Newsletter November 2023

Dear Estación Esperanza friends ! Once again, I realize how quickly time flies. Our 3.5-month stay in Switzerland is already a thing of the past.

Bye Switzerland / Hola Peru

In August I landed in Zurich with a big belly, and a week ago I was allowed to fly back to Lima with my healthy second boy. Yosias was born on October 3rd in Uster. Before we left, we took him and Mael to the pediatrician. Thank God both boys are healthy!

There In Lima, we were warmly welcomed by our three girls, Carlos’ parents and some of our team. The farewell in Switzerland, the arrival in Lima and our Estacion Esperanza activities on the first three days were filmed by SRF. It felt strange at times that such emotional moments were recorded. The SRF has gone and we are looking forward to the final result. The show “Family Is-sue” can be seen from January 5 (20:05) on SRF – Swiss TV or this Link. There will be five episodes in total.

We are very grateful that Rachael (from Bern) flew with us to Peru and will be helping us as a volunteer for a month with the boys and our household.

Everyday life in the slums is much more com-plicated and demanding than in Switzerland (e.g. dust and dirt everywhere, security less guaranteed, etc.) and there are also many Estacion Esperanza tasks that need to be completed (e.g. team retreat including an over-night stay 7-8 December, staff meetings, Christmas events, administrative tasks, construction issues, etc.).

We are delighted that our team successfully managed the project without us on site. Na-thalia and her husband Rodolfo (Colombia and Peru), in particular, did an excellent job as our deputies. Thanks to encouragement from the team, they were able to make various improvements in project operations (e.g. team meeting structure, intervision).

There were also challenging moments that they had to overcome on site. For example, the copper pipes were stolen from our property. We had hired a man from the neigh-borhood to guard our property. Apparently, he was not present at the time. We don’t know whether he was partly responsible. By chance, the boss of the construction company that had carried out the shell construction for us heard about this incident. He sent some of his bodyguards to the site. They found two drug addicts who confessed to having stolen and sold the copper. They were taught a lesson in a way that we do not approve of, although it is common in Peru. They were beaten up and threatened with a gun.

When will the kindergarten open?

We are also asking ourselves the same questi-on. We hope that it will happen at the beginning of the new school year or mid March 2024. We may not even know from the authorities in February whether we will be allowed to open the kindergarten in March. Welcome to Peru … We have little choice but to take a deep breath and accept things as they come. We have been running our Saturday program on the property again for a few weeks now. It was a pleasure to see all the children and mothers again after our return.

Thanks to the financial support from Switzerland, however, we are able to continue building. We are amazed at the progress made during our absence. Soon we will buy the windows and doors for the kindergarten. But there is another factor that we cannot influence. The property is located in an industrial zone. Although it is already used as a residential area all around, we had to apply for a zoning adjustment. A kindergarten cannot be opened in an industrial zone. However, the mayor of Mi Peru confirmed that he will do everything in his power to ensure that the necessary adjustment is made soon. He has al-ready made an important contribution to this.

A few weeks ago, Carlos almost called the mayor to ask him for a favor regarding the permit to run a school/kindergarten. However, Carlos was reluctant to do this, as ever-yone was calling the mayor.

22, 68, 3, 51 … BINGO!

Since Kouri Hanna can’t fit 150 people in the large room, we held our annual party on the little street in front of the project house. The Estacion Esperanza Band provided good worship and praise music to sing along to. Children released good wishes for Estacion Esperanza into the sky with helium balloons. Individual project visitors wanted to share their appreciation and feedback with everyone. Seventeen year-old Eliu said, “I’ve been in the Estacion Esperanza youth group Kingdom Kids for over a year now. In this place I’ve found friends, a family and got to know God. Thanks to the programs, I now spend my free time in a meaningful way.” The highlight of the festival was a game of bingo, in which young and old alike participated with great enthusiasm. The annual festival was full of surprises for Carlos and me, as we were not in Peru during the preparations. Our team did a great job. The grand finale was a joint ham-burger dinner with the whole Estacion Esperanza team in a small restaurant.