Lima - Lima?

<p>The longer we are here, the more we realize that we live in a bubble. Not only do the extremes of desert and jungle exist in Peru, but poverty and wealth are also very extreme here. Recently, we had a community member visit us who came to Lima from Germany 25 years ago because her then-husband is Peruvian. She raised two daughters, mostly alone, working multiple jobs at the same time to eventually enable one daughter to study in Germany. She could not afford the cost of the German school. The second daughter, who has a disability, lives with her and works at a café, where she works 48 hours a week, 6 days a week. The mother insisted that she gets a break for drinking. The other employees are not allowed to take a break for drinking or eating. They also have to wear masks all day without interruption. Some of them have not had a vacation for 4 years. And the monthly salary amounts to 200 euros. And that with the cost of living here being the same or higher, except for some basic food items.</p><p>In contrast: those who can afford it send their children to the (German) Humboldt School. The admission fee is 9500 dollars per child, and the monthly tuition fee is an additional 600 euros per child. And there are plenty of people who can actually pay for that.</p><p>The day before yesterday, we had a very interesting dinner invitation from a church official (German) with his Peruvian wife. In addition to his professional work as an ecologist - he develops projects in the Amazon region with indigenous peoples, such as fish farming, cocoa cultivation as compensation for what companies build there - he also does a lot of volunteer work. Currently, he is involved in training nurses in Iquitos, a small city in the middle of the jungle that is already a culture shock for the indigenous people. He travels there about once a month, only reachable by plane and boat. He told us about the dominant animistic belief there, which is completely foreign to us; how much more foreign must our world be to them? - In addition to this activity, he works in the church council and is an honorary consul. She also works as a volunteer, namely in the Rotary Club, where social projects are also the focus. Both of them made a big impression on us, and at the same time, we had a very happy evening that we will remember for a long time.</p><p>Today, the visit to a museum on the topic of violence and terrorism also deeply affected me. The exhibition is very well done, with many small videos, photos, and documents. It deals with the time in the 1980s and 1990s when the so-called Sendero Luminoso - the shining path - brought a lot of terror, expropriations, mass murders, torture, and destruction to Peru. Unspeakable suffering has resulted from this. Since we were in Peru in 1985, we only now realize how dangerous it was, even though we knew about the Maoist movement.</p><p>Afterwards, the fresh air felt good; and we took a walk along the coast, although it was foggy, which has been hanging there for 2 weeks. Here with us, it was sunny and warm again.</p><p><br /></p>