Increasing life quality in Peru with Solar Energy
At the beginning of January, Swiss solar energy engineer Simon Rüegsegger is flying to Peru and staying there for the next three years. On behalf of the Bethlehem Mission Immensee (link), he will participate in a project that will introduce simple solar energy techniques to the population high up in the Andes.
Until roughly a year ago, leaving his home country for an extended time period wasn’t in Simon’s plans at all. In July 2002, Simon, who has a degree in heating engineering, founded his own alternative energy business in Niedermuehren (Swiss region of Fribourg), and the business had just started to take off.
Then he traveled to Peru for a 3 week vacation and to visit his acquaintance Thomas Kläy who worked for the Bethlehem Mission on a solar energy project at Lake Titicaca, the highest commercially navigable lake in the world.
“On the last day of my visit, Thomas asked me if I would be interested in working on such a project“, Simon said. “My first reaction was “no way”. I am doing really well in Switzerland, the business is just starting to grow, and I cannot leave here”.
But the thought of such a life changing experience kept creeping into his mind during the remaining two weeks of his vacation. After boarding the airplane that took him home, it became clear for Simon. “That’s what I am going to do”.
Environment protection and Equality
Meanwhile, he has completed the mission’s preparation process for emigrations, he quit his second job as a teacher at a vocational business school, and it was only a couple of weeks ago when he sold his business and apartment.
He flew back to Peru on January 2nd. In Santo Tomas, a town inhabited by about 8,000 people in the highlands of the Andean Sierras, he will participate and contribute to education projects organized by a school for agriculture. Together with a team of Peruvians he will educate and train teachers and scholars in the utilization of solar energy. This is an assignment that totally fits his convictions and beliefs.
“My interests are based on the protection of the environment and natural resources, but also on equal opportunity“, Simon explained. “I believe all people have the right to adequate heating and mobility. Using mainly crude oil and nuclear power is something our planet Earth cannot endure much longer. That’s why we need other resources“.
Solar technology can be very effective especially in the highlands of the Peruvian Andes. Despite long periods of sunshine it can get very cold due to its elevation and these poor rural areas have hardly any electricity.
“If we can give people the opportunity of a warm shower or an additional hot meal because of solar energy, then this means a significant quality increase in their daily lives“, Simon says.
New perspectives for his own world view
Now he is looking forward to exciting encounters with locals and to have discussions about a culture that fascinates him. “I am expecting different ideals, values, moral concepts and philosophies of life which will provide new incentives and perspectives for my own world view”.
The only thing that makes him feel a little insecure is the foreign language. He’s just not a linguistic genius, he says. Right now his Spanish knowledge is good enough for having a basic conversation but it’s not nearly good enough for leading a workshop. He also wants to learn a few words in Quechua in order to be able to communicate with the natives on a basic level and to exchange gestures of courteousness.
He will spend the first two months on learning the language in Arequipa and Cusco, the two largest cities that are close to his actual location. And he is hoping that he will remain patient. What he would like most is to spit in his hands and start working right away.
Written in German by Rosmarie Kayser, published at Bethlehem Mission Immensee, Switzerland, translated by Wolfy Becker