Cuy Healing

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We got up pretty early to go to the Cuy healer, for which Claire volunteered. I was glad about that, because originally I had, but then I read about it, and while I don´t mind things dying, I´d rather not feel that I had caused a Guineapig´s death through curiosity. At least she has headaches. So we got a cuy in a bag, and carried it down to the healer, who live just a little ways away. there was a man waiting for her outside the gate with a broken (!) arm adn a bag full of herbs that she had told him to bring for his treatment, and she made him leave and come back later! I felt so badly. Her yard was full of cuy. it sounded a bit like boiling water, only really musical. A little odd. Her husband was there too, a really sweet old man who knew only a teeny bit of english "Goodmorningmadamhowareyouthankyougoodbye" all in one. It was sweet. We greeted Theodora, and then Claire and she went into the "office." So basically the idea of cuy healing, or diagnosing, is that the cuy will pick up anyting off with your bady in some way in it´s body, and then the healer will interpret that by killing the cuy and reading it´s internal organs, rather like reading the future in bird guts. This has been scientifically studied though, adn the research that we read indicated that there are biological changes to the guinea pig, after it is rubbed all over your mostly naked body. I think passed was the word used in the article. Anyway, we were allowed back in the room before she killed the cuy, whcich she did quite professionally. It bled out, and then she laid it on some newspaper and counted how many times the mouth opened and closed, which predicted how long Claire would live (84), and then she literally turned the skin inside out, completely skinning it without making a single new cut. It was pretty cool. Well, I guess it was still attached at the back feet. Then she poked around in the innards adn diagnosed a few things, like headaches caused by a poorly adjusted back and ill wishes from a friend who was unrequitedly loving her. Not sure that´s a word. She fixed the spell the ill wishes had placed on her, by ripping this little membrane, and then readjusted her back, which looked like it was really painful. and recommended a spiritual healer, just in case she needed more powerful assistance against this friend. So yeah, that was just the beginning of the morning! We breakfasted, adn then went back down, to Cajamarquilla school, where we read and acted out a book about a white gorilla that is trying to figure out who he is. It really reminded me of "Are You My Mommy?" The kids are great. Diego, Susan, Almer, Estefani, Maria-Eleña, and Marguerite. We played a tag like game for a while, which immediatly put us out of breath, but it was really fun. The teacher got really into it too. We returned to la Casa de POcha for lunch, which is always amazing, and spent some time decoding a myth about the formation of the mountains here. Basically the story goes like this: A long time ago there was a beautiful woman, Huascaran, who was married to a man for who she bore many many children and fed really well, but he was unfaithful, adn bewitched by a sorceress. When Huascaran found out she swore revenge adn got the sorceresses nephew to help her tie up the witch and cut off her husband´s family jewels, which she threw in the river. They became mountains, the Cordillera Negra, and Huascaran fled the wrath of the witch. Her children couldn´t keep up with her, and fell behind, turning into mountains also, their diapers the white ice on top. She became the largest and most beautiful mountain, Huascaran. I´m pretty sure that was the gist of it. Then we had a marathon class with Martin. Damn, a LOT of information. Three classes and I have over 15 pages of notes on vocab, culture, the area. It´s incredible. My poor head! It was, needless to say, an early night.

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