Guinea Pigs are Not Pets in Peru, They're Food!

Guinea pigs for sale in the market in Huarez, Peru.

Even though I had been to Peru before, I’d never had a chance to try one of their national dishes, the cuy. In America, it’s better known as a guinea pig. Yes, in Peru, guinea pigs are eaten, not kept as pets. My first trip to Peru had not afforded me the opportunity to taste guinea pig, but I felt certain that my second trip would have a guinea pig eating opportunity. And, I was right.

Before the moment for eating arrived, my group had visited a local market where guinea pigs were on display and ready to be sold. This wasn’t a tidy supermarket, as in the United States. It was an open air market where the stalls had no refrigeration, and the meat sat out all day with the organs and innards revealed just waiting for buyers. I saw multitudes of guinea pigs on display in that environment, and it certainly didn’t whet my appetite for the dish.





Guinea pigs on a plate!

On a Sunday afternoon, we made our way to a restaurant and recreational park on the outskirts of Huarez. This was a lovely place to spend a day. As we relaxed at the outdoor dining tables, we noticed an extensive playground for children, a swimming pool, and a stage for live bands. A walk to the back of the property revealed a rushing mountain stream along with views of the surrounding mountains. It was easy to relax and socialize in this setting. It was also a great place to order guinea pigs for lunch.

We ordered our meals, including several guinea pigs. We decided that we’d just share them amongst the group members. We treated them as if they were appetizers, but I wasn’t sure I’d have much of an appetite after ingesting a guinea pig.

Ready to eat...

It wasn’t long before the guinea pigs arrived at the table. They came with heads, arms and legs, claws, and teeth intact. They were arranged neatly on potatoes, but there was no mistaking the fact that we were about to eat rodents.

Our guides told us that the best way to eat them was to pick them up and gnaw away, just as one might dig into fried chicken. Forks and knives were not necessary in this instance because a typical guinea pig doesn’t contain much meat. It’s difficult to cut the meat with utensils. I still found the thought of gnawing on a guinea pig leg to be distasteful, so I used my knife and fork against the advice we were given.

Since everyone in the group was digging in, I took a deep breath and ate the guinea pig meat that I had on my fork. I expected a nasty experience, but I found the meat to have a mild flavor with the texture of chicken. It wasn’t disgusting, but I had trouble getting past the fact that I was eating a rodent. I didn’t devour an entire guinea pig, but I felt satisfied that I had eaten enough to qualify as a guinea pig eater.

Nope, I can't eat it this way. I have to use a fork!

Several of the more adventurous teens in the group decided to eat the guinea pigs’ eyeballs, but I didn’t go that far with my guinea pig eating. The claws of the guinea pig also provided some entertainment as various group members used them as toothpicks.

There are many times in life when I’ve said, “Never!” to myself. But this was one of those times where I felt like I had to jump in the pool. How many Americans can say they’ve eaten a guinea pig? Well, now I can, and it honestly wasn’t that bad!

The attached heads added to the "ick" factor.

 

Distributing Bibles by the Light of a Generator

Thank goodness for these donkeys! They carried our gear in the mountains.

In July, I had the privilege of traveling to Peru as part of a 14-member team from my church. Our mission was to journey into the Andes Mountains to deliver the recently translated New Testament to the Quechua people, the native people of Peru. This mission required hiking between villages to places not easily traversed by vehicles.

We spent the majority of each day hiking, usually about five to ten miles a day. Our group attracted a lot of attention as we traipsed along the mountain pathways. The people living in the mountains looked on with curiosity at this group of “Gringos.” A team of 20 donkeys carried our gear: tents, equipment, and personal effects packed into duffel bags. So, in addition to the Gringos, we had donkeys and the Peruvians who traveled with us as our guides, cooks, and “donkey drivers.” We were quite a crew!

Our teens played soccer with the local kids in each village.

We normally reached our intended villages by mid-afternoon, and our first task was to make camp. After that, we attempted to interact with the local people. To engage them, the teens in our group would start to play soccer. That drew a great number of kids. It didn’t matter that the same language wasn’t spoken; soccer seemed to be the universal language. After playing with us, the kids eagerly brought their parents back later in the evening.

