"Change is the only constant in life. (Heraclitus)
It was the fall of 2009. Jean-Baptist and I were love-dancing along, playfully minding our own businesss, when we suddenly got side-swiped. Bondye had other plans for us...
A telegram came from Haiti: "Dad dying Mom going down come now Daniel"
A Short Family Profile:
These are the things Jean Baptist had told me about his family ...
- Jean-Baptist and his brother, Daniel, were raised by their moderately well-off parents, in Port-au-Prince.
- Their father, Makeson Bozor, was 18 years older than Esther, their mother. Before his decline, he was a hale & hearty man, even in his senior years, tho' he smoked and drank to excess.
- Esther, however was like a delicate flower, often emotionally labile - shifting from the depths of despair to the buzzing heights of near manic ecstacies. Behind the times in science and medicine, Haiti could not offer her any substantial relief. Jean Baptist did what he could to help his mother with herbs, but she frequently refused them saying the usually very bitter concoctions hurt her tongue.
- Exteriorly, the Bozors were good, abiding Catholics ... like most Vodouisants. If nudged a bit, Mrs. Bozor would quietly admit, "Mwen sèvi Lwa" ("I serve the Lwa”).
- Daniel was the older brother - smart, proud and lazy, he refused to truly participate in his own life, other than drinking and catting about. A "perpetual university student," Daniel was still living at his parent's in his mid-40s when he sent the telegram telling Jean Baptist of their father's mortal illness.
- The younger boy, Jean-Baptist always kept busy, interested in learning everything about anything, and his pride in learning was reflected in his youthful, brash attitude - usually to his parent's embarrassment.
At 15, Jean-Baptist left home to make his own unique way in life. He wasn't at all used to the sudden poverty, but boldly dived into life on his own.
Having lived in a Haitian-typical, publicly-Catholic/privately-Vodou home, created a deep longing to learn everything about what he most craved, living a life of Vodou. - He became totally immersed in a Makaya Socyete (attracted by their emphasis on Magick) doing everything he could to prove his authentic desire - from cooking to decorating the Peristyle for Seremoni; from turning-over the latrines, to cleaning the costumes and accoutrements for the Loa to use when they attended a Rite through Possession.
- In a short time he was approved to take Kanzo, oddly receiving both Hounsi and Si Pwen Kanzos both within days of each other.
- Jean Baptist served for another year before his Mambo endowed him with Asogwe Kanzo, as he was already displaying many of the attributes necessary to act as an initiating Houngan and became that kind of (Makaya) Bokor.
- After quite some time serving in that Hounfor, Jean-Baptist surrendered to a longing he had largely ignored: it required becoming independent from his Makaya family and "going solo.". He did so tenderly, and remained a well-wishing friend of that Hounfor.
- Utterly unafraid of the Darker Things of Vodou and Magick - even apparently spiritually protected in every kind of circumstance - he decided to serve the Lwa by serving the people as the other kind of Bokor ... the Sorcerer kind of Bokor.
- Successfully plying his trade in a small adobe hut on a little plot of dry land, he quickly paid the landlord off becoming the owner of his (and thus his Lwa's) abode .
- Jean-Baptist sporadically visited his family, helping his father with home repairs and giving his mother emotional encouragement.
- He boldly cut through the bureaucracy of officially changing his last name (Bozor) to Bokor by insisting they - the bureaucrats - had made a previous spelling error!
- - - - - - - - - -
I knew Jean-Baptist must return alone to Haiti to help his family in their distress.
Taking comfort and encouragement from each other, we agreed this was not the time for us to go to Haiti together. Immigrating to a third-world country can be a challenging adventure in cognitive dissonance.
Jean-Baptist also looked forward to having a chance to work on repairs and upgrades - preparing his tin-roofed adobe hut in which we would spend our Haitian life together.
Before he left for Haiti, to further my advancement in Vodou, with his sweet, loving direction and support, I underwent a condensed preparatory "Magickal Interior Vision-Quest" kind of experience called Couche - considered an absolute necessary preparation for initiation in most Haitian and some American Voodou Hounfors.
He then gave me the Makaya-Vodou equivalent of a Si Pwen Asogwe, stepping-up my ability to channel and direct significantly increased flows of Ache - as well as heightening my awareness of, and friendship with the Lwa.
"That should hold you for awhile, yes" he said.
And so it goes ...
So it went the after our too short of a time together, Jean-Baptist flew back to Haiti leaving me alone in the Silence of Hopeful Love-in-Separation.
And so it goes again ...
We kept in touch pretty regularly for the first month or so, thanks to our mutual mobile service's cheap, almost unlimited cell phone service. "Regularly" - ha! That's really relative, when you're dealing with the less than optimal cellular capabilities of that time in Haiti.
Taking comfort and encouragement from each other, we agreed this was not the time for us to go to Haiti together. Immigrating to a third-world country can be a challenging adventure in cognitive dissonance.
- I was still too early in the process of preparing for that life-change and, quite frankly, would have been an unnecessary distraction to the situation in Haiti at that time.
Jean-Baptist also looked forward to having a chance to work on repairs and upgrades - preparing his tin-roofed adobe hut in which we would spend our Haitian life together.
Before he left for Haiti, to further my advancement in Vodou, with his sweet, loving direction and support, I underwent a condensed preparatory "Magickal Interior Vision-Quest" kind of experience called Couche - considered an absolute necessary preparation for initiation in most Haitian and some American Voodou Hounfors.
He then gave me the Makaya-Vodou equivalent of a Si Pwen Asogwe, stepping-up my ability to channel and direct significantly increased flows of Ache - as well as heightening my awareness of, and friendship with the Lwa.
"That should hold you for awhile, yes" he said.
And so it goes ...
So it went the after our too short of a time together, Jean-Baptist flew back to Haiti leaving me alone in the Silence of Hopeful Love-in-Separation.
And so it goes again ...
We kept in touch pretty regularly for the first month or so, thanks to our mutual mobile service's cheap, almost unlimited cell phone service. "Regularly" - ha! That's really relative, when you're dealing with the less than optimal cellular capabilities of that time in Haiti.
! ! !
Suddenly the world, and my heart, and my life came to a screeching halt...
(and I stopped breathing)
! ! !
End of Act 5
Go to: As The World Turns & Turns & Turns... (Act 6)
Go to: As The World Turns & Turns & Turns... (Act 6)
Copyright © 2019, Dieudonne Bokor (aka W.A. Ryan)