With lots of love,
   Andy and Heidi.

Jaén, 28th of September 2001

Dear friends in good cold Germany and the rest of the world,

in the spite of the terrible heat that's almost melting us here we are again writing you another letter in order to inform you about some important news and send you a heartly invitation to our 25th ANNIVERSARY in the name of Paco Muguiro, director of the Radio!

On the (meanwhile recently renovated) homepage of the Radio (http://radiomaranon.org.pe) you can find the official program of the festive week from 16th to 19th of october. Of course there will be much more than speaches, workshops and panel discussions like lots of music and partys. Today Paco explicitly repeated to also invite all of you, so we are sending you a translated version of the program which of course on our homepage is only in Spanish. Besides we will attach the leaflet about the "Silver Anniversary". If you examine the fotos closely you will not only find the bishop of Jaén, the current Radio director Paco and the former director Lucho Tavara (who "hired" us), but even Heidi!

      

Okay, so here is the translation of the official calendar of events:

• Sunday, 14.10.2001:
  
  • 9am: Solemn Mass, in the cathedral of Jaén
    
  • 10am: hoisting of the Peruvian flag, in the Main Square
    
  • sporty afternoon:
    with all the participants of the Marañón Cup (Volleyball and soccer tournaments)
  
  
• Tuesday, 16.10.2001:
  
  • Guests from out of town arrive from Chiclayo
    
  • Excursion to the forrest of San Ignacio: Visit of Tabaconas Namballe
  
  
• Wednesday, 17.10.2001:
  
  • 9am to 1pm:
    Workshops + Official Opening of the Festival, in the Auditorium of the University
    by P.Francisco Muguiro Ibarra, SJ (Director of Radio Marañón)
    + Afterwards Panel "Communication, Environment and Agriculture"
    
    
  • 8pm to 10:30pm:
    Contest of folkloristic bands, in the Main Square
  
  
• Thursday, 18.10.2001:
  
  • 9am to 1pm:
    Workshops (Press, Production, Management)
    
    
  • 5pm to 8pm:
    Panel "Communication, Democracy and Human Rights"
    
    
  • 9pm:
    Party with Literature and Music, in front of the Radio
    
    
  • Midnight:
    Fireworks, in front of the Radio
  
  
• Friday, 19.10.2001:
  
  • 9am to 1pm:
    Workshops (Press, Production, Management)
    
    
  • 5pm to 8pm:
    Panel "Communication and Evangelization"
    
    
  • 9pm:
    Dinner
    Invited are: invited are the staff of Radio Marañón, speakers and panelists
  
  
• Saturday, 20.10.2001:
  
  • Music and Dance

Besides there will be firecrackers every morning at 6am (uff). And Homero has been researching all year long to publish a pamphlet with the complete history of Radio Marañón.

During the last weeks everybody has been busy preparing the festival. One of these activities is completely remodelling the transmission studios. The Radio hat 2 studios for the 2 programs: one is broadcasted on AM - ever since those 25 years - and about 2 years ago the FM program was launched. The latter can only be received in the city area and is mainly aiming for the teenagers and adolescents. Therefore we regularily have squeaking fans visit the studios so that they can send greetings next to their adored moderators. So far, to get to the FM studio it is necesary to cross the whole radio building to get to the garden and find the entrance door there. You can imagine that this produced quite a noise which is molesting the rest of the people who are working here. Besides most of the visitors don't find their way back to the exit and eventually end up pretty puzzled in Andy's office - at the end of the hallway. (c:

That's why we are now switching the 2 studios and at the same time moving them further apart so that the visitors will have easier and shorter distances to walk and the studios will interfere less with each other. This idea has already existed for a while, but so far there was no money for such a big renovation. Luckily Paco recently got the approval for a project of renewal of the AM studio. So they started tearing down walls yesterday. We are all hoping very much that we will get done before the festival :-).

