Chapter 3: A lot of duties and tasks

Friday 05.07.2019

Back to my loved ones, there was excitement as we sat down to our late dinner. Luisa and Qesra were serving us like special guests of honour. Olivia ran excitedly from one woman to the next. Soon everyone was standing around the big table. Some had their children on their arms and were talking to each other. There was something in the bushes, but what?

Olivia asked for silence. “Guys, something big has happened. As you know, Willka was abused by a student and got pregnant. She has never known love, but she gives her love to our children. She is a gift to us all. What do you think?”

Full approval came from everyone at the table. Willka was respected. Only Sula asked, “What’s the matter, Olivia? You know how much we love our kindergarten teacher.”

Olivia smiled sweetly. “That’s what it’s all about, Sula. Willka also needs love, best of all, the love of a man who really likes her. Michael gave her a little something during the trip to Huaraz. But she should also experience the ‘fire of love’ like all of us. Please, agree. Willka does not dare. That is why I am submitting the application for Willka’s partnership with Michael.”

There was a bit of a to-do, with some heated discussions, but no speeches. After all, they were all looking at me. As I slowly moved my bite back and forth in my mouth to give myself time to think, it became calmer and quieter.

“Olivia, this is not a proposal, it’s more like a robbery. Yes, it’s true. Willka and I shared the bed for one evening. Actually, she was terribly afraid of this, but somehow it turned out. But our previous partnerships had the goal of producing children. Willka is already pregnant. Her child will also be my child, just like yours, Olivia. That’s why I reject your application, Olivia.”

It was just like the last time Esther first proposed, which was two years ago. It was so sad. Everyone was suddenly against me, and everyone indulged Willka in the missing physical love. I looked at Willka, who was so excited she almost hid her face in her food. She was really quite embarrassed about the whole thing.

That’s why I thought I’d better take the initiative. “Guys, it’s ok, take it easy. We don’t have time for two weeks of intense love. Willka, if you’d like to, I’d love to invite you to my room ‘13’ at the Casa for three nights over the next few weeks.

Olivia started haggling as if it was about buying a piece of furniture. “At least five days, Mitch. She deserved that.”

Mayari exclaimed, “I would be glad if I got three nights. Olivia, give it a rest. We’re still there, too. We also need more love.”

Many of the young women laughed and made jokes. The tension had come off. Luisa also showed me her approval. Only Willka did not dare to look at me.

“Willka, is that truly what you want?” I asked, my voice full of concern.

She gave a shy little smile, but there was a certain resolve in it. “Oh, yes, Mr. Berthier, I’d absolutely love that!”

There was a great cheer and lots of excited stamping of feet. Some people clapped. The matter was decided. Looking back, it was three incredible nights with the lovely Peruvian lady. A shy, sweet woman had transformed into a passionate lover. Even later, she showed me how much she was enjoying the sexual pleasure. There was just one last thing to do. I had to find her a partner who would love and spoil her. But I have to admit; it was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.

The next day was a very special day for one girl of the new students, as it was her birthday. The lovely Gulla from Sweden turned thirteen years old. Guess what! She was thus the first teenager of the second group. The four young women, who often worked with her in the Indio village, were especially keen to make it a special experience for their friend. It was only in a lovely chat with Mayari that I realised just how much everyone respected Gulla. Once more, I noticed, gradually I lost track, but I could rely on my young women. They helped everyone, were critical and educated the new ones in our sense. They helped everyone, gave constructive feedback, and taught the new ones our way of doing things. Oh, and I heard that there were a few hiccups with a girl who was a bit shy at first and didn’t want to get involved in any work. Mayari didn’t want to let down the little one, but she was happy to share how they’d managed to help the pushover learn and grow.

