A Fool In Haiti

Hello all! I am really excited that Manbo Paula has created a website for Danthor’s Orphanage in Auban, Haiti!

Manbo Paula writes:

During my visits to Haiti I have observed and studied Haitian culture and religions
In Haitian culture Danthor represents a hard working mother with two little children of her own.
Legend tells that Danthor loves children dearly and is fiercely protective of them, this really appealed to me.
Danthor is down-to-earth and very Haitian and I decided to name the Orphanage in her honour.

Please visit and join the group and watch the great work she is doing… http://www.danthorsorphanage.org/

Hello all! I’m now in in Cayes-jacmel staying at Temp Chango Chawa, the peristyle & south-east headquarters for the Federasyon National Vodouisan Ayisyen run by Ati Jean Andvenor Lundy. An amazing place and a wonder to be here. Local vodouisants keep turning up looking for food, money, gossip and to meet the 2 blancs.


This is Ati Jean Andvenor Lundy





Mr Lundy uses his motorcycle to visit the 150 peristyles in his jurisdiction – many of which have been damaged or destroyed and many are now without food. I am blessed to be staying in his home – his peristyle – a temple to Chango the Orisha and I send his request for help out to the world. Help can be sent to me in the first instance via my paypal account above.

Mr Lundy needs his motor cycle repaired ASAP and sends a request out to the mystics AND other concerned citizens of the world to aid him in raising the money – $US300 for the repairs.

If you speak Kreyol and are reading this, please call him on +50937522628. I’ll post up th details of the bank account for the Federaysyon shortly and money can be sent directly to it once that is organised…

This is his personal plea and I can personally vouch for the necessity and urgency of the situation here. All the money I’m receiving is going to great sources and really worth while people. I have full documentation of everything but not the resources here to upload every pic and vid I take. I hope to be able to soon.

I’m having fun, meeting some amazing people, having my eyes opened to new and strange and beautiful and powerful things and doing all I can do to help. Mambo Paula is well but still internet-shy. Thanks for reading! I’ll post again soon….

Love, Sean

This is
La Bien – The Good Man

Check the link – see this is taken in the Peristyle. The Haitian Vodouisants use Machetes instead of daggers in their rituals…

The focus of ritual is always close to the ground – so seats are close to the ground too… including this car seat which is sat upon for meditations and more. Notice the pic of La Sirene in the background – beautiful goddess of the sea that she is.

La Bien feeds 25 people with the rent we pay him! His sort of vodou is called Natural Mystic or Natural Vodou… rather than the initiatory Peristyle vodou. Your donations have directly helped him feed 25 people! yeahh!!! Give more if you want and I’ll try to get more photos and videos up soon…

Best wishes from Sean

My good friend Doug asks:

Hey Seani – excellent blog. I’ll advertise it soon. My immediate question was how will you feed and water yourself given that both seem to be in extreme shortage? I’d also be interested to hear something about where you will be going. Do you have contacts there?

This is a good question – as far as I’m being told by my contacts on the ground in Haiti, and through the blog network, there is food and water there – but the people who need it most are not getting it… In particular, a large number of Vodouisants are being denied food and being forced to convert to Christianity… (see previous article). This outrages me and is the reason that first compelled me to go… What I’m being told is food distribution is the biggest issue now and it scares me that some are being forced to convert in order to be fed. See another article about that situation here.

I have several contacts there, but the plan is to be working with Gro’ Manbo Paula Wédo a founder of The Danthor Foundation. The Foundation was set up over a year before the earthquakes (January 2009). Read towards the bottom of that page to see what was needed a year ago. I quote:

And so, The Danto Foundation was born in Haiti on New Year’s Day- Haitian Independance Day, January 2009

In this spirit D’Jhonny and I set out, spending time looking at various organizations and how we could assist.

Eventually we decided upon a school in Auban, on the south-east coast. Fifty children attended here, but hurricanes and floods June through September 2008, destroyed the school, leaving only the walls standing.

The school needs a new roof and to be refurbished for the children and the requirements are really very modest.

When I first met Msr.Loucite and Msr.Alerte, they didn’t have a blackboard or chalk left, everything is gone.

…. [ visit her site to see details of school enrolment ]

The budget to rebuild and refurbish the school is $6,272.37….Not really a huge amount to aid 45 or so families and 50 kids.

Once the school is up and running, it can be registered with the Haitian Government. This in turn means that our school will be able to apply to PAM, the French World Food Organization that distributes food in the Carribbean, for a food allocation. PAM will supply our school with food & the children will get fed everyday.

If this school needed so much a year ago, then it needs it so much more now… And really, it is so easy for me to give it: collect it here, take it over, make sure it gets there as best as I can. I feel a certain kinship with Vodou anyway (which I’ll write about shortly) and feel ready to step into this world.

Manbo Paula’s contacts in Jacmel know I’m coming and I think there’s no reason to not go now… Funding is a slight issue. I have taken a small loan to get there and am asking for sponsors to help out if it is possible and I’ll take whatever I can.

Having said all that, if it appears that my being there is in any way creating a burden on an already over-burdened country then I shall leave immediately…

Eek! My Virgin Atlantic flight has a luggage restriction of “one bag” weighing a maximum of 23 kilograms (see their baggage policy).

According to that chart, it costs £32 for every extra bag I take if I book online before I fly out. I guess I’ll just take as much as I can – but at £32 it is certainly affordable to take a number of blankets, toys, arts and materials, medicines I hadn’t previously considered. If you want something taken over, please get it to me ASAP and consider contributing towards the Extra Baggage Charge of £32…

I’m going to write to them now and ask for Extra Baggage Charge to be lifted as it’s all going towards charitable purposes. I’ll let you know what they say