But there is a lecture at the Colegio Benjamin Barton
The first cab driver at Lima airport shakes his head and the second doesn’t want to take me to the Rimac district either. “There’s a strike going on there at the moment, it would take forever to get there!” But with a little patience, I end up sitting in the back seat of a car. The news on the radio explains the situation. Some transport companies are on strike. The reason: they are being forced by mafia organizations to pay protective tariffs and are now demanding state intervention. Brutal scenes. Strikers are violently attacking strikebreakers on the streets.
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Finally, I stand in front of the door of the Benjamin Barton College. It was an invitation arranged at short notice.
Some classes had read the book “Esperanza en los Andes” (about Diospi Suyana) and now I am supposed to tell the students about our lives, hot off the press, so to speak. “Dr. John, because of the strikes on the roads, many students couldn’t come to school today!” – So instead of 300, only 150 young people and children will be attending the presentation. “No problem,” I say and open my laptop.
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The attention is surprisingly good and at the end there are lots of questions. I still have a good 20 books to sign and then I’m back on the street. In half an hour I’m due to meet the boss of “Roche – Peru” in the San Isidro district and Tobias Lächele – head of our workshops – is already waiting at the company entrance. The usual palaver with the cab drivers at the school gate. “Don’t ask too much,” says the director of the Benjamin Barton School, “Dr. John is more Peruvian than most of us!”
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But what was the actual message of the lecture? We can live our lives as we see fit and turn our years into an ego trip.
Alternatively – and this is the better way – we should make ourselves completely available to God. And then the adventure begins.
