Manbo Mirielle’s story
by sean on Jan.23, 2011, under Haiti, People, Vodou
On March 18th 2010, whilst staying in a peristyle called Temp Chango Chawa in a town called Cayes Jacmel, we were visited by Manbo Mirielle AIN, A woman born in France who had worked at the foreign embassy in Haiti until she discovered Vodou. I had the fortunate pleasure of being able to interview her where we spoke very openly about Haiti, Vodou, the earthquake and her life as a Manbo (an initiated priestess of Vodou). Watch the interview and listen to her fascinating story.
If you are ever wondering who to make a donation to and how to help the situation in Haiti, look no further than Manbo Mirielle: an amazing community member who provides food, shelter, jobs and spiritual solace for many many Haitians. The website for the peristyle she started is here: Yagen Tanwe. Please contribute if you can 
Updated to add: She speaks French from 19 minutes in, so if you are a French speaker you may want to skip straight to 19:00. The translation from the French is in the comments below
January 24th, 2011 on 9:43 pm
Translation from the French:
We are in the process of creating an association that will be called S.O.S [word]… no, not S.O.S. (L’ Ecru?), (Lacou?) La Croix? Solidaire. Excuse me. (L’Ecou?) Solidaire… and we will look for damaged peristyles, there are some, not very many, but there are some… and we are going to help them. We will buy them materials so they will be able to rebuild. That means (glue?), wood, paint so they can rebuild the peristyle… and above that we will prepare a little contract with them… and, if we can, we will buy [word] and tools, we can buy them the small animals of [word], the [word] for constructing the [word], things like that, so that they can have a little (lavage?)… and then because each peristyle is able to extract it’s point of strength in the vodou – that could be making tambours (drums), that could be making statuettes, that could be teaching how to use flour to make the veve (magical symbols used to contact the lwa) – each one has a point of strength.
And then we have a project, once per year, to bring all of the peristyles together for a big fair, and each can bring that which it has made for the others to try. And we will propose people be there who do traditional massage, (la belle feuille?), consultation of the Lwa… all that. There you go. [hard to hear... something about that's all that she can put from her head]
*voice from off camera comments about “la cabessa”?*
Trying (la cabessa?) aaaarrrrgh! . (cabessa bedol?)
*Seani then asks about traditional massage*
You want a traditional massage? Of Course!
*Seani comments*
The (bodywork?) is extraordinary. Where I live, there’s this old woman – 70 years old – she does the (bodywork?) and when she’s finished *Mirielle does a little shimmy sway and laughs* it’s extraordinary. In all peristyles there’s a specialist in (bodywork?)… that’s that… and then we have (le band feuille?), also (leaf medicine?), we have… we have everything of the tradition… and we also have artists.*points to murals* In each peristyle there are (courses/schools?) that are done with artists and people who have never learned to paint… and look, this is what they are capable of doing. So, if we arrive [at the point where] we have, from time to time, artists who come to our home… and if they lack/are missing [difficult to hear] very beautiful things… everyone.
Visit http://web.me.com/yagentanwe/ to view Manbo Mirielle’s website.