On 10 July 2017, Rotarian Lis Long gave a talk which was intriguingly titled ‘Guinea Pigs for Lunch?’

She explained that since she had been 12 years old, she had longed to visit Peru. She read books about the country, gave discussions at school and studied Latin American studies at university. But it was beyond her means: even the flight cost £400, which at the time was 10 weeks’ salary for her father. Then came a stroke of inspiration: a Russian neighbour suggested that she apply for a Rotarian scholarship. Lis did so, and was successful!

She arrived in the Inca capital, Cuzco (aka Cusco). It is a beautiful city, with landscape that can only be described as enormous.

Lis explained that the scholarship was not about academic excellence, rather it was about talking to people and spreading global knowledge and understanding.

Lis then travelled to the village where she would be staying. She arrived on 25 August, which was a fete day, where she found everyone in masks, dancing around.

While Lis was there, she learned about the local ritual kinship system. Children have a large number of ‘godparent’ equivalents: one when born, another when baptised, confirmed, when the hair is first cut at age 6, when they are betrothed and when they get married. The purpose of this system is equalisation of wealth.

They held a celebration for Lis. This involved broad beans, and a guinea pig stretched out on 12 roast potatoes. Lis was unsure, but was persuaded not to reject their humble hospitality.

Lis said that in practice one gets used to anything quickly. In the village she was in, there was a village standpipe, with no other running water. You manage. Whether it is difficult or easy, it doesn’t matter, you manage.

Another thing she saw which she found quite uncomfortable was cock fighting.

Lis commented that one important thing she learned was that happiness and kindness have nothing to do with life expectancy. The life expectancy in the village she stayed at was only 38 years old. But they were immensely kind to her. They even offered her a son of marriageable age as an alternative to returning home! She thanked them for the opportunity 🙂

While Lis was in Peru, she had contact with rotary clubs. She was interested to find that they didn’t actually want to hear about England. What they wanted to hear was how Lis was finding Peru (and preferably how wonderful she found it).
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