Chapter 12: Last days of April

Sunday 28.04.2019

Today I was still fast asleep when Ramona rang the Sunday wake-up bell at seven o’clock. I hadn’t been up that late in a long time. An almost cold shower woke me. Luisa was working in the kitchen as usual. Cara was setting the table with Priya. The pregnant Vietnamese was having trouble moving as quickly as usual. She seemed to be doing better the last time, even though she was carrying twins. I looked at the calendar on my mobile phone. Priya was due in early July, almost 10 weeks away. And Cara? She was due on the 4th of October, so there was plenty of time for our assistant cook.

I sat on the terrace with my tablet and smoked my first cigarette. Lenya came by with our Vadim. “You’re setting a bad example,” she said, shaking her finger at me.

“Can’t I have a kiss?”

“No. I can’t stand the smell of cigarettes after yesterday, I’m sure you understand. I was beside myself. My mother was very mean to me. I was exhausted, almost angrier with her than with Kuklina’s mean words. It was only my shame that made me think normally again.”

I pulled her close to me. “I understand you, Lenya. You were so happy to see your mother. Then came this completely unexpected confrontation. Her barrage of insults felt like a whip to you, coming from your mother, whom you love infinitely. But it’s all over now. Have faith in my words, everything will be fine.”

Her sweet smile touched my heart. Yes, she had suffered, but now she was giving her son all her love, stroking and caressing him as only a mother can. Vadim suddenly wanted to be in my arms and gave me a kiss. He was such a sweet boy. His light blonde hair was lightly curled. His smile touched me deeply. Lenya hugged us both and kissed us in turn. Then she looked at my tablet.

“Are you on the Internet?”

“You can see it. It’s working again. I’m looking for Ernesto’s newspaper. He said something about us playing a part again today when he left at the hotel.”

“Can I go on the Internet too?” she asked, interested, almost excited.

“Sure. I’ll activate it for the tablets today. But ... you know female curiosity all too well ... only with child protection.”

“We’re not children anymore,” the fifteen-year-old sulked.

“That’s true, but you don’t know the Internet. What some sites ask users to put up with is so terrible. I won’t allow free access for now.”

In the meantime, I had found the website for Ernesto’s newspaper, and the front page of the Sunday edition carried the oversized headline ’Mama Olivia’. This time Olivia was holding the older woman’s child at her breast. Clicking on the article brought up a series of pictures. I downloaded the photos straight away. There were also twelve photos and two video clips from the previous day in the download folder. Priya brought me a USB stick.

Before dinner, the teenagers were able to watch a slideshow on TV of their dear sister Olivia breastfeeding other people’s babies and lovingly distributing food to the poor. Her otherwise lovely voice crackled a little in the Quechua language, which was foreign to us, but was clearly audible on the video.

Daryna entered with an unusual sounding “Good morning!” Lenya gave her Vadim and led her to the television. Lenya was also in three photographs. Everyone except Ramona was proud of Olivia. After looking at the photos she said to me: “You’re crazy to let this happen.” As our doctor she was right, of course, but as a person Olivia was right.

But I still had a problem. How had Daryna got to us if the gate was properly locked? Only Sula, Olivia, Zarina, and Ramona knew the code. Lenya would have to ask her mother. A nice black girl would have let her in and then locked it again. Daryna’s mother would have waited a few minutes and shouted. So, Sula had opened the gate. Our system continued to work. That was important to me.

After dinner I announced that everyone could use her day off. I would activate the Internet for the tablets, but there was no Wi-Fi key at the moment. “But it would be better if you played and talked to your children instead of surfing the Internet. When your kids were asleep, you had plenty of time.”

As I suspected, everyone got her tablet from Esther. Two tablets were still charging, but there was enough time for everyone today.

“One more thing, my dears. Please remember that anyone leaving the inner circle must report to Ramona or myself.”

Unfortunately, we had had to introduce this since the Kuklina attack. It was important to know who was where at all times. Alexander’s threat over the radio influenced my thoughts. Would he dare to attack us? In any case, we had to be constantly on guard.

But back to our free Sunday. Where was Ernesto’s business card? I wanted to send him an email. I was happy to thank him for the nice article and the beautiful photos, even though I didn’t even know what was in the article. “Now it’s all good for Olivia and us,” I wrote.

Shortly after lunch I read his reply. After some small writing, he said: “Olivia is now a worldwide sensation. Her Catholic cross has even brought me a request from the Vatican. If you send me photos of her and her child, you will receive 400 SOL for each photo published. I know you want to keep a low profile, but I would be happy to publish neutral photos in beautiful surroundings”.

