Spring 2009

The power of the angels
makes the yearning for peace
inside of you become overpowering
so that you can soar
with your entire heart,
providing helping hands
for those who live in poverty,
wretchedness and
with hunger,
you yourself being the angel of salvation.

Christa Spilling-Nöker

God only demands of man that he start:
that he starts doing that which is right,
and he will help him to accomplish it,
as after all, one cannot accomplish anything without his help.

Martin Buber (1924)

Dear Friends of the Shanti Family,

We held a wonderful celebration on the occasion of us being able to celebrate the inauguration of our centre at long last! We would so liked to have had you all there!
The tension and chaos of the days leading up to it were indescribable and hardly comprehensible here in Germany, but the time then came at last.

1,200 people came together in a giant party tent, our Shanti family wore their festive robes and were elated: a dream which was hardly believable had come true – they, the poorest of the poor, have a really new and beautiful centre which has been especially built for them! Many of them also worked hard on it, as you can see from the pictures.

It was my 65th birthday and I had fulfilled my own dream – I so wanted to invite those who live in the neighbouring slum so that all of the 52 families in the slum received the same handwritten and painted invitations as the other guests had received. I am certain that most of them are hanging on the hut walls as they were certainly not often a welcome guest at a real celebration in their lives!
All of the children sat on mats at the front. The neighbouring children all had completely clean faces and were obviously also wearing their best clothes. They were still clearly identifiable from their pitch-black feet, however. One noticed that they were having difficulties not to go begging as they normally do – when so many European people were there who were certain to be nice...

By the way, the adults who live in the slum thanked us in an especially moving way:
The tent was taken down in the night and by noon the next day, there was not even a scrap of paper to be seen on the large square – and that was not arranged!

Not to forget the cooking for 1,200 people! Ghanu, our chef really is a genius!
Assisted by around 20 men and women, he peeled, washed and cut potatoes until three o’clock in the morning and when they went to bed, he immediately started to cook.
The pots were so gigantic that he had to go around them with a type of paddle so as to be able to stir the food in all of them: rice, lentil sauce, vegetable curry and potato curry, i.e. Dalbaht Tarkari, the Nepalese national dish. There was fruit for dessert and the children could collect as much ice-cream as they waned from the ten ice-cream men at the tent entrance!