In Chosica´s market, practically anything you´d ever want you can get. From underwear, to black market Dark Knight DVDs, to kittens, to all types of Peruvian fruits, vegetables, spices, and.... meats (I´ll get to the carne later on...). People from all of the neighboring communities come to the market in Chosica to do their shopping. Today, because it is Ana´s birthday, we catered our shopping trip to her favorite foods. We bought strawberries, palta (avacado), and many other fruits and veggies that I can´t remember the names of. All of this was a fun experience for me. But then....
I found out that the family´s favorite food was ayacuchos, or... cow heart. I have been trying to do a good job eating the chicken I get every day, and so far I have been surviving being a non-vegetarian (I told my madre that I didn´t eat red meat. When she told me about cow heart, she explained that its not red meat...). The problem was not only would I have to face eating the cow heart, I´d also have to experience buying the raw, fresh, bloody cow heart.
For those of you who have been to a Latin American market, you know all about the meat section (Mom, remember our semi-anxiety attack in Guatemala?). Dead animal bodies are everywhere. You pass by dirty feathery chickens hanging upside down. Sometimes a guy comes by rolling a wheel barrow with an entire pig. And every part of the animals are available. After being a vegetarian for over half of my life, you can understand that this was difficult for me. Diosabel, trying to be nice and educate me about the market, pointed out the tripe, the intestines, the brain, the tounge, the hoof, and, of course, the heart. I politely nodded and smiled, while I tried to keep my breakfast down.
Sorry for being overly dramatic. I obviously survived and tried to be a big girl in the meat section. When we got home, we started making Ana´s birthdy lunch. Ana explained to me that this meal was very special (and I think pretty expensive for them) and they don´t get to eat this delicacy often, but it was a special occasion. Although it was not my favorite meal, I politely ate it. Not sure how my stomach is going to be doing later...
Today I also gave Ana the birthday gift I got for her. We always play in the park across the street (see picture below) with her friends. They play a game with a torn up piece of string. The game involves jumping over the string and singing ¨Inca Cola, Inca Cola¨. It reminded me of jump rope, so I decided to get her a jump rope for her birthday. Yesterday we went to Lima and I searched the streets for hours trying to find una cuedra de saltar. I was so happy when I finally found one. When I gave jump rope to Ana today, she was very excited. She´ll definitely be the quite popular on the playground now!
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