Many other kind words followed. Later in the text he asked me what I thought of the statements about paradise. I had no idea. My Spanish was still poor. I printed out the long article from the Sunday paper. I wanted to show it to Olivia and get the passage Ernesto had recommended translated.

On the way to the guesthouse, I met the Russian family. Lenya had shown her mother around our area. They had been to the village, the cemetery, the helicopter crash site, and the container depot. We were very lucky to have several prams. This meant that Vadim could sleep in peace while the two women chatted.

Suddenly, Daryna spoke very seriously to her daughter. Lenya nodded. Her mother didn’t need to ask me if she could kiss her grandson’s father, she told me. The Russian kissed me left and right. Only now had she understood what we had to do here in captivity, Lenya translated her mother’s words for me.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.” Her English sounded strange, but sweet.

Taking the opportunity, I asked how long Daryna wanted to stay here or intended to. Lenya translated her words for me. “I had actually only planned two weeks. But I’m thinking about asking you if I can stay here permanently. Moscow is foreign to me, and I don’t want to go back to Odessa. Lenya never wants to leave here. It seems to be the only place in the whole world where there is truly heavenly peace.”

We hugged each other tightly again. But I still had to get one thing off my chest. “Let’s see how you two alpha’s get along in the long term. After yesterday, I have my doubts.”

Lenya looked at me with a questioning look. I had to explain the term ‘alpha’ to her. Daryna noticed the tension that had arisen. They were discussing. Finally, both of them told me that this was no longer a problem. ’Hopefully, we’ll see,’ I thought to myself.

I made it exciting with Olivia. Even though it was Sunday, her hard-working grandmother was in the laundry. So, I fetched Alejandra from the basement myself, not without praising her and stroking her. I had plugged the stick into the TV and the grandmother was watching the pictures and films with her granddaughter in which Olivia was the star. It was heartbreaking to see Olivia interacting with these children who were strangers to her.

Her grandma Alejandra was also very impressed by the distribution of food to the poor women. Then I showed them today’s article. Alejandra could only read a little and very slowly. I gave Olivia the ‘homework’ of translating the article into good English. The young mother spoke quite well, but she still found writing very difficult. I thought it should and could be good practice.

Olivia looked a little grim, but she quickly understood that good writing would be important for her future. I pointed to ‘Paradise’. This passage interested me immediately. It said that Olivia’s girlfriend must be right. The three angels must have come from paradise, so young, so beautiful, so happy to be pregnant. “In paradise, we help each other with breast milk when we need it,” the journalist quoted Olivia as saying, asking her male companion’s wife to feed Olivia’s son with her milk for two days.

“Somewhere here in Peru there must be a true paradise, a place where everyone helps, where there is no money, but everyone contributes with all their strength so that everyone is well”.

It was true, but it was born out of necessity. I persuaded Alejandra and Olivia to put on their traditional clothes. I wanted to take some photos with them and the two children. Olivia put on her precious necklace at my request. “Especially for the Pope,” I murmured, laughing.

The photos were beautiful. We were with the alpacas, the sheep, and goats. Ana ran across the picture in jeans and a traditional cape. Juan and Triana’s little ones in their poor Peruvian clothes beamed into the camera. But the best photos were the ones with the very old people, together with Alejandra and ‘Mama Olivia’.

During my photo shoot, I had placed the stick with the downloaded photos and videos in the saloon TV. The old people stood gesticulating in front of the TV and pointed at Olivia, also a beautiful photo.

By late afternoon I had more than 100 photos to show. I had already sorted out the ones that weren’t so good. I wrote to Ernesto that he had exaggerated a bit, because our paradise was born out of necessity, but that I was very pleased with how well and anonymously he had reported. I only attached three photos and uploaded all the other photos to a Dropbox, for which I sent him the link. I also sent him the bank details for my recently opened account in Trujillo in case he could publish or sell some photos.

The reply came quickly, as he was already working on the next day’s edition of his newspaper. He thanked us from the bottom of his heart and said he would be happy if our community had some money. A short time later the comment arrived by email. “Fantastic photos. Peru at its best. Can I market them worldwide?”

The following Friday he told me that he had already transferred almost 77,000 Sol to our account. He wanted a few more photos of Olivia breastfeeding her son. I had a bit of fun with that. On Saturday we took the six babies from the camp, the children of Kira, Sula, Fahsai, Luisa, Ramona, and Olivia, and fed them to the three mothers one by one. What it looked like when Olivia had Sula’s child and her own child on the other breast. Our straw-haired Martin also did well on Olivia’s chest with Kira’s chocolate brown son. At the end of the photo session, all the pregnant girls stood around Olivia holding their children.

