Los Burros and the Bad Boy

It is a very well known fact that the Lord does work in mysterious ways, as was the case with this particular bad boy.  He had not been doing well in school and his grades were not where his parents thought they should be.  As with most parents who hope for their children to succeed, his parents thought it best that he be punished for his lackluster grades.  Of course this little boy was upset, he knew that something he really wanted would be denied him and sure enough it was the annual family vacation.

This young boy was the son of a prominent German businessman who had risen to the top of the pharmaceutical field.  The family was one of the biggest names, if not the top name, in the pharmaceutical field in Germany as well as starting to branch out world wide.  Being a boy having fun and doing the things that young boys do was much more important than studying and doing ones homework throughout the school year.  He was living day by day, not thinking about what may come when the grades were issued at the end of the year. 

When the father announced the punishment, it was a blow to the young boy.  This was a special trip, as the father had planned something truly wonderful. The family was going to go on their vacation back to Germany, but one member would have to stay at their new adopted home here in Mexico.  This particular vacation was a grand one.  They would have to travel up through Mexico, across the United States to New York and take a leisurely cruise across the Atlantic.  After spending some time back in Germany, the family would then take a special flight back home on a new flying machine.  Imagine the grief this young man felt, now hearing this fantastic news about this splendid adventure, and yet he would have to sit at home while his parents, brother and sister enjoyed the wonderful summer jaunt.  This was the vacation of a lifetime, but one would miss out.

The young boy stayed in Mexico as the family started their wonderful adventure.  He wondered what they would do, what they would see and especially about the fantastic new flying machine that the whole family would be flying on to return to America.  This was the thing which bothered him the most.  The thought of his brother and sister being able to forever taunt him of this fantastic flight would surely be a huge burden to carry, especially on such small shoulders…it was almost too much.

It was now early may and the family would soon be home.  The family had written and contacted the young boy, asking how he was and telling him of the sights and fun they had along the way.  He would think about school during these times, and if only he had done better and actually done his homework rather than playing and reading. The young man was sorely upset.  To him, this part of the journey was to be the best.  The family was in Frankfurt and was preparing to return home via one of Germany’s latest flying ships.  They would be suspended in mid air, and float softly through the sky for three days, looking down on Europe and the Atlantic, and eventually they would see America.  The thought of being in the sky for three days, eating, sleeping in the sky was beyond belief.  This is the part that hurt the young boy the most.  If only he could experience this…

His family were passengers on the luxury airship, the Hindenburg.  He never saw his parents again, and his brother would never be the same.  His parents and sister were burned to death and his brother survived, being unrecognizable due to the damage of the fire-but he survived.  The greatest vacation he would ever be presented with then denied would change his life forever.  He and his brother were now orphans.  It is impossible to imagine the amount of grief and anxiety over the whole incident.  He missed the vacation and lost most of his family.  What would he and his brother do now?  The Lord does work in mysterious ways, and for a fleeting moment the young boy thrilled to have his brother back, thought that his punishment for his grades may have been a good thing.

I found myself sitting with the son of the boy who was told he could not go on that amazing vacation.  He lost his grandparents in one of the most famous disasters in history, and now he is sitting here joking about the roses he grows in his garden and how they were grown especially for his best buddy whose birthday we are all celebrating.  The flowers are beautiful and he has a great smile.  The zest for life and adventure obviously runs in his family.  I notice his wife looks nothing like a Mexican.  As the group of revelers sings Happy Birthday to the birthday boy, she asks if he would also like to hear it sung in her native tongue.  Everyone said yes, so she sings it in Norwegian, and does a silly dance to go along with it as well.  I thought she looked different.  Later, after eating apple strudel, I would hear the tale of how as a young man himself, he made an epic journey across the Atlantic to fetch his future wife.  He had no money, so he found away to sail across the Atlantic on a small boat as a hired hand with an American couple who were “purists”.  They did not believe in electricity, compasses and other assorted things that can make travelling a bit easier and safer.  That is a whole other tale…and a big one at that.

His sister sat to his right.  I thought they were getting along rather fabulously, but had no idea they were related.  She has made her living as a set designer in Hollywood and wherever duty calls.  She is not one short for gossip on your favorite Hollywood actor and all that goes on behind the scenes in the world of celebrities.  Who cares about that gossip though, celebrities are a bore.  I enjoyed her tale of the donkeys better.

