Partaking of the Forbidden Fruitcake

hopefully those of you in america reading this find my experience with witch doctors as fascinating as i do. i haven't talked to too many people here about it yet because i'm trying to take a jane goodall, gorilla's in the mist approach to this aspect of south africa. just sit back and observe and see where it gets me. that brings me to today.

after spending the day hiking a mini nature reserve with karyn (the blond from matchmaker.com), her twin sister and mom and dad i drove home and had a little talk with richard and priscilla as i commonly do.

richard and priscilla wanted me to know that they were very concerned for me when they heard that joelene was going to see a witch doctor. i asked them, "do you think i might be asked to drink something poisonous or something?" y'see, i just ASSUME that people here, like me, who aren't practicing witchcraft see it as novel or quaint. WRONG!!!

y'see people here in south africa tend to subscribe to some sort of religion or spirituality. i never really thought about it before but i guess superstition doesn't always end at the pages of your own religious text.

personally, not being superstitious in the least i observe religion in a very disaffected manner. like watching a movie. much of it is beautiful, moving and amazing but only in the sense that i realize i'm watching ancient rituals. "i can't believe people have been doing the same stuff for thousands of years" i think to myself.

richard and priscilla are christians. the reason they are worried about joelene seeing a witch doctor isn't because they're afraid someone'll slip roofies or some sort of poison in the brew but because they see the practice as satanic. they don't want my soul being tainted or worse, for me to begin practicing witchcraft. i tried to reassure them that where i come from we have witchcraft also. except that in the states we call it "holistic medicine".

but after explaining what holistic medicine is, the two weren't satisfied with the comparison that i feel is 100% valid. richard told me that the powers conjured by the witch doctors are from satan. "don't you believe in satan". i guess i hadn't told them that i was jewish. priscilla was surprised that even as a jew i didn't believe in satan. priscilla told me if i didn't believe in satan, then who was it that gave eve the apple in eden? "jews believe that the serpent gave eve the forbidden fruit"

this led to a whole discussion about how the contents of the torah are interpreted differently by jews than they are by christians. i think richard and priscilla had a very tough time understanding how i could view witchcraft like i would view herbal tea; both pass through me and end up in the toilet while doing next to nothing on the way through.

my stance on religion remains: ignorance of ignorance is bliss.

but fear not friends. i base all my actions on what would make for the most exciting story to someday tell my grandchildren... so if there's a chance of me visiting a witch doctor, i'm taking it!

lastly, if you're interested in a surreal experience i had with a piece of grass, a breeze and a dirt road (how could you not?), go to the picasaweb page and look at this picture.