However, I kept the photos for myself, or rather for our chronicle. Ernesto only got one photo of Olivia breastfeeding her son Nicolas and Ramona’s Martin. A second photo was with Nikolas and Harrisson, Kira’s dark-skinned child. But I had blacked out ‘Mama Olivia’s nipples where they were not tightly encircled by the baby’s lips.

Ernesto suggested I start a blog or put interesting videos on You Tube. I immediately refused. I knew too much information would get out. But I kept it in the back of my mind. Maybe we could do something like that later, when, we were sure.

Monday was a full day of classes for the students. Daryna and Adriana, Enzo’s second eldest daughter, looked after the young women’s children. Our guest from Moscow was to teach the eighteen-year-old Peruvian the European way of looking after children. I hoped that one day the Indio woman and her older sister would be able to take responsibility for our little ones.

Valentina arrived with her grandparents around midday. The strong young woman had driven her family’s oxcart all the way to our home. Afterwards, I was scared and worried thinking about the steep descent on the last kilometre. Fortunately, everything had gone well. Her sprightly grandfather had repeatedly slowed the cart with a primitive crank brake, and even brought it to a halt when necessary. But the descent shouldn’t have taken much longer. The brake block was completely worn out. Carmen explained this to me later, after she had taken the new arrivals to Enzo.

Shortly afterwards, Luisa’s wonderful food almost got stuck in my throat. It began quite simply. After dinner, Fahsai asked to be heard. “Michael, we are so happy about the two wonderful days you had in the provincial capital. You had a good time, bought festive clothes and gold chains. You brought the necessary things for the Indio families. Congratulations for making everyone else happy. And us, what about us?”

I didn’t understand and looked at the pretty Yemeni questioningly. Babette jumped up. “Fahsai, your irony is of no use to us. Michael, look at us. We walk around like beggars, with nothing but rags to wear, and most of our shoes should have been thrown away a long time ago. All the jeans and T-shirts you bought two weeks ago don’t fit us. It’s a shame. We have new necklaces, but we often go barefoot. We’ve been frugal, but that’s over now. At last we can dress like people again, but you don’t think of us. That’s it; we’re not playing any more. Do something, Mitch, for us, for your wives, for our children.”

A clapping of approval from everyone at the table and shouts of indignation made me even more uncertain. Mayari called out, “Kira, stand on the table. Look, Micha, the shoes are broken, much too tight; the trousers are torn and too short. The shirt has been mended several times and is completely washed out. The homemade underwear rubs and keeps breaking. It’s the same for all of us.

To emphasise the point, almost everyone put their worn-out shoes on the table. I looked around, collected my thoughts, but couldn’t say a word. The young women were so right, and I hadn’t even noticed their situation, I had been so proud of my worthless gifts.

Ramona noticed that I was speechless with shame and took over the discussion. “Guys, you’re right. We have more than enough money, as Michael always says. There’s just one thing left. Tomorrow morning our boss will go back to Trujillo to buy clothes and shoes for you. Winter is coming. You need warm jackets or long-sleeved sweaters. Zarina, you must understand. Micha promised you he wouldn’t leave again, but he has to. Please say yes.”

The heavily pregnant Chinese woman nodded in agreement. Everyone looked at me expectantly. For the first time I was completely unsettled, bright red with shame and excitement. I struggled to find a sensible answer. “Excuse me, you are so right. I don’t know where my senses were. Please, forgive me.”

The tension was not over yet. A lot of anger had built up among the young women within a day. I could see it in the many defiant expressions on their faces. They were waiting for more, for binding commitments.

“Thank you, Zarina, for releasing me from my promise not to leave before you were born. Yes, I’m going to Trujillo tomorrow morning. I hope we can get clothes for you. The Peruvians here are all much smaller than you. Recently I was only able to buy sizes S and M, the size L or larger was not available for women. If I don’t find anything suitable for you, would you be okay with me buying you men’s clothing and especially men’s shoes?”

Many nodded, some tapped in agreement.

“So it’s agreed, I’ll leave early tomorrow morning. But I need an interpreter. Who do you suggest?”

Olivia was the favourite of the ladies at the table. “No, Olivia, not again. She has only been away from her children for two days. Daja, you’re the only one who’s not pregnant. How’s your Spanish?”

“No, my Spanish isn’t good enough. Mayari and Isabella would be best, but unfortunately they’re too far along in their pregnancies. That leaves only two. Kira speaks Quechua, so she can negotiate with the Indio vendors, and Fahsai is really good at Spanish. Right, Mayari?”

We had come to an agreement in no time at all. The two young women agreed immediately and organised childcare for their children for the next day. The mood was much better now. But there were more complaints.

“Michael, please remember that our children hardly have shoes to learn to walk properly or to run outside.”

