Speaking of superstitions I was with my girl yesterday and suddenly she said I need to make an urgent call…do you have minutes? Sure I said, what’s up? I left something important on the sink at my house. Something important? Yes something personal. Really? Yes something to protect me. I thought wow she’s been using a diaphragm all this time and I didn’t know? No she said it’s that there are muchas personas que me tienen envidia. Yeah por que? Sí porque I’ve been told because I’m pretty…and they’ve cast spells. One of them has a doll of me. I know who one of them is I’m pretty sure. How long ago I asked. Six months...but I went to a lady who cleaned me of the spells and now I have to carry this amulet with me all the time to be protected. It’s very personal and I can’t have my sisters, mama etc find it. Well sure here’s the phone. Don’t know how it turned out but I sure hope she got her lucky charm before any of those evil personas envidiosas could cast new spells on her. Forgot to ask how much the lady charged for the “cleaning”.
Just roll with it. This is probably just the start--your initiation, if you will. Spells, amulets, cleansing, dolls--non traditional medical treatments, what we call superstitions, etc. will probably continue to intermingle with you and this girl as long as you're together. And with other women/people down the line. It intermingles among what we might see as straight superstition on into religious beliefs, as it becomes sort of a blurry area sometimes and they may not share it with you.
I can't speak with expertise about how broadly my knowledge applies to S. America, but judging from the Philippines, from my living some years in the Caribbean and having three Aunts from there, (not too far from S. America) I wouldn't be surprised if the situation isn't quite similar. It doesn't really have much to do with the strata or class a girl is from, nor is it restricted to those with or without out high levels of education, I don't think. Maybe those who consider themselves 'high class and highly educated ' will down play or even try to hide it more than the 'common folk' would.
Many women don't talk about it much, because they think (and they're right) that we Yankees won't understand, and that it won't have the same meaning or validity to us. They worry we will look at them as being weird and very 'third world'. That said, I live in an area in the old southern USA said to be the most haunted and superstitious in the Americas and poultices, powders, voodoo dolls and dead animal sacrifices (to name but a few things) are not unheard of around here.
Beliefs like this not only influence everyday life and religion, but also effect medicine and how people prevent and treat ailments and diseases. Many believe in medicine that to put it mildly, isn't endorsed by the American Medical Association, nor by leading educational and medical institutions in their countries.
The bottom line is that if they believe it, it is as real as rain to them. For you to joke about it can do you little good and might do you harm. I have been told before that I was given the 'evil eye' by people very well known to have bad powers, powers that their family actively puts to bad use and I was furthermore told to physically touch a particular person from that family, so that negative energy would be returned and neutralized. I carry a diamond also, as I am told it thwarts threats thereabouts. No problems.
My wife tells me they do it as much for fun--for the thrill as anything, but there are certain people in places they know who are 'readers', sort of like what we think of in the USA as 'Fortune Tellers" or 'seers', except I think it's a bit more in depth than what and how we typically think of it here in the USA. They look at a lot more things and in different ways. She asked me if I minded if she'd pay to visit a particularly reknown one back home. I said "No problem, take along the family if you want".
AS it turned out, the practitioner, among other things he divined, said that men found my wife particularly attractive, that they 'wanted her' and that the amount and nature of the attention she was getting, was not good. He somehow knew she was living far from home. Although she was dressed like her sisters--just like other women around there, he somehow knew. How he knew, I have no idea. But to prevent a perceived 'guy attention' situation from getting out of control, (including to prevent her from being attracted), he did something to her left hand--he didn't draw blood, but it sure did hurt for a while, then he prepared a small packet--an amulet, I guess for her to keep close by--in her purse, near her body. Her hand hurt for a couple months--not terribly, but a bit.
Now any guy in his right mind wouldn't complain about THAT, I don't think. Nice of the Doctor to agree that my wife's a pretty lady (I agree) and to extend his CARE and concern, and better yet, it seems to be working!!! My wife has never felt really pretty--she's very modest, but she thinks that guys never check her out, especially since then. My eye sight's pretty good and I know differently--- but no problem. Guys scope her out, but they almost always are cautious, because she dresses well, stylishly but never provocatively. Think of the hottest school Teacher back in school--guys (at least the adults) never really stared, did they? She laments that she'll never be a 'hottie', but to me, she'll always be and that's all that really matters. She just won't dress like a slut or even dress to look as if she's out on the prowl. Prowling's for the bedroom. That little Black Dress from Oakley, I got her? I have to beg her to wear it out, along with a dab of Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue and some MAC brand lipstick that actually looks pretty red--oooh lah lah....
Anyways, that alternative practitioner, Witch Dr., whatever you want to call him, she's going back to see him again next time and I'll encourage her to leave a tip!
The only real difficulty I sometimes have with 'alternative medicine' is that with my in laws living wayyy out in the country, they may rely too much on that alternative medicine. I have to encourage, make sure and I have no problem paying for, things like dental care, prostate cancer testing, blood sugar levels (diabetes) glaucoma testing and other care for them at the best hospital and clinic. It just that it's close to 3 hours away and we have to keep on them to get 'real' check ups, especially now that they're getting older.
An alternative Dr. in the Philippines fixed a bad fungal infection on toe of mine that the best podiatrist in the South Eastern USA, using drugs so strong I had to have my liver enzymes checked mid way into a six month drug treatment, couldn't cure. So don't be so quick to dismiss these 'beliefs'!
I typically write too long anyways, but there is plenty more I could write, giving examples that would seem strange. Even now, I don't even know the HALF of it, I am positive!
I'm not superstitious, I know it's bad luck!!
