Have you ever eaten Cuy? I had my first taste of this Peruvian delicacy today for lunch. But let me tell the story which leads to this delicious meal (muy rico comida).
A few days ago, Scott, Rudolpho (one of our Peruvian translators, from Lima), and I had to run an errand with the assistant pastor of the church we’re living in, who’s name is Pedro. Pedro had some paperwork to bring to the school in Tumpa which, if signed, will allow our team to go into the schools and teach English. So, we headed to the school, handed the paperwork to the front office, met almost every single kid under the age of 10 (elementary school is in the morning), and felt like the pied-piper as we left.
After that we ran into a little Quechuan grandma, who spoke no spanish (it’s the tendency here for the elderly women to speak only Quechuan). So, we asked two girls across the street if they could help us with translation, and found out they were the woman’s grandchildren. I’m horrible with names here, as they are not very common at all (although they’re not very good at my name either), so one of the girls, I think her name is Isella, went into her house before we left and came running out with a bag of fresh corn (chockla) for us to bring home.
And as we walked a few more steps, a man driving a taxi stopped next to us, and asked us if we had a Bible he could buy. We weren’t expecting that question, and we weren’t equipped (now we are, as Scott and I have gone into the city and bought about 20 spanish Bibles). We invited him to church on Sunday, and said we would have a free Bible for him there, and he was excited. He said he was a believer and asked us if we could pray for him, as he sat in his car. So Scott and I threw our a hands into the window, laid hands on him and prayed for blessings.
But that’s not the end of the story… We decided to start heading to our meeting place in the center of town, but ended up stopping to talk to a couple who were working in their garden/ field. They were picking spinach and washing it in the river. The woman’s name was Heidi (pronounced I-day) and her husband’s name was Hugo. We talked with them for about 5 minutes, when I decided to ask if we could come back another day and help them pick their crops, help them harvest. And they agreed, they asked us to come back on Saturday (today).
Between then and today, Heidi met up with some others in our group who led her to Christ! Pretty amazing!
So today, Scott, Rudolpho, and I went back to the field and helped Heidi and her daughter, Sulime, pick peas (not American looking peas). And as we were leaving, Heidi invited us back to her home for a meal of cuy. So Heidi carried all the peas in a pack on her back, and I carried a harvest of cuy food on my back. It’s a cultural thing to have the women carry the produce… I don’t think I’ve seen any men carry harvested food.
So, when we arrived at Heidi’s house, we all piled in, and I tried to find a good spot to put down the pack of tall grass. As I was looking, I walked into something cold dangling from the ceiling. I took a good look at it… yup, I walked into a dead, plucked, and gutted guinea pig. Suprisingly I wasn’t as grossed out as I thought I would be. It kind of reminded me of the cat I had to dissect in college. I asked if I could help Heidi prepare the meal, and so I started peeling potatoes (with a knife, not a peeler), and then I peeled carrots. I think I peeled one potato for every five of Heidi’s. And she laughed at me… a lot.
And then she took down the cuy, and quartered it, like a chicken breast. And she chopped off it’s little head. Heidi then covered the cuy in a special garlic, hot pepper marinade (the way she mashed all of the garlic and pepper was a Mayan tradition…on a shaped rock, using a special smaller shaped rock to really smoosh it to liquid.) After that, she plooped the quartered pieces into a pan of hot oil and fried them up.
She asked us to pray for lunch once all of our plates were full. And then we dug in. Amazingly enough, I ate a bunch of it. And I even ate some of the skin (like chicken skin), but I didn’t put the paw in my mouth. There really isn’t much meat on them, so I can see how it would be a delicacy. They only ever prepare cuy for special occasions, and Heidi considered our presence a special occasion.
I’m really excited to see Heidi grow this month. Please continue to pray for the ministry here, as the population here is very caught up in religion… the town can be divided over who is catholic and who is evangelical. When people ask us, we tell them that we are Christians, followers of Christ, and that it’s not important what church as long as we have a relationship with Christ.
I’m sure we’ll have more to write about with this family, as Heidi’s sister, Adit, runs a corner store, and has a large house for us to possibly start a cell group there (as Heidi has already offered it today.) We met Adit on our way out of Tumpa today, and asked her what she thought about the idea of a group meeting. She said she wasn’t interested in religion, and we said we weren’t either. But we did say that a relationship with Jesus is way more exciting than just following a list of rules, that we’re on this adventure because Jesus has led us here! And she seemed much more interested, and said she would talk to her husband about it, and if we did do a group it could probably only meet once a week there. (And we were hoping to meet maybe once the whole time we’re here!) Praise the Lord!
