I´ve been waiting to write this desciption of the Haitian pantheon until I knew a little more, gathered more information from varied sources, but I keep hearing the same stories, so I guess I will just relate what I have heard so far. There are many wonderful books on the subject that go into fine detail which I will leave up to you to search out if you are so inclined. Maybe because I work in the line of blood and injury, I am told repeatedly that accidents happen because the Lwa, the Haitian gods, are hungry for flesh or thirsty for blood. So some motorcyclist doesn´t mangle your leg because he was carrying 100 pounds of coconuts and a few stalks of platanos at 40 mph and you happened to be in his way, but because the Gods are constantly looking to feed themselves, and you did not feed them daily with prayer and libation. There´s also the possibility that someone out there wants to get back at you, so they paid a Gan Gan or Mambo, male or female voudoo priest, to get the gods pissed off at you and pay you a visit. One of the most feared goddesses is LOUGAROU who flies around at night in the form of a turkey and looks for newborn babies. One guy I met could hear her on the roof of his house, making noise in the middle of the night when his daughter was a baby and had to put a bwa pini or wooden cross at the door with a bag of tobacco seeds attached to it. My translator told me that Lougarou visited his little brother the other night who sleeps next to him. He saw him in a dream trying to pursue his brother but woke just in time to scare her away. He feels he has special protection because he belives iin Jesus who makes you impermiable to the Lwa. Other male and female flesh eating and bloodthirsty Lwa are Bizango, Sanprel, Zobop, Dambala. People do not go out late at night in Anse a Pitres because this is the time when these Lwa are out on the prowl and it is very, very dangerous to walk around. I didn´t know this but I somehow survived when I went out dancing and walked back through town, which has no electricity, at about 11:30. It seemed serene to me, sky packed with stars, streets silent, but as the Haitian proverb goes, "what you don´t know is bigger than you."
Besides all these bloodsuckers, there are a few colorful superstars, and they are not all bad. There are at least two female goddesses named Erzuli; Erzuli Frida is the black goddess of love, she is capable of giving you love, riches, power and a break in life. Her day of the week is Tuesday and her favorite color is pink. You can see altars set up for her with bright pink satin, perfume and lipstick., sweets and cakes in different shades of pink and of course, lots of hearts. Erzli Danto is her white counterpart, her day is Saturday. There are a handful of saints - Miguel and Rafael that are good spirits that protect you from these bad spirits as do Oganbatagi, a warrior that bears a sword and Ogon je rory, who protects the whole family from bad spirits.
One of the most famous characters is Baron Samedi. BS is chief of the graveyard, and if you want to get someone out of their grave to turn them into a zombie, you have to get clearance from him. He is kind of a sexy trickster, smoking a cigar, wearing a top hat, tails, sun glasses, and a bare chest. Apparently Papa Doc and his tontons macoute, or henchmen, used to imitate his likeness to get their point across.
I´ll leave it at that, not being any expert. Things at the clinic truck along, now my wonderful buddy Julia is here, another nurse practitioner from New Mexico who I met years ago here in the DR. She is adapting brilliantly...The woman with the hideous eye is recovering well from surgery and soon will be fitted for a glass one. We found out that her husband is a curandero, or folk medicine man of questionable rank, and put some drops of chlorox in her eye which might have explained its bizarre condition. The woman who got her hand machete-d is also doing amazingly well except that she lost so much blood that she has a hemoglobin of 5.7! We are seeing her everyday to change her bandage, give her painkillers and iron. She can move her fingers! Her story also changed - the guy who went after her with the machete was actually going for her neck and she put up her hand to protect herself. He apparently was bothered by something she and his wife were talking about.
My daughter Nicolette is arriving in Santo Domingo to join me for a week. I am leaving tommorrow on the 5 am bus, trying to buy some meds and medical supplies while I am there. Can´t wait to give her a big squeeze and turn her on to this wild world.
A few more closing favorite words in kreyol:
Dodo sweetheart
plop plop quickly
roket hiccup
bouche flobop toothless I have a long list and could go on.......
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