This morning, before getting up, there was no cheering and frolicking as so often was experienced. The wonderful Mayari had done a marvellous job of organising everything. First, she went into the room with her three friends, woke Gulla up, and all four of them congratulated her in a lovely choir in Swedish: “Hurra för dig på din födelsedag!” which is as much as ‘Hooray for you on your birthday!’, what a wonderful way to celebrate! After that, her classmates poured into the room and sang a Swedish birthday song. The serenade “Ja Må Du Leva!” was sung a little shyly, but it showed in a wonderful way that good it was that we had been able to use the Internet for a few weeks.

It was really impressive how warmly everyone congratulated their dear comrade. I was so moved that I grasped Ramona’s hands full of emotion. She smiled at me, but also had to squeeze out a tear. It was so wonderful to see how our team had grown. We were stronger and more cordial than ever. The new girls had arrived, and they had really become part of our team. They’d enriched all of our lives. It was so wonderful to see!

Next, I tried to redirect the monthly payment of 50,000 British pounds to our account in Huaraz. I was really surprised at how easy it was to do, especially as it was outside of the bank opening hours. The change was automatically confirmed to me via online banking and the use of the stored codes and the digitally delivered pin. Unfortunately, you can’t create a new standing order for more than £5,000 online, but it was really simple to change this existing order. I think it was just a little software glitch on the bank’s end, which was really helpful. It was lucky for us. And I realised something really important. No one would complain because there wasn’t an owner of the account anymore.

There was only one thing I had to clarify. The property tax for the valley in Peru was paid from Minsk. After I stopped the payment, I had to pay from here. I needed a tax assessment for this. Surely, Huaraz was in charge again. A phone call to Ms Fernandez was enough. The same day I received an email from the tax authority asking me to pay the tax.

The property tax for predominantly undeveloped land in Peru is just 0.2%, but the ascertained land value was 300 million Peruvian SOL. An annual tax burden of SOL 600,000 has been established, payable in monthly instalments of SOL 50,000. Yes, the matter was not that simple after all. Although, 50,000 British pounds was almost 200,000 SOL, and this in each month. We just had to make sure that the tax payment fell under ‘charitable status’. Then paying the tax was no problem, but it cost almost a quarter of the bank transfer from London.

The following week I had to go to Trujillo urgently. There was a lot to clarify, which was important for the future in our valley. For this I had taken Ramona, Alejandra, and Olivia with me to the city. As a small thank you for their efforts in the attack, Babette and Sula were allowed to come along. They should spend a few nice hours together on the beach if possible. Luca and Diego drove up with us to the mountain village so that they could help their family bring the rest of the animals into the valley. Her poor father, Juan, was still struggling to regain his strength after his accident.

Actually, we didn’t have time, but from the mountain village a man and a woman were shouting loudly for us. I quickly drove to them over a rather bumpy road. Olivia translated to me that Vega and Thiago would also like to move to us in the valley. Enzo had been talking to them when he had picked up his animals. I agreed immediately and gave them my commitment by handshake. They had five wonderful children, ranging in age from 21 to 9. Everyone made a strong impression. The 21-year-old Ariadna was at least six months pregnant. She whistled loudly for her husband Gabriel, who strolled up to us without much haste, as is typical for Indio men. The pregnant woman would also like to move to the valley with her family, at least for the birth and the first weeks after that, to be with her mother, but Gabriel would have to decide that.

I watched with interest the discussion that ensued between the two newlyweds without their own house and Ariadna’s father Thiago. Olivia was going to fill me in on all the essentials when everything was fixed. The discussion was really quite moving and hard to put into words.

In the waiting time we talked with Marco, a black-haired guy of 19 years. He only had eyes for Sula. Probably something was brewing quickly, because Sula tried to please the young man with a few chunks of Quechua. Such a development could only be right for me. Sula was seen looking at her pregnancy, but apparently word had spread in the village that the young women from our valley all had no permanent partner. Babette finally said to her friend, “If you like him, you just have to wait until he lives in the village. He already admires you now, but surely, he is shy. Take care of him.”

Sula asked, her eyes twinkling with excitement. “Oh, Babette, you would accept, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course, I would love to. Then I’d have more from Michael, which would be great!”