Michelob were shooting a commercial for their Michelob Dry beer in Espiritu Santo, Mexico.  Teresa took the job and ventured ahead to go and find some donkeys for use in the commercial.  Espiritu Santo is an island off Baja.  It is an environmentally protected sanctuary and in truth, there is not too much there…that includes donkeys.  Teresa had to go to mainland Mexico to villages on the coast to source donkeys.  According to her it was not that easy to find donkeys that suited the requirements.  She went form village to village until she found a farmer who swore that his donkeys were the ones she wanted; his were destined to be stars.  She needed donkeys that could swim.  “Do these donkeys swim?” she asked the old farmer.  He nodded vigorously and almost scoffed at Teresa for asking such a silly question. “Pues si!” he said immediately.  Shouldn’t any donkey that lives on the coast be able to swim?  She asked him again if he was sure his donkeys could swim and he adamantly stood his ground.  She was convinced.  She now had los burros!

She told the director she had los burros and they were ready to go.  The director asks the important question, ‘Can they swim?” and she reassured him they could.  She looks at us as if to make a point clear, “Have you ever tried to get a donkey on a boat?”  It is not as easy as one would think.  Donkeys are stubborn, and when they see that they are going to have to go sea bound, they are ardent in keeping their land legs.  They had to put the donkeys on a boat and sail to the island where they were filming.  “Have you ever seen a donkey on a boat…especially as it is being tossed on the waves?”  Not many of us have.  She sways back and forth and rolls her eyes.  The director obviously knew that this was going to not be easy.  He was planning ahead.

As they neared the island, Teresa was told that they could not get the boat all the way to shore, so they would have to jump out and swim in.  ‘You told me the donkeys could swim, right?” the director asked for reassurance.  Teresa furrows her brow, nods her head and raises her hand acting as if the director was being a nuisance.  She admits that she was nervous, but the old man told her the donkeys would be fine.  She knew it would not be so easy.  She said she was glad to get off the boat though, because the poor donkeys looked miserable and terrified from being out on the water.  The producer sent the camera crew ahead and had someone filming as the started to leave the boat.  He was floating in the water with his underwater camera, ready to film the donkeys exit.  Teresa got the donkeys to the end of the boat and managed to finally get one to jump.

There was a huge splash as the donkey went overboard.  The director was standing by to witness the event.  They were horrified.  The donkey didn’t even try to swim.  He just sank.  Teresa panicked.  “There is a cameraman underwater, he can help” the director said.  Teresa jumped in to assist with the donkey.  She laughs as she tells of the sinking donkey.  “He was like a stone.  He just sank.  He went straight to the bottom.  I was horrified.  I was going to drown this farmer’s donkeys.  He told me they could swim!”

The donkey overboard sank like a stone.  She could see the fear in the donkey’s eyes as it went further under the waves.  In the fleeting seconds that passed, she had no idea how she would get him back to the surface.  As she neared the donkey she could not believe what was happening.  The panicked donkey had eyes the size of platters, and his ears were pointed straight back behind his head.  As he felt his hoofs touch the bottom of the sea, he started walking.  She wanted to laugh, but that is not a smart thing to do when you are underwater trying to rescue a drowning donkey.  The cameraman got the whole thing on film.  A few others had dove in and helped get the stubborn donkey to the surface, as he would surely drown if he were to walk himself to shore.  Once the soaked donkey was safely to shore, they immediately decided that it was better to send a small dingy over to get the rest of the donkeys.  It gets worse trying to convince an already panicked donkey who just watched his friend nearly drown to leave the boat and get into a smaller, more wobbly one.  True to her creed, Teresa made it happen.  She promised the director he would have the donkeys he needed to make the commercial a success.

With all the burros safe on land, Teresa acted as mother, and kept a watchful eye on los burros as she went about helping with make up, lighting and whatever else needed a hand.  One of the jobs was to go around and pick up all the donkey poop.  As an eco-sanctuary, trash and donkey poop are not allowed.  In fact, there can be no signs of human presence or strange animals that are not indigenous to the island left behind.  She said the filming went well and they got it all in the can.  The director was happy.  He got the shots he wanted and felt he would be able to convey old Mexico to the folks back at home so much so that they would reach for a cold Michelob Dry to help quench their imagined Mexican adventures.

“How did you get the donkeys back after the shoot?” someone asks amid the laughter.  Teresa raises her hand, then her forefinger, “Cranes!”  Everyone laughs even harder as the trick is exposed.  She looks wide –eyed at everyone at the table and asks, “Have you ever tried to get a donkey that almost drowned back on to the boat from where it fell off of?”  Cue the even louder laughter.  She laughs too as she says that now that the filming was done and it was time to go home, she had to miraculously manage to hire some cranes to come and lift the donkeys back onto their boat.

We were expecting birthday fun but had no idea we would get these treats.

Watch the finished Michelob commercial here (drowning scenes not included).