Salem

I have bad news. It turns out that my neighbor is a sorceress. I know. I'm worried too.

It started the other morning when people around the neighborhood were asking me "Did you hear all of the commotion this morning? What did you see?" Well I saw/heard nothing, so I asked them to elaborate. They explained, "Well your neighbor there is a sorceress. She was eating a little girl's heart this morning while it was still inside of her! She would have died, but they got her a medicine to make it stop."

Naturally, they needed to repeat the story to me a few times. Not because I didn't understand the words, but more because I didn't quite believe the story. Or at least, I wasn't sure if they were joking to me or being serious. Granted, stories of sorcery and magic are not uncommon here, and even the most educated people (teachers, doctors, etc.) are SURE of the existence of magic. So this was not anything terribly new; except for that it was my neighbor and I saw the little girl sleeping inside the house. I was intrigued, but more because I had more opportunities to disprove it all. My instant theory was bad case of heartburn. Her "traditional remedy": a TUMS... or some other basic substance that is naturally found around here. But they could not be convinced:

"No no no, this woman has been a sorceress for a while. She does things like that, but this is the first time we were sure of it"
Me: "Well how do you know it was her?"
"Because the little girl was screaming the woman's name while it was happening"
Me: "Well if they all thought that she was a sorceress before, couldn't the girl have had a simple stomachache, but just blamed the old lady?"
"But we know the woman is a sorceress."

I eventually gave up. Just like I did for all of the other stories I've heard so far. For example, the mayor's assistant recently was involved in discrediting one of the local chiefs for corruption. But this coincided with the development of rhumatism (or some other disabling sickness) that makes it hard for him to walk. Explanation: the chief found a sorcerer to cast a spell on him. He's still looking into his own sorcerers for a counter-spell.

Others: crazy/mentally disabled people and drunks are often the results of them meddling with sorcerers; sorcerers make people's souls work on their farms at night, and that's why they're successful and everyone is tired; sorcerers can make it rain on their farm and no one else's.

So in the end, my neighbor/sorceress is still around, but her son got in a fight with the little girls father because he was calling his mom a sorceress. I suppose that is a natural instinct. No one wants to be accused of being a heart-eater.

For all the integration that I've been doing into the culture here, this has been the most different thing to get used to... or take seriously. I've explained that in America we have people that could be called "sorcerers" and "magicians", but even they will admit that they're just fooling us into thinking one thing and diong another. So I've told friends that I would like to visit a sorcerer soon, and see some of his work. There's a guy that can apparently sprinkle ashes on a piece of paper and it turns into writing. With that, I 'll perhaps look for loopholes and explanations, and if I find none, I'll come back to America a changed man. Partly because I'll be a true believer. But mostly because I'll have asked him to help me with one thing: get me to stop biting my nails.