the house of hope

From Cusco we drove to a very small town called Curahuasi. Situated in the region Apurímac, considered the second poorest region in Peru, it is a place thousands of quechua people from all regions and provinces of Peru travel to.

That small poor town has got a missionary hospital called Diospi Suyana (quechua for “waiting for god”) set up 10 years ago by Klaus and Martina John, a couple from Wiesbaden (la doctorita Martina, a woman full of joy and energy – and willing to share those two properties with everyone in her surrounding – happens to be my grandma’s best friend’s daughter).

Arriving on wednesday before easter and not being (very) religious, we weren’t quite sure what to expect in a community run by missionaries but those days were inspiring, full of joyful moments and unbelievable stories.
The hospital is as well equipped as a german one, the machines are for the biggest part donations but from highest quality and – which is rather unusual – brand new. Diospi was for a long time the only hospital in Aputímac possessing a CT.
They have a dental and eye clinic and the main reason why all those people drive up to 24 hrs or more is that they are treated with respect and love. It is a hospital for the poor, everyone is treated equally. Depending on the wealth of the patient, they give part of the treatment as a donation – that’s where the money from the donators go.

Tina and Klaus were not wealthy when they startet the project in 2005. The started a huge fundraising and since then Klaus travels around the world to present the hospital to whatever kind of possible investors – until last weekend he held 1983 presentaions, including one in front of us and another couple, Lisanne and Fabi, staying in “curatown” over the weekend.

(More information about the hospital can be found here…)

We stayed at Tina’s house near the main square of Curahuasi, Klaus came back from England during sunday easter service.
Tina didn’t have to work from thursday to sunday, so we had plenty of time to talk and hike up Cerro San Cristobal, from where we had a beautiful view ober the town and the valley of apurímac river.

We took part in the easter breakfast and the giant easter church service held in the missionary school’s gym, where all protestant communities of Curahuasi took part. There were groups playing theater and music and the lecture was held in quechua and spanish (by a guy from England).

Over all, we had very pleasant five days over there, then, with Klaus’ book in our bag and way too many impressions and informations in our heads, we took a bus to the coast south of Lima.