Yeppo, one of the Peruvian missionaries, also walked around the surrounding area with a bullhorn. He’d announce the activities for the evening, which included the “Jesus” film translated into Quechua. As the sun set, the people made their way to us. Some people walked for two or more hours to watch the video and hear what we had to say.

In an area that had virtually no electricity, we had to be fully prepared to share our message. That meant using a generator to power all the equipment. The video projector, the sound system, and a single light bulb were the extent of what we used for the presentations. One little light bulb made a huge difference in a space that was totally dark otherwise.

The “Jesus” movie was shown first. Once it was over, a Peruvian missionary shared the gospel message with the crowd. After that, it was time for the Gringos! Our leader, Pastor Adam, would give a brief introduction to the crowd which was translated by our Peruvian leader, Ade, since he could speak English, Spanish, and Quechua.  Two members from our group would then share their own testimonies, again translated by Ade. After that, we always sang a song in English. Even though the Quechua people didn’t know exactly what we were saying, they seemed to enjoy and appreciate it.




I present a Bible and calendar to one of the Quechua people.
(Photo courtesy of D. Griffieth)

The final moment of every evening was the distribution of the Quechua Bibles. This was a huge event for the villagers, as they’d never before had a Bible in their own language. The mayor of each village called families up one by one, and we took turns presenting them with a Bible. Many families opened the Bibles immediately and started to read by our generator-powered light bulb or by their own headlamps. It humbled me to think how I’d taken for granted owning a Bible in English, and here these people were getting one in Quechua for the first time. The smiles on the people’s faces said it all. This was a big deal. It filled me with joy to be able to spread God’s Word to people who were reading it for the first time…in Quechua!

Next week: Enjoying Peruvian cultural moments

Meeting the Quechua People of Peru

Holding baby Elmer from one of the
families we met along the trail.

In July, I had the privilege of traveling to Peru as part of a fourteen-member team from my church. Our mission was to journey into the Andes Mountains to deliver the recently translated New Testament to the Quechua people, the native people of Peru. This mission required hiking between villages to places not easily traversed by vehicles. We spent most of our trip hiking in-between two major mountain ranges, the snowcapped Cordillera Blanca and the brown Cordillera Negra.

Who are the Quechua people? For the most part, they are an agrarian people who farm on the sides of the Andes Mountains. They have devised methods suitable for cultivating this tough terrain, and they work the land with their hands and basic equipment. Irrigation canals cut across the mountains as the people have learned how to harness the melting snow mass to water their fields. Their methods seemed antiquated to me, an American used to flat farm fields full of modern machinery. But, how could I argue with time tested methods of farming in this unforgiving landscape?

Encountering sheep along the mountain trail

Indeed, as my team walked across the mountains, we saw many people hard at work in their fields. In one place, we encountered a man using a horse to flatten wheat and remove the grain from it. Farther along the trail, we talked to men who expressed dismay at the lack of water reaching their fields. Everywhere we went, we saw the people dressed in colorful clothes that seemed to be the uniform of the Andes Mountains. We later learned that the colorful clothes are worn so people can easily be seen as they work on the mountainsides. In particular, the shoes of people amazed us. They wore shoes that resembled “dress shoes” with thin soles. These shoes were worn by men and women alike as they walked all over the mountain trails and worked in the fields. By contrast, our team wore hiking shoes with lots of good tread.

Our visits included nightly stops in villages where we distributed the translated New Testament Bibles to families. We also made daily visits to schools. All of the materials we distributed were translated into the Quechua language, the native language of the people. The school visits gave us the chance to distribute Bible storybooks and coloring books to the students. The coloring books included pages where the students could practice their native Quechua and also begin to learn some English words. We practiced the English words aloud with the students, and this was a highlight for the students and our group. We enjoyed sharing our native language with young kids who’d never heard those words.

Me with kids at a school visit...we gave them suckers, and
they loved it!