They both smiled at each other but stopped short when they noticed that I had listened to it.

On the way to Trujillo, Olivia told me that Thiago had not agreed to live under the same roof as Gabriel. The hut was too small and the family too large. Olivia got the impression that Ariadna’s father did not like the young man very much. Olivia was instructed by me to tell the young couple on our way back that they could stay in the guesthouse for six months. Gabriel was to build a new stone house for himself and his small family.

Olivia feared a conflict. “He looked at me so strangely, kind of demanding, totally unsympathetic. If he touches me, I’ll get my gun.”

Ramona reassured her. “Don’t be afraid. This will prevent Ariadna.”

While I was filling up at San Huano, my assistants gave the attendant a small box of empty jam jars. In return they received a jar of honey. Together with Olivia, I asked the attendant about the administration of San Huano. He told us that, what I already knew, there was no office here. You have to go to Huaraz, the capital of the province of Ancash, to get documents like identity cards or death certificates. Trujillo, on the other hand, belonged to the province of La Libertad. In San Huano, almost all the inhabitants would have registered with their relatives near Trujillo so that they could take care of all the administrative matters in Trujillo.

Since we wanted to apply for an identity card for Olivia today, I was very curious whether this would succeed with the well-known bureaucracy in the country. First, we went to Ernesto in the editorial office. He was very happy to see us and introduced us to his three employees. The two Indio women with the slightly wider faces were kissing and kissing their ‘Mama Olivia’. The third woman, a Mestizo, made us coffee and tea. She spoke to us in the fastest Spanish she could, until she realised that only Olivia understood her, but she spoke to the other two women in Quechua.

After some small talk with Ernesto in English, I told him about my concerns for our trip. He listened with interest, smiling most of the time and nodding in agreement here and there. Meanwhile, the three ‘newspaper ladies’ were looking after Babette and Sula. It had taken them a while to notice her slightly curved body. They looked after the pregnant teenagers with great affection, taking a keen interest in their fate and asking them many questions.

A little later, one of the two Indio women agreed to go tomorrow with Olivia and Alejandra to the ‘Ayuntamiento’, the city administration, to apply for an ID for both of them. The employee Inti, which means ‘the sun’, would register both women temporarily as living with her. Then there would be the possibility to receive the ID cards after a few weeks. However, Olivia was not yet eighteen years old and needed the consent of her parents for an identity card application. That would be difficult.

Shortly afterwards, Ernesto phoned the German Consulate and made an appointment for Ramona and me for the afternoon, outside office hours, at 2 o’clock. After the call, I asked Ernesto about Heidy and confessed my guilty conscience. Ernesto gave us a brief overview of the situation. He had already informed me by e-mail that a blonde girl from Europe had been found and placed in an orphanage in the city. There were only two institutions for such cases. The first call was successful. The director said there were big problems with Heidy. She refused to go to school in the morning. We could come right away.

Thanks to the GPS, we quickly found the orphanage. Together with Ramona, who had her medical bag with her, we went to the reception. We were told that Heidy was sitting apathetically in the garden, that she had big problems with most of the children here, that she was beaten all the time, and she was characterised only by huge outbursts of anger. Nobody could communicate with her.

Lovely but fat Donna, an educator at the home led us to Heidy. The girl didn’t even look up as we approached. Sitting on a bench as if in a trance, she jumped up as if struck by lightning when I spoke to her in her mother tongue, but immediately turned away. Her brief look filled me with hatred. Ramona asked about her condition in German. “I am a doctor. I’d like to examine you.”

Heidy looked at her through the forearms she held in front of her face. Donna resigned herself at once. She again feared an uncontrollable outburst of anger, but Ramona took the girl by the upper arm and led her to a bench in the shade.

