Mexican Holiday Mission Not So Good

Mexican native Lilia Saro wasn't so satisfied with her gift-giving mission this past holiday, but she's not discouraged at all from continuing to help out poor people in her country. "It was a bit disappointing time, but that's not going to stop me," said a determined Saro in a phone interview.

For the second straight year, the Mount Royal resident has collected stuffed animals from various local sources, such as donations left at the Rec Centre and the Ecole secondaire Mont-Royal. Last year, she also collected school supplies and brought them to small villages in the southern state of Oaxaca — this year she went to orphanages in Morelia in the south-central state of Michoacan.

Bringing her stuffed animals and other gifts in two large hockey-equipment bags, she was stopped by Mexican custom officials who wanted their own "gift" before letting her through. However, she stubbornly refused, saying that the goods were donations and showing her charitable-status papers. "People think that you're going to sell the stuff on the black market."

At the central bus station in Mexico City, she worried about having to wait five hours with her heavy bags. Instead, she asked a ticket-taker if she could take an earlier bus, but she had no luck there.

That changed when she started a conversation with a woman who was going to the same city. After listening to Saro's story, she convinced the driver and the ticket-taker to let her on the earlier bus. "She told them that it wouldn't be fair for me to wait five hours if I was doing a good thing for the kids and coming from Canada."

Talking with the woman all of the way for six hours, she was even taken in her husband's car to the home of Saro's parents. Named Yadira Huerta de Guerrero, she described her as "my guardian angel."

Visiting the three local orphanages, she was disappointed again. Apparently, her parents weren't told that most of the children were hosted by local families for the holidays. Saro could only leave about half of her stuffed toys with those who remained behind - those three-years-old and younger.

An uncle helped to find a place just outside Morelia where she could give away the rest. "I just looked around for some kids and the news spread fast." The children in that poor barrio didn't see the second-hand toys as used, she stressed. For the older children, she gave a large bag of brand-new tennis balls to play with. "Giving to such kids who have very little makes you feel useful."

Saro plans to keep up her charitable trips. She expressed hope that she will have more luck with the Morelia orphanages when she returns for Children's Day on April 30. And she will continue with efforts to collect toys and clothes for Mexican farmworkers who spend several months picking crops just south of Montreal.