (1912-1920). [Am. Cinema: Halliwell, 399] See : Zaniness series. Various groups, including the Rotary Club, which has chapters in Mexico, tried to help the ministry cut through the red tape. But nothing succeeded on short notice until Roberto Flores Flores, town, Guatemala Flores (flōrəs), town (1990 est. pop. 2,200), capital of Petén department, N Guatemala. Flores was built on an island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá and on the site of the , a swimming pool contractor in the West Valley, called Charla Pereau at the ministry the Saturday night after Christmas. ``He had a cousin who was a federal judge in Tijuana, and had called him to tell him about our plight,'' Charla said. ``The judge called the man in charge of border crossings at Otay Mesa, and it was agreed that our truck would be escorted through the next morning (Sunday) at 10 a.m.'' So Charla, her husband Charles, Flores and a driver named Ken Gustafson headed for the border to deliver some late Christmas presents to 80 orphaned kids. ``But when we got to the border station, the man in charge was home sick, and the person working for him knew nothing about our crossing. She wouldn't let us pass. ``Finally, she called her boss at home, and he said that we could cross the border, but only in little trucks, not our one big truck. ``Why, no one knew. We still don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. ,'' Charla says. Officials with the U.S. Border Patrol at both the Calexico and El Centro El Centro (ĕl sĕn`trō), city (1990 pop. 31,384), seat of Imperial co., SE Calif., near the Mexican border; inc. 1908. It is a processing and shipping center for a heavily irrigated agricultural region (vegetables, grain, cotton, sector headquarters said Friday they wouldn't even hazard a guess as to why their counterparts on the other side of the border wouldn't let one big truck through, but allowed smaller trucks to pass. ``We're not experts on the vagaries of Mexican law, but stranger things have happened,'' said one border official who requested his name not be used. Calls to the Mexican consulate in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. County went unanswered. ``We wound up leaving our big truck at the border, and looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. some smaller trucks, with no luck,'' Charla went on to say. ``Finally, we found this little church that lent us a pickup truck and two mini-vans. ``We unloaded some of the goods out of the big truck, put them into the three little trucks, drove across the border, unloaded them in an empty lot about a mile away, then drove back across the border into the U.S. to get more goods. ``Pretty soon, we began to realize this was going to take forever,'' Charla says. What she didn't know was that word was spreading about their plight to other little churches on the U.S. side of the border, and pretty soon more little trucks driven by men in their Sunday suits began to show up to take the toys across the border. ``It took 24 trip loads to get everything across the border, then we were allowed to drive our big empty truck across the border, reload (1) To load a program from disk into memory once again in order to run it. Reload is entirely different than reinstall. Reinstall means that you have to run the install program from a CD-ROM or floppy disk and perform the installation procedure over again. it, and drive it down to the orphanage.'' Charles Pereau and Gustafson continued the journey to the orphanage to deliver the late Christmas presents to the kids, while Charla and Roberto Flores headed back to the Valley. It was 8 p.m. when they left. They got home at midnight. It had taken them 10 hours at the border to get the gifts across. Which leads us to 6 a.m. Friday morning in front of Osborne Neighborhood Church in Arleta, where the ministry is located. Saturday was the annual party that the ministry hosts at the orphanage for the children of migrant workers in Vincente Guerrero. There were 1,600 Christmas stockings for the kids, and hundreds of boxes of food and clothing for the adults to be delivered. This time, the ministry was taking no chances. Charla had already called ahead to the border and was again told the same thing as before. Sure, they could cross the border, but only in little trucks. So, 18 of them were lined up at sunrise Friday, loaded and ready to go. Trucks and drivers from the Mid-San Fernando Valley Rotary Club, from local churches and from Roberto Flores, the swimming pool contractor whose cousin is a federal judge in Tijuana. Two more vans joined the caravan in Orange County to bring the total to 20 trucks crossing the border a little after 10 a.m. Friday. One big empty truck leading 20 little trucks into Mexico. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion