Memoirs of a Worker

Eddie and the Voodoo Queen

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been traveling Friday and Saturday. When I got to my job site and apartment in Port Harcourt, Nigeria the internet was out. So greetings from Nigeria and I hope this goes through.

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My orders were to be in Washington DC, at the office Monday morning to be briefed for my next assignment. I was going to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from the first of September until Christmas. That all sounded well and good, but then I stepped through the door of the office.

Bill, my supervisor was standing at the reception desk when I stepped into the room. “What are you doing here?” he inquired.

“What do you mean, ‘why am I here?’. You know why I’m here. I’m heading to Ulaanbaatar tomorrow.”

Bill got this puzzled look on his face. “Didn’t Nancy call you?”

I shook my head. “Nobody called me. Why?” The thought came to mind that this was not a good way to start a trip.

“Ulaanbaatar got cancelled. It must have slipped her mind to call you.” Bill thought for a moment and then said, “Come up to my office in about an hour. I’ll make a few phone calls to see if we can work something out.”

Two days later I found myself in Port-au-Prince, Haiti! I had packed well for frigid Ulaanbaatar with a suitcase full of wool socks, long sleeved thermal insulated shirts, and thermal underwear and a down filled winter coat! I was definitely way overdressed for Haiti and my first task was to acquire some cooler clothing.  

My crew consisted of five other members and me. We stayed in a nice hotel a few miles from the US embassy. Each morning the embassy driver would drop us off on a street close to the embassy and we would walk the last couple of blocks to work because of traffic congestion. Along the embassy compound wall, several people had little booths set up. Some sold jewelry, some food, a few sold clothes, but most sold wood carvings. It was common for us to stop and buy a few items.

It wasn’t long before one of the women at a jewelry booth tried to get Eddie’s attention, one of my crew members from Tennessee. The woman was tall. She had bright red lips, a flashy dress, but what stood out on her, were her eyes, they were spellbinding and would seem to hold you in a hypnotic daze.

Eddie had stopped at her booth a few days before and purchased some jewelry for his wife. Every morning after that, this woman would flirt and try to get Eddie to engage in conversation. He would just smile politely and say he had to get to work.

One morning as we walked by, she pressed close to Eddie. As she spoke her right hand extended and her fingers beckoned towards her, in a flowing motion, like she was trying to bring something in to her. In broken English and a clear low voice she whispered, “Eddie, I want you.”

Eddie sprang back in shock. He shook his head no and stammered, “I am married. I don’t go out with other women.”

She let out a husky laugh and said, “I’ll be here tomorrow. I am waiting for you,” and then blew a kiss towards him. This same scenario happened morning after morning for about a week and then the ominous woman said as her seductive eyes pierced his and held him in a trance, “If you don’t come to me Eddie . . . I will put a hex on you!”

Eddie and the rest of us didn’t believe in spells and black magic. We laughed off her hex and joked about it all day. During the day, life seemed normal in Haiti, but when the daylight ended and the black of night shrouded the country, an eerie, frightening thing occurred. The low beat of Voodoo drums was heard throughout the city. We heard, bone chilling screams and nerve-racking chants floating in the air, every night!