Huatia Sunday

On Sunday, we went to the Ttito Villacorta’s for a special meal. Apparently, during the months of May, June, and July it is not uncommon on Sundays to build an outdoor rock oven called a Huatia in which potatoes and Okas (a type of sweet tuber) are roasted. As opposed to barbecues in the U.S., where typically only the men flex their primal instincts and cook over the open flame, everyone participated in the preparations; it was actually the 70 something grandmother (she of few teeth) who took primary responsibility for the fire. Once she got a decent one going with the scrap wood scattered about the yard, the tubers were put in the oven on top of the coals, a pickaxe is used to collapse the oven on top of the coals and potatoes and the whole thing is buried in dirt and allowed to cook for about 40 minutes. During that time we took turns drinking some chicha out of the one communal glass and, when a consensus was reached on cooking time (based on the relativity of our hunger and the probability of the potatoes being edible), the pickaxe was used to scrape away the dirt and a few of use got in and played ¨hot potato¨, pulling them out of the former oven with our bare hands and throwing them on a beautiful old manta (small blanket) that would have looked great on my wall but was reserved for use in the yard of the Ttito Villacortas. By this time, Bart was looking forward to the feast. He assumed someone would wash the potatoes and cover them with the cheese we had brought for the occasion. I’ve been around a little long and knew better. The potatoes were just carried over to where the chairs were sitting in a circle outside, we peeled off the dirty skins with our dirty hands, picked up hunks of the white cheese which soon turned brown from the same dirty fingers and dug in. Mama Villacorta brought out some green sauce which really tasted good on the potatoes. Maya pretty much hovered over the sauce scooping it over her potatoes and allowing the overflow to fall back into the bowl. The food was great but Zak was more interested playing with the cuys and some baby kitties but we all had fun. In addition to the cheese, we brought some sodas which are know here as gaseosas. I much prefer the local term as it better reflects both the effervescence in the bottle before consumptions and effervescence in the alimentary canal after. The sodas and cheese represented the largest capital outlay of the meal as potatoes are relatively cheap and plentiful. In addition, I brought some clothes our kids had outgrown. Mary brought them down to Peru with her and they were so appreciated, the kids started calling my Papa Noel (Santa Claus) as I pulled them out of the bag.