Die Another Day, Inshallah.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Let me tell you about a creepy thing that happened to me two nights ago. I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN CURSED BY AN EVIL DEMM (aka sorcerer who causes harm and chaos.)

Theresa, Joleen, and I were all sitting in the open courtyard of Joleen and Theresa's house. It is good to preface this story with the fact that Mama Astu Diop sells fataya (a delicious fried pastry filled with meat) so many people come in and out of the courtyard on a daily basis.

A woman entered and greeted Joleen, Theresa, and I. At the time we did not notice that she only greeted us and not the rest of the family. That is a very bad sign since it is incredibly rude to only greet a few and ignore many. She began helping us put elastics in Theresa's hair, since we were trying to finish up her tresses.

Creepy and eerie are two understatements when attempting to describe this woman. Dressed in all black, with a black head scarf, and a tattoo of three lines under her right eye, she spoke no French. We haven't learned enough wolof to have a conversation yet, so the only word she uttered that we actually understood was "tomorrow."

Joleen started to notice something was strange about this woman and her host brother Talisto was trying to motion to her that this woman was not to be interacted with. The woman left abruptly and this is when we really started to understand just how creepy she was.

She only touched us. She only greeted us. She ignored the rest of the family. She had very bad vibes about her. Heebie jeebies to the max.

After she left the family asked if we knew her at all and we said we definitely did not. We thought she was there to buy fataya or that someone in the family knew her. In our culture lesson we learned about demms (evil sorcerers) and this woman seemed to fit the description to a tee. Joleen, Theresa, and I were thoroughly freaked out. We were 100% ready to go and buy gris-gris. (Gris-gris are charms that have had spells cast upon them for protection. You can get them for a range of different situations.)

Talisto, Joleen and Theresa's host brother, didn't help at all because he convinced us that the strange woman in black was a demm and that she had cursed us to death and we were all going to die tomorrow. He was kind enough to inform us after about an hour of sheer panic that he was kidding, but we were still scared senseless.

I waited to post this until today to make sure I was still alive, considering the fact I was pretty sure that some freak accident was going to happen yesterday and I was going to die. I survived, thank heavens.

Joleen and I asked one of our Wolof professors today about what was up with the lady in black. He said that she was most likely from Mali and a demm. Tubaab (white person) hair is highly sought after for use in potions and amulets. The hair that she probably took from Theresa would be used in spell, but that it could not be used to hurt her, just to make the spell more powerful. Funny thing is the woman in black probably just got part of Theresa's weave since she has fake hair woven into her tresses. HA! Take that evil lady.

So, to wrap up this long post: I'm alive to fight another day, inshallah (God willing.)