Agua de Gusanos

I thought it'd be great to share a special experience I had while on my mission, mix it up a bit. Stop me if you've already heard this one! 

SO THERE I WAS. . . Panuco, Veracruz.  I had no idea what i was doing, i was about 9 months into the mission and we had just white washed the area, so no leads, no investigators, lots of sun, and lots of walking.  I was training, and trying to keep up with spanish and I was the one who was supposed to know what was going on.  It was hot, we were thirsty all the time.  One morning we went and did service for a senile old lady (no seriously she was our only investigator left over from the other missionaries and she honestly had not idea what was going on.  She would forget how we started the sentence before we ended it... good times.) so we helped her pick caterpillars off of her plants.  

i'm not sure if that actually did any good. . .but we made her day. next we had planned to meet with our less active branch mission leader (Nico-pronounced nee-ko) to try and get the the branch excited about mission work.  We got to the house at the designated time, but he wasn't at home.  Discouraged, we decided to leave and continue with our back up plan, when his wife cheerfully offered us a glass of "agua de gusansos."  

(Let me esplain somethine real quick.  In mexico, they don't usually have what we would call juice.  All their juice is made from fresh fruit (well at least where i was, they do have Jumex but at the common household, what they had was fresh squeezed juices) but they don't call it "juice" (jugo) they call it for example "mango water" (agua de mango) or "pineapple water" (agua de pina) so here i am thinking oh juice! i love juice! its so hot, yes i want some gusano juice!)

So i look at my comp and i'm like yeah give me some agua de gusanos. My companion (who is mexican, and therefore speaks spanish thus understanding what the word "gusano" means) politely declines.  so i'm like dude come on its super hot outside just have a little bit, and he again refuses.   Now sister Monica (thats her name) was like oh i'll just give you a little bit and you can see if you like it, and if you want more you can have more.  This is when i start to think "uh oh, thats a little sketch. . .oh well i'm super thirsty"so my Elder Garcia reluctantly takes a small glass of agua de gusano and I take mine and drink it.  It's a little bitter. ok it's super bitter, like they'd left it out too long and it started to ferment (which actually happens a lot to waters like pineapple water and such) but it was soooo cold and felt really good going down my throat.  As i finish, everyone is anxiously awaiting my reaction, and I of course want another glass.  It was cold.  really cold.  when I ask for more everyone is like really? you want more and I explain to them, hey guys, it's really hot out side, and this agua is really cold. i'd like more, thank you.  My companion does not ask for more.  I take this as a sign that I should in fact drink enough for myself and for him.  It felt really good going down the throat even with the slight bitter/fermented taste, but alas, we had to leave.  As we walk away from dear old Nico's house, i turn to Elder Garcia and ask hey man, what're "gusanos?" to which he replies "bwahahahaha, you didn't know?" to which i replied "yes i knew, thats why i'm asking you know what they are. . .what are they?" so he said to me, "you know those things we pulled off of the plants of that senile lady?"

That is not a fair question?