Now Paco's idea is that Juan is going to plan everything together with Arsenio and that he will make an exact list of all the materials and the probable costs. Then he'll tell him to go and buy everything in the shops where Arsenio is a well known and regular customer. In the name of Arsenio he won't have to pay anything at first. And when Juan asks who will pay all this in the end, Paco will tell him that he shouldn't worry about that, because he has found "una familia" which already has paid everything. By this means we won't get mentioned in any way, don't threaten our friendship with Juan and won't cause envy with the rest of our friends.

In response to our last letter we received a few worried mails, asking why it were necessary to finance Juan via the bank account of the jesuits and whether it wouldn't be better and faster for Juan if they sent the money directly to him. The answer is simple: so that you get your certificates for tax redemption and we have to organize less. And don't worry: of course we won't wait until your money has finally crossed the atlantic and reached Peru, but we will help Juan immediately - with the money that we already have here for our daily needs. That will be sufficient for a while and if not we also have a bit of our private money here (for holiday trips). When we finally really run out of money we'll ask the German INES office to send us more money e.g. by means of a visitor. So don't worry: we are making use of the (hopefully) excusable lie about "the family" just to protect our relationship with the local Peruvians and so that they won't think in the end that these rich non-Peruvians can afford anything because they have unlimited sources of money. The "worry" that the jesuits would get too much credit because Juan will be thankful to them instead of us or you, isn't exactly correct. For one thing it will seem that Paco is just mediating and then will he be the one that has to put up with the trouble if someone else does hear about the financial aid Juan will receive. Because unfortunately there hardly is anyone who doesn't have financial problems. Paco then will have to come up with excuses why only Juan was so fortunate and why exactly Juan - we don't envy him for that. Nevertheless we expect that everything will be a lot easier and less problematic. Uff, you can see, helping isn't easy sometimes. Amazing what amount of mind twisting is necessary just to avoid creating more problems than settling!

Yesterday we learned about a project in the Radio that hadn't gotten through to us yet. For a very long time we have been wondering whether the VIMA (Vicaría del Medio Ambiente = Office for Environmental Protection) which also belongs to the Radio "only" worries about the cutting down of woods and burning of fields etc. or maybe also about the amounts of garbage in the city that is simply and carelessly dropped by everyone no matter where. It still hurts to see how little consciousness there is for any aspect of natural resources. The garbage is everywhere, water is wasted thoughtlessly although it's not that abundant, rivers are contaminated etc. And what we learned just recently: even the dirt and garbage that is collected from the streets of Jaén by municipal workers every night in an exemplary way afterwards is dumped into the river because it's the easiest way to get rid of it! They haven't noticed yet that they are digging their own graves. Well, this awareness is pretty new in Germany, too. And it was a long process, but here we don't even see the slightest start of rethinking. Or better "didn't see" because yesterday we explicitly asked Ligia in the VIMA about it and she told us that they certainly are aware of these issues and are working on them. Unfortunately the people in Jaén don't see the urgency yet and are only thinking one day ahead. It is difficult to explain that their future life quality depends on it. But right now they are planning a large project:

the whole next week will consist of activities to improve the consciousness and will conclude with a common cleaning of the river Amojú that is running through Jaén. There already is a video about the river, posters and banners. At least one complete class of pupils will participate. There will be speeches in schools and in the streets, and even a mass on the new bridge (built last May) with Paco. At first they asked the bishop to celebrate, but he said he fears that the bridge will collapse with so many people on it :-). This week the VIMA already held a preparatory meeting with many important heads of the town. For example there was a representative from Mapa (the only waterworks that distribute water in drinking quality), some local polititians, the priest of the cathedral, representatives from schools and of course from the Radio and even Elektronorte (power plant) sent someone. We were very happy about the interest they showed and hope that the event will change something. We'd already be happy if the people from the radio would act examplarily and not simply throw their empty bottles and cookie wrappers into the street directly in front of the Radio.

