Voodoo and Fufu

Last night I caught a cab home to Wrigleyville from O'Hare, and had a wonderful chat with my cabbie, Francis. It started out with him giving me advice about getting in a shorter cab line next time, and not just staying at Terminal 1 - rookie move; I should know better.

As we finally pulled out of the airport pick-up loop, I saw flashes of lighting all over the sky. "Woah!" I say. I hadn't known it was storming out. "Woah, look at that!" says my cabbie. "Oh, I don't like the lighting. When I first came to this country, I was not used to so much lightning all the time. People in Ghana, we do not like lightning. It is a sign from the Thunder God. Do you have a thunder god in this country?"

I just thought that was an awesome question. I loved that he wondered if we have a thunder god over here. I paused and thought a bit, "Well, it's sort of an older Norse Mythology thing, but there is of course Thor; he's the God of Thunder. That's more old Scandinavian religion, but I wouldn't be surprise if somebody here still likes Thor. And Thor's been in a lot of movies lately. He's pretty popular. And I suppose in Christianity, I think at least to some extent the lighting and thunder is attributed to God. I'm fairly certain there are some hymns about his voice like thunder, or something along those lines. In any case, no matter what officially the religions say, I feel confident that plenty of people in America think God sends the thunder and lighting." Fair enough? It was kind of a hard question, really.

"In Ghana, the Thunder God strikes down thieves. You steal something? You will get struck by lightening! Even if you are in a group of your friends, and standing in the middle, the lighting will pick you out if you are a thief. And that is why nobody in Ghana steals. And, if you don't properly repent, the Thunder God will strike down all of your closest family and loved ones."

I said, "Well that's not fair!". Francis laughed. He laughed a lot actually; he seemed like a very happy person.

"We do not get much lightning in Ghana. We all fear it. And then I come to this country, and I see lightning all the time, and I am afraid!"

"Yeah, I guess we got a lot of thieves to take care of over here in Chicago. Gotta strike 'em down!" Francis laughing again. He thinks everything I say is a hoot. He's great! haha

So I sit and ponder for a time that this is all very interesting. I didn't know about the Ghana Thunder God who strikes down thieves with lightning. "So, do you have other gods in Ghana?"

"Our forefathers had lots of gods. But the gods have been leaving us. Christianity has come to our young people, and the gods of our forefathers are going away." Interesting how he worded that, I thought. "When I was a child, we had lots of voodoo medicine. Now, you barely find the voodoo men anymore. But years ago, we all knew about the power of voodoo. I was a witness, when I was fourteen years old, of voodoo medicine in my village. I saw it. A pastor in our village was sleeping with another man's wife. What he didn't know, was that the other man was a voodoo man. When the voodoo man left the village for work, the pastor came to sleep with his wife - not knowing that the voodoo man had put a spell on his wife before he left. The pastor began to be with the woman, and he got stuck inside her! I saw it! He could not get free, and my whole village, we saw. He had to get another voodoo man to use medicine to get him free of her. After that, nobody would ever sleep with another man's wife. We all knew that the voodoo medicine would get us. The pastor left the village after that. We never saw him again."

"Yeeeeah, I wouldn't want to show my face after everyone had seen me stuck inside some other man's wife either!" Francis laughed some more.

He told me that I really needed to visit Ghana, it is a wonderful place to go on vacation. He said Ghana is a safe place in Africa that I could go without a bodyguard. We spent some time looking at flights, and Francis advised me to stop looking at summer prices, those are too high, look at January or February. I continued fiddling on my Travelocity app and calling out to him the flight prices and times. We did that for a while. Then I asked, "So, what kind of food do you have in Ghana that I could try if I went there?"

Francis replied very enthusiastically, "Oh, we have rice, and beans, and potatoes!!" hahahahha. He sounded very, very proud, and it kind of made me giggle. No offense to Ghana. "You should go to Palace Gate. It is a Ghanaian restaurant, not far from your home. They have very authentic food. I mostly cook Ghanaian food at my house, but if I do eat out, I go to Palace Gate." So, I went onto Google, and read the reviews out loud to Francis. He thought they were hilarious.

I read that the fufu and soup was the best there; everyone was consistently raving about it. Francis agreed that the fufu and soup should be my first meal there. "When I worked at Menards, I had one of my coworkers over for dinner. And I made him fufu." Some laughing. "He ate soooo much fufu! He could not stop eating my fufu. He just kept saying - give me more fufu!" Each time Francis said 'fufu', I cracked up. Couldn't help it! Francis laughed too, but about this guy eating crazy amounts of fufu, not about the word, 'fufu'.

Anyways, he explained that fufu was like a yam - boiled and rolled into a ball - that you dip into soup. Sounds possibly good. I feel very inspired to go to Palace Gate and try some fufu and soup. I mean, after meeting Francis, I think I have to.

Then ahead of us on the road, the car in front of us goes through a red light. Francis mumbles, "Ooooh, he's gonna get caught....wait..." *Flash Flash* "It got him!" The intersection police lights (whatever they're called) flashed; that guy was getting a ticket.

I yelled, "It's the Thunder God!! That guy's getting taken down for stealing that road on a red light!" Francis just about died; I'm lucky he stayed on the road! He was laughing so hard.

I thanked him for driving me home and teaching me about Ghana. And truly, I had a great time. I just thought it was fascinating how different things were where he grew up, and how cool it was that he and other people from Ghana live in Chicago, along with so many others from so many places. It truly makes Chicago a better place, a mixing pot of cultures just enriches everything. I'm so thankful to live where I can meet so many different people from so many societies and walks of life. Thank you, Francis, for teaching me of voodoo and fufu!