They Drink Schnapps, I Drink Schweppes

Sorry for the delay since the last post, we didn’t have power for about two days here, and I ran out of credit for my internet modem. The guy who sold it to me forgot to tell me that I need a special code to start adding credit to it, and didn’t answer his phone for a while so that made life a bit more difficult after power came back, but that’s Nigeria.

I’ve started to get pretty used to my routine here, and a lot of the people around have gotten used to me too. There’s this one Al-Haji who begs for change right by where I switch busses to do to Modakeke who always gets excited to see me because I usually give him some change, or at least say hi to him everyday. Some of bus drivers recognize me and love it when I can say a few sentences for them in Yoruba. There are also these drummers who are always sitting outside this house close to the Araba’s who really get a kick out of me giving them traditional greetings. Then there’s this lady who sells all kinds of drinks by the busses. She’s not very nice, but I’ve been buying schnapps from her pretty often because the Babalawo like to drink Schnapps before reciting Ifa verses. I recently met another lady in Modakeke who is much nicer and agreed to sell me the same thing for less money, so I think I might take my business there instead from now on.

I went to play soccer with all the boys this Saturday and did pretty well. I joined this group of about 9 boys playing on a patch of dirt in the athletic complex (there are groups of people playing all over the place), and I think I surprised them by dribbling someone and nutmegging the keeper on the first play! It was a lot of fun, but after only about an hour and a half everyone has so tired because the sun gets pretty brutal by about 9 am. After it was all over I stuck around with a few of the boys to work on tricks and dribbles before I got an Okada driver to take me back home since I was way too tired to take the 30 minute walk back to the boys quarters.

Since I memorized all of the signs for the Odu Ifa so quickly the Araba likes showing me off to the visitors he always has coming to his house. I think he really likes showing everyone that he has someone from the US coming to study with him, and that I’m learning a lot. Most of the people who come for his help are amazed because they usually greet me in English and then he tells me in Yoruba to cast the Opele and I tell him which Odu it is and then speak back to them in Yoruba (well only as much as I can...). I’m really lucky to be working with the Araba, he’s a celebrity in Modakeke. Every time I am out on the road with him, every other person stops him to say thank-you for something or just to greet him since everyone seems to know him. He is also always picking up leaves and bark that honestly all look the same to me, but apparently all have different medicinal and spiritual purposes. Just today he drove all the way out to some obscure river to pick some plants that can only grow in streams and help people remember things. I have no idea what the botanical name is, but he calls them Ewe Eleyeye.

Yesterday this lady came by apologizing to the Araba for something saying that her son was feeling ok, and thanking him for his help, but I could tell the he was not happy with her. After she left he told me that her son had come to him about 2 years ago for help with some sickness or paralysis he had in his back that the hospital couldn’t treat but the Araba was able to remedy. He said that the guy was supposed to pay him 6000 Naira, but he hadn’t seen a dime since he got better until his mom just now brought 1000. He told me that this isn’t uncommon and complained that nobody treats the hospitals like that.

Even though my video recorder doesn’t work, I have been able to record two myths on my camera, and they were really interesting. The first one was the origin of the world, which I thought I knew, but I found out that I didn’t know the entire story. The Araba told me that almost nobody still remembers it in its entirety, and he only knows because he jut happened to learn it from his grandfather (who was also an Araba) right before he died. In short, the commonly known story is that Oduduwa (the first person) came down from heaven on a chain with some sand and a rooster. Oduduwa put the sand down on the water since the world was completely covered in water, and had the rooster spread the sand out all over the face of the water to create the land we have today. Apparently that was actually just the third time the earth had been made, and God had created it and destroyed it twice before that in a manner pretty similar to the story of noah and the flood. I thought it was pretty interesting that almost every culture has some kind of flood story, and that the earth at the very beginning is almost always described as completely water.

The second story that I heard was about how white people came to the earth! Apparently three gods who were having trouble having kids were destined to have some amazing children who couldn’t eat hot pepper, wouldn’t like doing hard labor, and would go off to live in a more prosperous land across a big river. Sure enough when they had children they weren’t black like everyone else, but white and went far away and became prosperous and wealthy, and eventually came back, but let all the black people keep farming for them. I thought this one was pretty funny, and the whole version of it is actually pretty fascinating. I think I will definitely want it to be one of the ones that makes it into the book.

Oh, I forgot, while I the Babalawo drink Schnapps, I have been drinking Schweppes Bitter Lemon like it’s my job. Unfortunately it’s really cheap, just like puff-puff, which means it might also become a bit of a problem, just like puff-puff. I’m going to buy some chewing sticks to make sure my teeth don’t rot...