School and work

School Colegio Diospi Suyana

Our children started school on March 3. Ilay in Year 3 with Sämi Steffen from Switzerland and Mava with a German classmate. After the first day of school, I asked Mava and Ilay if they had understood anything in Spanish. Ilay answers immediately and says: «Of course Dad, we understood everything!» This is a big surprise and a relief. After 6 months of kindergarten in Cusco, we didn't know where our children stood with the Spanish language. Of course they don't understand everything, but in context they have no problems. Both have already made friends and invite their classmates to our home. Ilay and Mava have been invited to various children's birthday parties and feel very comfortable. The school uniform is also a highlight for them and they would love to wear it at the weekend too. In the meantime, we have collected all the school materials. Each child has to get and bring their own school materials. The exercise books have to be enclosed and labeled, as well as every crayon and felt-tip pen, glue, plasticine, craft materials, block, ruler, toothbrush, mug, hat, jacket and all the rest. We are slowly understanding the school system and are getting better and better at organizing ourselves. Various parents' evenings and reunions have taken place. Last week there were two days of Olympics with various disciplines such as the sack race, long jump, sprint and football. It was a great event with the children wearing their own jerseys, make-up, posters, whistles and food provided by their parents.

Hospital Diospi Suyana

Rahel and I had our introductory week at the hospital on March 10. We were given an insight into various departments such as the consultation hour, operating theater, ward, emergency, etc. After this week, we were definitely able to start in our future areas. Rahel works four mornings a week for four hours in the laboratory. She takes blood samples from patients and analyzes the blood, urine, stool and sputum samples in the laboratory using various machines and microscopes. machines and microscopes. I work in the emergency team. We triage 30 to 50 patients in the morning and admit about 15 patients to the emergency department who still need to be seen by a doctor that day. One person from our team is always in the endoscopy department for gastroscopies, colonoscopies and cystoscopies. We also look after the intensive care unit and are present when patients are transferred to another hospital with the ambulance service. Rahel and I are busy learning the ropes. Many things work differently here, but not worse. Familiarizing ourselves with Spanish is exhausting and we sleep well and late at night. The work fulfills us and the collaboration is enjoyable because we know all the doctors and now most of the staff too. When I take a blood sample to the laboratory, I see my dear Rahel, which is always a joy!

Not everything is easy here, but being here also brings positive things.

We still had a few weeks to settle in. In addition to the daily language lessons, we implemented the following.

We have our house and surroundings:

• decluttered,
• disposed of,
• tidied up,
• cleaned
• mended
• have all the walls in the house filled and painted (that was necessary!)
• have the canopy re-covered with tiles (approx. 1m² was without bricks)
• unused water tank mounted on a steel scaffold at a height of 4 meters & connected (so we have a higher water pressure and can also shower and wash up in the evening)
• Main entrance opened, the door was locked for years because the key was missing. Now we have a large entrance area.
• We had a new fence erected in front of the main entrance, as goats and horses were tethered directly in front of the door to graze during the day.

Now the main things are done. At the weekend two weeks ago, a small lake formed in our garden. It expanded every day, even though it didn't rain during those days. The homeowner came by and discovered a burst water pipe. The pipe is only about 10 cm underground and is not protected from Donkey's kicks. As soon as the water pipe was repaired, the washing machine stopped working. The error message indicates that the water pressure is too low. Great, is this caused by the water pipe, the new water tank or is the machine faulty? The machine is only a few years old and from a good brand. At the same time, the fuse in the laundry room has blown and I inform the electrician. He has already been to our house and replaced a power cable by the entrance lighting that had been chewed through by a rodent. The electrician confirmed that he would bring a new fuse. Unfortunately, he didn't show up on Friday evening. I contacted him the following Wednesday and received no reply as to his whereabouts. In the meantime, we were able to take our clothes to a missionary family for washing at the weekend. Thank you very much for that! The following weekend, Rahel cleaned the uniform by hand. I informed another electrician who got our oven working again. He came as arranged and was able to fix the problem within three hours. The hose from the presostat had a hole in it from the vibration of the machine. The electrician told me that we needed a new hose. I agreed and said that he could buy one. Unfortunately, you can only buy such a hose in Cusco, in Curahuasi this would be out of the question. Unless we had a small tube to bridge the hose. After a long search, Rahel finds a holder for a birthday candle. This piece is made of plastic and is hollow. It can be inserted into the hose and secured with cable ties. Now the washing machine works again after 2 weeks. You have to be inventive and I'm glad I didn't dispose of everything in and around the house, because we could have used quite a few things. The next day we wash our clothes with joy, but the washing machine keeps turning off because the power supply from the socket via the extension cable breaks off. We pull various extension leads into the bathroom, but most of them don't work. After some trial and error, we find one that works and we can do our laundry again, whew! In the next few weeks, the electrician will come again with a new fuse, cable and socket strip. Now we hope that things will settle down and no further damage will occur.