One year in Peru!

One year ago today we landed in Peru!
A year has already passed!
We experienced, saw and learned a lot!
We are incredibly grateful to God for his guidance and faithfulness!
A huge thank you for the great support through prayer, requests and donations!!!
We couldn't be here and volunteer at the hospital without you!
A big thank you for that!
We are doing very well and are very grateful to be here!

„You will see: I will stand by you! I will protect you wherever you go and bring you back to this land safely. I will never let you down; I will stand by the promise I have made to you.«‭‭

Genesis 28:15 HFA

We have settled in well here in Curahuasi. The children enjoy going to school and have made close friends with their classmates. Rahel works four mornings a week in the laboratory and has integrated well into the Peruvian work team and settled in. Gabriel works three days a week in the emergency team, in endoscopy and intensive care. Five Peruvians and two Germans work in this team. The exchange in High German is helpful for language comprehension.

In the meantime, we have visited various churches in Curahuasi and have now decided on one. There are around 15 Christian congregations in different locations, such as garages, community rooms or open buildings. Our church has around 30 visitors, including 3 missionary families, as the missionaries go to different congregations. Our church is located in the basement of a motel.

We live here at 2650 meters above sea level and we are always amazed at the magnificent creation! The wildlife is incredibly diverse and the mountains are gigantic. In the garden we have several trees on which a flock of parrots perch. They are quite noisy and circle around. We also enjoy watching the green glittering hummingbirds in our garden. The variety of butterflies is huge and the largest ones have wings the size of the palm of your hand. Rahel has already spotted three thin snakes in front of the house. One orange and two gray. Gabriel stepped on a frog outside the front door at night and once a toad hopped around. In the evening, sometimes a cricket or a scorpion creeps around the living room. That's why we always wear slippers. The children are usually in socks or barefoot in the house or garden. So far we have no stings or bites to report, thank goodness! On the way by bike or in hiking boots we discover spiders with red legs, butterflies with partly transparent wings or beetles in the most beautiful colors. We actually have a chicken. But it only comes into the coop to eat and drink. Otherwise it is somewhere in our garden or on our neighbor's avocado plantation. Recently we discovered a nest in our compost with 11 eggs, what a joy!

Our donkeys Santiago and Lilly always give us funny but also hair-raising stories. Their hooves have to be trimmed every four months by a specialist with pliers, a file and a sharp knife. This is an ordeal of hours every time, as the donkeys behave as if they were on the slaughter bench. Nothing works without tying them up. They kick, try to break free or jump wildly. While horses lift their legs calmly, this is not possible with donkeys. Well, now we've put this procedure behind us again for the time being. What we also didn't know is that donkeys are very greedy. They eat almost all the vegetarian waste from the kitchen, as well as wood bark and our bile soap, which we urgently need to remove the stains on our school uniforms. Because in Peru there is nothing like the legendary bile soap! But we would never have imagined that Lilly would also like to eat it. Now we have to be careful and lock up the soap after pre-washing the uniforms. Fortunately, we received a package from Switzerland with a new bar of bile soap!

Our barbed wire fence around our garden is getting on in years, so the two lovely donkeys have escaped several times. One evening we came home at dusk to find a group of children outside our fence with their mom and our donkeys happily greeting us. They saw our donkeys on the hill and brought us back. The mom said that we should check the fence so that the donkeys don't gorge themselves on the fields. Otherwise we would have to pay a fine. We thanked her and checked the fence with a flashlight. But I couldn't find a hole in the darkness. The next day, Rahel called me at work in the afternoon to say that the donkeys were no longer in the garden. After work, we set off in the car to look for them and Rahel caught Santiago running between two cornfields in the blink of an eye. We were able to find her on foot. Ilay still had some corn with her to lure her in, but Santiago had lost his appetite after a long day in the cornfield! In the evening, Ilay and I found a small hole in the barbed wire fence and patched up all the potential escape routes in the dark.

A week later, Josafat from Lucmos calls us. This is the place with the leisure pool, about 1km away. He had found two donkeys with the hoof cuts of his handiwork and they must be Santiago and Lilly. Now the metal door, which was mounted on a wooden post, has tilted to one side so that the two donkeys could slip through. This wooden post is rotten after years and no longer stands upright. We have now spoken to the owner of the house and he has put up a new fence around the garden and installed a new gate with a cemented iron post. Since then, there are no more escape routes and everyday life has calmed down somewhat.

Mava loves baking with Rahel. As there are no really good baked goods in Curahuasi, we make almost everything ourselves. I (Rahel) am now being asked more and more often to bake cakes for birthdays or other occasions, mostly by Peruvians.

Ilay had his first big presentation at school about the digestive tract. He did very well and, thanks to Gabriel's help with the model, received a good grade. The parents are always involved by the school, especially in projects that the children are not yet able to carry out themselves.

Mava and Ilay love the weekly rides on the horses of a missionary colleague who offers riding lessons for the missionary children! We really appreciate this offer.

Ilay is always practicing on his ukulele, which he received from his godfather for his birthday. Here with our neighbor Fredy. He has been living in Curahuasi with his wife and daughter since last November and we have become good friends!

On July 28, we celebrated Mava's 7th birthday. Peru also celebrates its national holiday on this day. This year we were able to march with many others for Diospi Suyana in the main square of Curahuasi. This is a great honor and was also a special experience! Afterwards we went out to eat cuy (guinea pigs) with Gabriel's work team to celebrate the day! This is a delicacy in the Andes of Peru and is only eaten on special occasions such as birthdays. It is also not cheap. In comparison, a lunch costs between 2-5 sFr., a whole guinea pig costs 12 sFr.

It was quite a challenge for us to eat it, as we know it as a pet. Gabriel felt uncomfortable until the evening when he thought about it. Now we have tried it and can say with conviction: No thanks! And we hope we never get it as a birthday present, because people do it all the time and we can't refuse it!

We were able to learn a lot this year and were challenged with language and culture!

Despite all the challenges, we are very grateful to be here, even if we do miss Switzerland, our families and friends, as well as the culinary delights! (e.g. Schoggistängeli, ovo spread, tortellini, fondue, raclette, chestnut yoghurt...)

When we long too much for these things again, we try to enjoy the things we have here all the more and focus on what we have and can experience here. (e.g. fruit/vegetables, sunshine and blue skies, friendships, pets...)

Muchos saludos, your masons in Peru