Tuesday 17 December 2018
It has been too long since I updated you on progress.
But largely because it has been a busy period
for me preparing for site installations between many trips to and from all our
transmission sites for maintenance.
In
this time I have travelled to our remote FM sites of Puerto Maldonado 5 times,
Casabamaba 2 times, and Andahuaylas 3 times.
Mostly this is a long drive, but sometimes a 35 minute domestic flight can
be taken in the case of Puerto Maldonado, instead of a 12 hour drive due to multiple
mountain passes, one to almost 5,000m and seemingly endless hairpin bends.
Incidentally flying is not always a safe bet in Peru due to
poor maintenance and the general lack of any quality education even amongst the airlines.
For example one trip I took in November was a comedy of problems making a one day flight to/from Puerto Maldonado into 3 days.
Here is a link to a Diospi Suyana web post by Klaus on that trip:
https://www.diospi-suyana.de/mal-ganz-ehrlich-wuerden-sie-in-dieses-flugzeug-einsteigen/?lang=en
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| To drive there are often serious landslides in the wet season (the above was typical for some 20km distance on the only highway route to Puerto Maldonado), and/or diesel fuel shortages due to government mismanagement. |
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Sometimes our
transport needs to be via Moto-taxi – here in the wet season in Puerto
Maldonado my helper Christian Oswald needs get out and push it up an incline.
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I have had some FM transmitter issues at two of our sites
for various reasons which I have now addressed to avoid reoccurrence. And another issue with our satellite telemetry
equipment where I have been working with our German satellite modem manufacturer
to resolve. For those technical people, I
found it an interesting problem where the modem does not start up automatically
after a bad power break. “Dirty” power switching
events are common in Peru, and I suggest much more rare in developed countries –
hence the oversight. I believe we are
close to a resolution on that issue also.
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| Another 6 hour drive to our Casabamba FM site, now with a security guards’ hut to the front left. |
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| On this trip my son Isaac accompanied me to learn more about broadcast transmitters. |
We were hoping to have installed our 5
th and 6
th
FM sites of Puno and Echarati before Christmas, alas not so. For both sites the towers are built and the shelters and walls completed. But Echarati has suffered delays with its power
connection by the supply authority.
Excessive rain has hampered access and the latest date we have is 24
December! Needless to say we are
installing that site now in January. And
Puno has been delayed by licence administration issues as previously reported
in my earlier blogs. But we have now
received the license after more than half a year of delays and
bureaucracy. But I have used some parts
from the Puno transmitter for spares to fix other sites, and so we are now
awaiting those replacement parts from Italy.
They are months late in arriving, and so Puno will also be installed now
early in the New Year.
Furthermore our Centro de Medios studios new floor expansion
is powering ahead and due for completion by February 2019. Per my 06 August blog post including a
picture of the floor plan, this will provide another 12 offices for more media
staff, a small TV studio and 2 small radio recording studios.
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| The new 3rd floor is nearing completion with roof on and rendered walls. |
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| Screeding the floors to make them level and cover the electrical conduits. |
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| There are no cement mixers or concrete pumps here – everything is done with hard labour. |
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| Our Centro de Medios team - from left to right: Carlos, Rebecca, Keila, Edson, Margot, Chris, Doris, Dr Klaus, Yesenia, Jesus, Raul and Reynaldo. |
But now Christmas is all but here. Last Thursday night Diospi Suyana hosted the
appreciation party for all its paid staff.
This was held in the hospital and is always well received by all
including seasonal hamper handed out to each.
We ate roasted turkey and enjoyed lovely live choir music and
instrumentals played by our German doctor friends featuring the violin and
keyboard.
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| Dr Klaus personally hands out one of many staff Christmas hampers on the night. |
And we hosted the Centro de Medios Christmas party in the
garden we had made from the orchard at our case la hacienda. Sandi made pavlovas for dessert (with whipped
cream and diced fruit on top) and this was a huge hit with our Peruvian and
German guests. They had not experienced
nor heard of "pavs" before. It was a beautiful
afternoon with music, good food and laughter.
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| Sandi dishing out her pavlova – the most amazing cook in Curahuasi! |
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| Our Centro de Medios garden Christmas party with their families. |
But there are a few sad things about Christmas in Peru that
I need to mention. The first is that
there are virtually no Christmas decorations, festivities or music in the
town. So it does not “feel like
Christmas” here. This is because of the predominantly
Peru Catholic environment we live in where they consider Mary more important than
the one true God found only in Jesus Christ.
The other thing that is sad for us is that we miss our
family and friends from Australia so very much.
But the good news is our eldest son Jake is coming to visit us after a
year in Australia, and we are so looking forward to that. I will collect him from Cusco airport on
Thursday.
So let me take this moment to wish each and every one of you
a blessed Christmas, full of love, joy and peace as you hopefully get to spend
it with your loved ones. And a safe
holiday and prosperous New Year to you.
Finally THANK YOU so much for your amazing support which
enables our work to proceed here, to make a profound difference impacting an
estimated 400,000 lives primarily through our existing 4 FM radio transmission
24 x 7. And with much expansion due next
year to reach over a million people.
With love from us Welches in Peru!