Donna explained to me in her very simple English that Heidy was the most difficult child she had ever seen here. She was already four months pregnant. Abortion was no longer an option. Despite the interpreters, she would not have said either her or the name of the child’s father. When I asked, I was told that the interpreter had tried to speak to her in English and French. So, Heidy simply didn’t understand him.

Ramona called me to translate. Heidy was somewhat relieved by our doctor. She said that everyone was crazy here. Two older boys tried to rape her. One of them would have lost an eye, which was blamed on Heidy. She would have repeatedly thought about taking her own life but had not yet found a suitable opportunity. At that moment, I realized how much I had failed. Exposing a twelve-year-old child just like that might be possible in Europe, because there would always be someone taking care of her and there would be no such language problems, but here that had been the completely wrong decision. Actually, I was guilty of the little one. She was a child who needed my help, despite the bad things she had done to some helpless girls.

Ramona comforted the crying little one on her chest. Then our doctor said decisively, “Whatever she did to the girls of her group, she is an immature person, and we are helping her. No objection. I decide that as a doctor and I will teach it to the girls in the valley. Point.”

That’s what I thought. The little girl had been punished enough. If I had known she was pregnant, I would never have exposed her alone. We called Olivia to us. Donna bowed deeply to her. It certainly helped that our Inca teenager was wearing her famous cross.

Donna and her colleague were not allowed to decide whether we could take the girl with us or not. We were to come back in the early evening. But I had seen how relieved they were when I told them we wanted to take the girl.

“Heidy. You’ve had enough punishment. We will help you. Either tonight or tomorrow, we will pick you up and you can come with us to the other girls.” Fortunately, I spoke her native language.

“I’m afraid. They all hate me.”

“That’s up to you now. How you will behave towards them, that’s how the girls will treat you. But Doctor Liebknecht and I have the decision on this. You can’t go on living like this, you can’t survive under these conditions.”

Although I had been talking to Heidy strictly, she hugged me and whispered, “Thank you!”

Of course I pushed her towards Ramona. The first thing she had to do was build up a relationship of trust with our doctor. They looked like mother and child as they hugged each other and Ramona stroked her cheek.

I also let Babette and Sula talk to Heidy. She gently stroked the two pregnant women’s bellies. Sula touched Heidy too and was amazed because she already had a little bump. As the three of them hugged each other, I felt for the first time that Heidy was going to be integrated into us as a new person.

Before Ramona and I went to the German Consulate, we took the three girls and Alejandra to the hotel. The porter was delighted to see us. He recognised me immediately. I had booked three double rooms online. Another Indio woman fell to her knees in front of Olivia. Babette and Sula were taken aback by the reverence shown to our little Peruvian. Three other women rushed over and bowed to her. When they heard that Alejandra was Olivia’s grandmother, they too worshipped the old Indio woman with words and gestures. Our young Peruvian hugged the women and said a few kind words.

Actually, we didn’t really have time. I urged them to hurry. “Nobody leaves the hotel. That’s an order, Olivia. You’re going to take a shower. Babette and Sula will be in one room, Alejandra and Olivia in the other. Then you can have lunch on the terrace of the hotel. Please, do not order the most expensive food, but maybe something you have not had for a long time. And one more thing: this time none of the food and drink in the room will be touched. That’s very expensive, isn’t it, Olivia?”

She nodded and lowered her eyes.

Only Spanish was spoken in the consulate. Eventually, the German consul was removed from his residence. Despite the disturbance, he was delighted to meet a fellow countrywoman. Naturally, he wanted to know how long she would be in the country and where she lived. With great astonishment he took note of everything. The consul knew about the recent raid in our valley. He asked excitedly. His wife would also be very interested. If we were to stay at the hotel, he would like to invite us to dinner. We were sorry, as we would be accompanied by four people. Mr Schmidt called his wife. She was delighted to have six interesting guests for dinner.

Then I told him the real reason we were here. I showed him the passport of Inka, who had recently lived in our valley. “Is the girl missing? What is her legal situation? She is in the country illegally, like many other girls. What are the consequences?”