“Mitch, we need waterproof clothes for the little ones. As soon as it rains, they are soaked to the skin.”

“The little nappies are all gone! The big ones are almost gone.”

Other problems were reported. Teenagers wanted books, new films, current music. “Michael, you have the internet. Can’t you shop online or just download?”

When Kira complained about not having enough sex, the mood lightened up. Everyone laughed and joked about our black pearl from Haiti, but Sula also confirmed the need of some women. “They used to have parties with the pregnant women in your bathroom. Sometimes it got really serious. Why don’t we do that anymore?”

Our doctor intervened again. “Hey guys, it’s good now. We have to set priorities. So the most important thing is to get suitable, weatherproof shoes for everyone, plus jeans or sturdy work trousers if possible, as well as T-shirts and sweaters, and cotton underwear, especially briefs. If you can buy all that tomorrow, try to get children’s shoes, baby rain suits made from one piece from head to toe, and maybe waterproof rubber boots for the two-year-olds. Kira and Fahsai know best what you need. Trust them. They choose and Michael has the honour of paying”.

The consultation was over. Discussions were still going on everywhere. Babette came to me. “I’m sorry, Michael. Maybe I was mean to you, but it had to come out.” She looked at me uncertainly.

“Beth, thank you for coming to the point. I’m ashamed I haven’t been there for you. That will change. I promise!”

Babette, still unsure, wanted to go back to the others. But I pulled her to me, kissed her forehead, held her close and shouted loudly into the room, “Ladies, please do what Babette did. If you have any problems, come out with them immediately, clearly and unequivocally. I promise I will listen to you better.”

In the afternoon, Ramona visited me in my study. Tomorrow’s trip was planned and absolutely necessary, but in the future I wanted to order everything we needed online and have it delivered to us, but that was more complicated than I thought. I couldn’t find any wholesalers or importers on the Internet who would deliver to us. Amazon and Temu did not have an office in Peru. You had to order from the US and you were responsible for customs and delivery. You could order from Alibaba in Peru, but I couldn’t become a customer because as a foreigner I had no rights and our delivery address didn’t exist. That why, my only option was to order from a dealer in Trujillo. At the time, I didn’t really care how much the goods cost, but I wanted them delivered as soon as possible.

I couldn’t find a supplier for clothes, and for shoes there was only the Gmapiel Company in Trujillo. The shoes were very expensive and not suitable for our valley. Only the Urban Classic trainers for almost 200 SOL looked durable online, but unfortunately, they were only available in yellow. I ordered 20 pairs of men’s shoes for 259 SOL a pair in different sizes. I was able to pay by credit card. I gave the delivery address as the petrol station in San Huano. There was another cheaper supplier, ‘Pretty Paradise’, but unfortunately they only had shoes up to size 40. All of our girls’ feet were bigger, so they needed sizes 41-45. The company didn’t offer a delivery service either. Everything had to be collected on their site.

Unfortunately, I also had no luck with children’s clothes and shoes. When I tried to order books and films on DVD, I was again unsuccessful. It was possible to download books illegally, but I didn’t want to do that. Payment was usually only possible via Pay Pal, but I didn’t have an account there. Setting up streaming services also failed because of the payment required. Prepayment usually required a payment service like Pay Pal, but I had to set that up first.

Also, many vendors only delivered within the US. Alibris would ship books and CDs to Peru on a prepayment basis, but we were still responsible for importing them. Since Priya was well versed in Internet activities, I explained my problem to her. She wanted to try to find solutions for downloading books and films the next day while I was shopping in Trujillo. She promised to look for books with valuable content and not to order trash or sex books. Ramona installed the Tor browser on my PC, which allows you to hide your identity. Once again I realised how little I knew about IT.

Ramona agreed to help Priya. She also suggested setting up Skype. My sister was totally surprised that we couldn’t use it to make online phone calls.

“Is that possible for us, Ramona?”

Ramona smiled. Once again I had the feeling that she was happy to be better than ‘her boss’ in an area that was foreign to me. But that didn’t bother me. She demonstrated her knowledge to me. “Anyone who has Internet can also use Skype, at least with a certain data rate. Your PC here is old and runs on Windows 7, but our new Internet connection is sufficient. If we have time, I’ll set it up on your PC tomorrow.”

She was happy when I gratefully took her in my arms. I gave her a kiss on her lips. “Moni, you are so precious to me. Without you we would be lost. Please, give me your passport. If we have time tomorrow, I would like to get you a permanent visa. Then you can go outside by car without any problem. At the same time, I want to try to get a birth certificate for our children Bruno and Martin and apply for an ID card for them. I would love to take you with me, but you have to be here in my absence. Esther will write me a power of attorney, right?”