zombies

Tonight "someone" called Ninotte's phone. Marianne answered it for her as she was on the way to the bathroom. All she heard on the other side was someone moaning, so she ran and gave it to Ninotte, who heard the same and hung up.

If the situation described happened to me, I'd probably 1st assume that someone was playing a practical joke or prank calling me, and then 2nd think: oh! I hope that person wasn't having a stroke and just called whatever number they could and I couldn't help him!

But we are in Haiti, and people come to different conclusions...

Marianne freaked out and started crying. She said that a zombie had called her. I kept a straight face--not cracking a smile nor looking terribly concerned, and she got upset, saying "I told you about zombies!!" And she did: she told me how if you kill someone with vudou, then you can go to their grave-site after they're buried and wait for their spirit to rise, then you SLAP the spirit and it becomes your zombie, which you can use to protect your storefront or house or put onto someone to make them sick. I said, "Yes I remember what you told me! and I've in fact seen many American and foreign zombie movies..." She was happy to hear I knew something about zombies.

Alas my differently trained/cultured mind has a hard time wrapping my mind around it in a practical way. I feel I'm incredibly open-minded and I believe that basically anything is possible, but this one is hard for me to wrap my mind around. She wanted me to pray for her to protect her from the zombie. I told her I could believe that there was some kind of bad spirit calling her up, but maybe it wanted something from her, like to be told that it was respected or loved or understood or maybe it was looking for a simple apology. Maybe if we tell it that, it won't mess with her... She and Ninotte laughed and laughed. In the end, I found myself participating in a group prayer led by Melinda with one hand on Ninotte's head and the other on Marianne's. I just tried to bring in some good energy and tried to tell the "zombie" that it was loved...

Meanwhile in the streets the neighbors are playing the usual evening 90s love song mix. Tonight it's Whitney Houston and Kc and Jojo...other nights it's Celine Dion or Lianne Rhymes. Gotta love it all.