Cuy Explained

Some of you reading this blog may not fully understand the significance of the title “Adventures of the Cuy," even though you may agree that it is a very witty and very catchy title. “Very catchy” is something that Maya likes to say when she hears a song she likes, as in, “That’s a very catchy song.”

The significance of “cuy” is two-fold.

First - “cuy” is the Spanish word for “guinea pig”. So, “Adventures of the Cuy” translates to “Adventures of the Guinea Pigs”. Now, you know that “guinea pig” is a term that is used when soliciting a volunteer to do something that you aren’t really sure how it is going to turn out, as in “Who’s going to be the guinea pig and jump off this bridge into the river to see if the river is deep enough for us to jump off this bridge without killing ourselves?” And then someone will volunteer to be the guinea pig and it’ll be alright.

In this case, the guinea pigs are me, Rebecca, Maya and Jonah. And the test run is to see how well we can get along in a country that is not Los Estados Unidos. Because if it works out, maybe we’ll want to try it again or try it in another country that is not Los Estados Unidos (like Thailand, where Asylum Access also has operations). If it works out, who knows what we’ll want to do.

Significance the second - “cuy” is considered a signature culinary dish in Ecuador – as in, “I’ll have the cuy, and a glass of water with a lime, please.” So, not only will we be guinea pigs, but we’ll be eating them as well.

Maya has guinea pigs in her Pre-K classroom and she knows that in Ecuador, folks eat guinea pigs. So, it’s a funny joke when she and I go into her classroom and look at the guinea pigs and say to them, “If we were in Ecuador, we’d eat you.” Maya and Jonah also like to go to the pet store and roll around on the floor. The other day we were at PetSmart and we stopped at the guinea pig cage and Maya looked at me, smiled, and said, “Don’t they look tasty?”