My Friend the Holy Father

When I lived in Rio Blanco, the Maya weren’t the only people of another culture I met.  While the country itself was a British colony, the entire educational system was run by American Jesuits from the Missouri Province in St. Louis.  Father John Paul Cull, the priest in Toledo District, was American—tall, lean, given to abrupt speech and movements, a man who seldom smiled.  He was also the only Roman Catholic priest I’ve ever made friends with.

The interior of the Catholic Church in San Antonio, Toledo District. A church in St. Louis donated the stained glass. (Photo by Joan Fry)

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Crazy Man

The blogger is (finally) back!

This is another story from when I lived in Belize.  I didn’t include it in How to Cook a Tapir because it’s still painful to think about.  Most Americans have no idea how boring life in a small, primitive (no electricity, no plumbing), isolated society like Rio Blanco can be on a day-to-day basis, especially 50 years ago.  The only similar societies here that I’m aware of are the assisted living homes where my mother, then in her 90s, spent the last few years of her life.

Manuel Xi and his sons and grandsons would not have chased the crazy man. (Photo by Joan Fry)

Obeah in the 21st Century

When I lived in Rio Blanco, Father Cull transformed the school into a church so he could say mass there.  But since I’m not Catholic, I’m not exactly sure how he did that.  One night—and this story is in my memoir—I saw candlelight coming from inside the school and heard two people talking.  The next morning, I discovered they’d been burning black candles on the table/my desk.  Was somebody making obeah against somebody else?  The village mayordomo didn’t know, didn’t care, and didn’t want to talk about it.

A king buzzard. In ancient Maya mythology, they carried messages from humans to the gods. Kriols call all vultures John Crow. (Photo by Danny Bales)

Text-Free Tuesday

The old house on the right in Punta Gorda was once new and elegant and sparkling white–but unlike the house in San Antonio, this one was built. No obeah involved. (Photo by Joan Fry)

Obeah–Belizean Black Magic

The obeah men who are paid to make spells believe that obeah itself is neutral—it’s simply power.  If someone asks him to make a spell against somebody else in order to hurt him and cause him pain, the power becomes evil.  If someone asks him to make a spell so that his sick child will live, the power becomes good because it will result in good.   Among the Maya—perhaps in an overlap stemming from their own ancient, oral traditions of witchcraft and sorcery—obeah is almost always used for evil.

If bullets are used in the spell, it’s a good bet that the victim will die of a mysterious gunshot wound. (Photo by Joan Fry)

Text-Free Tuesday

Ceiba tree on the way to Nim Li Punit. Several years ago a hurricane wiped out most of the lone-standing big trees in Toledo District. (Photo by Joan Fry)

Text-Free Tuesday

Somebody Paid an Obeah Man to Make This Spell  (www.professoraba.com)

That Old Black Magic

When I lived in Belize (okay, in 1963 it was British Honduras), the practice of obeah, or black magic, was considered a criminal offense.  A Creole man convicted of making obeah was sentenced to three years in prison shortly before we arrived.  While we lived among the Maya in Rio Blanco we  never saw any obeah rituals—if we did, we didn’t recognize them—but some people told us privately that they had seen them.  Obeah seldom came up in casual conversation, especially not when sac li gwink—Kekchi for “white people”—were present.

Men from near Santa Cruz clearing bush. Many edible and medicinal plants grow in the rain forest. But some can kill you.  (Photo by Joan Fry)