Our group was warmly received at the schools because it included “Gringos,” a word often used to describe the Americans. We had Peruvian missionaries traveling with us, but they knew from experience that the doors would not have been opened if it had just been them coming to visit. With the addition of the Americans, the schools welcomed our group. The schools viewed this as a great cultural experience for the kids in addition to the benefit of receiving all the materials and gifts we brought with us. It was the first time many of the Quechua children had seen Americans, Gringos, and they studied us with great interest and curiosity. The kids loved getting the gifts and books that we distributed. They also loved to have their pictures taken. They wanted to see their faces on the screens of the digital cameras, and they squealed with delight. It was a cute show of emotion from a people who are normally very stoic.

The school visits were fun and easy because they took place during the day, and we had a captive audience. The nightly village visits were more challenging because people had to come to us to hear our message and receive a Bible. Plus, we didn’t have electricity. How could a message be shared in the dark without the benefit of electricity? Only by the grace of God and with the help of a generator.

Next week: Passing out Bibles in the Andes by the light of a generator

Journey to Peru

In July, I had the privilege of traveling to Peru as part of a fourteen-member team from my church. Our mission was to journey into the Andes Mountains to deliver the recently translated New Testament to the Quechua people. This was not a tourist’s vacation, but it was a trip into remote areas to mingle with the native Peruvian people.

Our journey started in Lima, Peru, the entry point into the country for international travelers. Lima, a bustling city full of life, is like any big city around the world. It has its shining buildings reaching for the sky as well as its seedier, more destitute parts. There could be plenty of work to do in a city like Lima, but our final destination was more far-flung. We boarded a bus heading northwest into the Andes to the city of Huarez.



The main Plaza in Huarez

Huarez bustles along with a population of roughly 50,000 people. It sits at an elevation of 10,000 feet and is nestled neatly in between two major mountain ranges, the brown Cordillera Negra and the snowy Cordillera Blanca. Huarez isn’t a spit-and-polished typical tourist destination, although it serves as the home base for mountain explorers trekking up into the nearby peaks. In fact, Peru’s highest mountain, Huascaran, can be seen from Huarez itself.

Because of the rapid change in altitude when traveling from Lima to Huarez, altitude sickness is a danger. Anyone planning to exert themselves with strenuous exercise at those altitudes has to take time to adjust or face the possibility of altitude sickness. Cooling our heels for a few days in Huarez gave us a chance to adjust to the culture as well as the altitude. I had a harsh reality check for what was to come as we took a practice hike one day. A steep climb up into the hills of Huarez left my legs burning and my lungs wheezing. I realized why dealing with altitude was a big deal as my head spun and my stomach churned. This wasn’t like hiking at home!



Reality check! Practice hike in Huarez...10,000 feet is rough!

Finally, the day came for us to head out into the mountains. We planned to take a small bus to the first village on our schedule, and then for the next four days we would hike in between villages. At each village we’d distribute Bibles and other materials. We would also visit schools and meet with students. All of the materials we planned to distribute were translated into the Quechua language, the native language of the people in that region. This would be the first time that most of these people would ever have a Bible in their native tongue.

As we started up the mountain in our bus, I realized how far we were from home. The road was dirt. It was a switchback road, which kept us twisting and turning up the steep mountain. The road was mainly a one lane road, although two cars could fit alongside each other, if needed.  There were no guardrails on the side of the road. As we whipped along at what seemed to be a breakneck speed, I looked out my window to see a sheer drop down the side of the mountain. We met up with groups of sheep and cattle as the bus continued its journey up the mountainside. We gave them the right-of-way, which seemed to be the best choice.

Our first campsite...what a great view!

Finally, we were at the village and our first campsite. Farmers’ fields, built right onto the mountainside, surrounded us, as well as a beautiful mountain lake. Cordillera Negra was on one side of us and Cordillera Blanca was on the other. We could see Huascaran standing tall at its 22,205 foot majesty. We were miles from anything resembling a regular civilization, but as I stood on that mountain in Peru, I couldn’t imagine a better place to be.

Next week: Meeting the Quechua people