Washing clothes and garbage with vultures in Rio Amojú

Two weeks ago we went to a jesuits' house in a suburb of Lima to participate in spiritual exercises together with the retired German couple who are working in Piura - at the north coast of Peru - at the moment. We were lucky to be guided by Peter Hansen SJ - a very nice and also very interesting Father. Although he is Danish he speaks an excellent German. Already his curriculum vitae is very impressing. He played on the national handball team, worked as lawyer, almost was director of a prison, then jesuit, (carthew?)-monk in total solitude, later again jesuit (these two fraternities have a mutual agreement that makes switching easy) in the rainforest of Peru and now he - already in retiring age - lives in a village in the Andes in the neighborhood of Cusco - hours from anywhere. His community theoretically is catholic there, but basically most of them are ketshua - the religion during (and before) the time of the Inkas. It is very much nature oriented and still _the_ religion in the Andes. He had some funny anecdotes to tell and we liked the way how he integrates these two very different beliefs. He told us for example that one day during the holy mass they started their own ceremony (sacrificing animals etc.!) - simultaneous to his eucharistic prayers. That must have been pretty amusing. As Peter is a very openminded person and besides didn't know what else to do, he just let them continue... and he continued, too. Sure, why not? It's another belief but that doesn't mean that it's worse. He showed us once again that the period of forced mission by the jesuits fortunately has long been over and that they now encounter the natives with a very open mind. Their mission has changed to a living together and learning from each other. Maybe you are wondering now, why they are still here then? Well, basically they are working like permanent development aid volunteers in many different fields - in schools, parishes, radios(!) and also just out in the fields. Of course they don't forget about sharing their catholic belief but we don't think of that so critically anymore. Because without them there would be sects everywhere! We were shocked to see how many churches of Jehova's Witness there are! There was a time when the sects were massively promoted and financially supported by the USA in order to stop the christian Liberation Theology. (It seems that the northamericans have to exert influence in everything... ):-

Well, let's get back from this unplanned excursion into the Peruvian church history to our subject: our spiritual exercises. (c:

It was a really nice and quiet week with lots of time to think, relax and share our thoughts. Peter Hansen radiates a naturalness and modesty that is truly admirable. And his thoughts and ideas he shared with us were excellent. We could have listened to him for hours.

We didn't hear about the attack of the Twin Towers until the night of the famous tuesday. Peter told us as we didn't have TV nor radio. First we thought he must be joking. Everything sounded so utopic! Only now that we returned to Jaén we began to read last weeks newspapers and to watch the awful pictures. Because of that we unfortunately can't tell you about the first reactions here in Peru, but judging from what we heard and what they tell us now, there was just as much sympathy as in Germany - just that the reporting of the medias maybe wasn't that overdrawn.

Here too everyone is hoping with all his heart that the USA won't do anything imprudent and rather think about why all this happened! We wouldn't have been very surprised if most Peruvians had accepted any US action as correct no matter how they react. Northamerica still is the desired paradise for many of them. But it turned out to be very different. Once we listened to a radio discussion and heard them speak about the fear that if Bush is aiming at anybody just like that, he might as well aim at Peru one day. After all Peru is supplier for many drugs and therefore harming the US citizens, too. Maybe that was a little too overdrawn but we really were surprised about the harsh criticism. And we haven't met anyone here yet that wants war. Everybody is hoping for a more or less peaceful solution.

A few days ago an interesting mail was circulating written by an Afghani-American who has lived in the USA for a long time. We would like to share it with you: English original, German translation, spanish translation. And this week Andy got a very impressing comment from our friend Kamran which really is worth reading, too (unfortunately still only in German). In spite of all this we must not forget that in the rest of the world day in day out still too many are dying of hunger, are tortured and abused - which we hardly perceive anymore.

Con mucho cariño and drink a Maß Bier for us on the Oktoberfest.
Just the beer - we have plenty of chicken. :-)

Love
 Heidi and Andy

PS: By the way not only the Radio is celebrating an anniversary in October but so do we: already 1 year in Jaén!
And then there was the 10th birthday of Linux on September 15th. Congratulations! :-)

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, last change: 2003-Feb-24