I hope all is well.
Today, five members of our house went to the beach, me included,
of course. It was a small impromptu that we
had. We all wanted to go to
the beach and do some service.
The night before, one of them called me and asked "If I drive
you to the beach with me and some others can we
serve Met Agwe and LaSirene?" She had obviously
caught on to the fact that I don't like to drive.
"Sure."
"What would we need to bring, pa?"
It just so happened that I had some gifts for Lasirene and
wanted to go to the beach to give them to her.
But I told to inform everyone to
bring a white candle and a small bottle of perfume, honey,
something sweet.
So, early this morning, we set out for Atlantic City.
Five of them met me at my door in the morning.
Saturday is one of the days I don't mind sleeping
in, as I work evenings, and on the mornings from Monday to Friday,
before work, I work for clients. Two saturdays a month I try to sleep in (Hey we all need a break, right :)) But, Saturdays and Sundays just tend to be days that people show up at my door, all of a sudden, to have something done. (This is why I haven't gotten to
work on here much, srry!)
So we all had a good breakfast and set afoot. Everyone
dressed in white or blue or both! All of their own
accord! I am really honored to
have these very bright people around me. They all brought
mushoirs or blue bandannas and a gallon, to collect
sea water!
We went to the beach, and there were very suprisingly alot
of people there on the beach, as well as some people
riding on horses! I didn't think anything
would be happening on the beach at this time of year.
We were came a couple yards from the edge of the sea.
I started digging a hole, and instructed everyone
else to do the same. We placed the candles
in the holes and lit them. We lit them and prayed the Our
Father and the Hail Mary. After God, we called Met Agwe
and Mambo LaSirene! I sang a song for Met
Agwe:
Agwe O! Siyen lod O!
Jou'm angaje, map rele Agwe
Agwe
Oyo, mwen pa prese
Koki la mer a, m pa prese la
Gen you coup deye'm, Papa map paret tann yo!
English:
Agwe, O! Sign the law, O!
THe day I'm engaged*,
I am calling Agwe
Agwe Oyo**, I am not pressed (for time, or in a rush)
Shell of the Sea, I am not pressed
If I have
a coup(literally a trap), Papa, I will wait for them!
*engaged=It can signify a number of things like the day I am
in a hard situation, engaged with the law or other
pressing matter
**As in Agwe Tawoyo
Shell of the sea, a praise name for Agwe
Coup can signify a number of things actually.
It is one of my favorite songs for Met Agwe.
We saluted the sea. The everyone poured some of the honey, perfume, ojat, etc that they brought at the base of the candle. We returned to the sea once again, saluted
again, and slowly poured the rest of our liquids
out into the waters of the sea, talking to the Lwa,
making our requests. I presented the sea
with my offerings that I had previously accumulated too!
Then we all washed our kerchiefs and collected sea
water.
As we were collecting sea water, we turned around as we heard
the six year old daughter of Mari, one of our group
members, singing:
"LaSirene, LaBalene,
Chapo m tonbe nan la mer
hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm LaSirene
Chapo m tonbe nan la mer . . ."
She was singing for Mambo LaSirene in good Kreyol, with the
tune, and everything! She didn't get some
lines, but as you can see she got most of it.
We were all astounded, as Mari doesn't even know that song! So you can imagine how we roared into laughter with much glee. I said to the rest of my children, "If only you all could sing as good as she
does!" And we roared laughing again! Shortly after we
closed the ceremony, feeling much refreshed!
We went to the casinos. Since I and two others aren't
too much into gambling we went to have some drinks
and a snack. We hadn't been there
but 15 minutes, one of them came back. She hit for seven
hundred dollars! A few minutes later, another
for four hundred and fifty seven
dollars. We drank and chilled as Sheila decided to pay
for the whole tab. (Hey, we family and thats
how we roll! When one of us is blessed, we
all blessed!) Ten minutes after she announced that did the last one come in with six hundred and some odd dollars. So we ate chilled, we were very happy, but of course!
We then all to my house, where I gave out some herbs for them
to add to their sea water baths. We are all planning
to do our services to Baron, Brijit, and Papa Gede,
whose feast recently fell November second. Some
have already done it, some are getting to it, so that is what
we have been doing out here.
I encourage everyone, to go out to the beach, if you can, do
what we did! Serve Met Agwe and LaSirene,the
owners of all the riches in the
Sea, and get your blessings too!
Luck on everyones' path!
