Guinea Pig: the other white meat

We had an interesting afternoon. Weeks ago, we were approached by a friend of ours who asked us if we would volunteer to man a booth at a local charity event. The name of the event was Baby Animal Fair, and it was sponsored by Heifer International. This organization raises money to provide livestock animals to needy communities all around the world. As an example---they will provide a bunch of nanny goats and a billy goat to a community, teach them how to breed the animals as a sustained resource, and then ask them to donate animals to another community.

Our area of expertise in this whole scenario: guinea pigs. We have a couple of pigs ourselves, so our friend asked if we'd help out, and we were delighted to do it. We didn't exactly highlight the fact that the money we raised would go to help families in South America raise guinea pigs to eat. Evidently they're quite the delicacy in places like Peru and Ecuador. We raffled off a donated guinea pig, $1.00 a ticket, and raised about $60. That will provide about 6 pigs.

There were other booths that were raising money for ducks, cows, pigs, fish, llamas, chickens, even worms. The goal of the event was to raise about $20,000, and I think they hit it, or at least came close.

I just can't quite picture cooking Buddy on the old barby.