I'm in Siquijor right now, a fairly remote island in the Visayas. It's notorious for the healers who live here, though any Filipino will tell you that they're all actually witches and that you should be staying way the f away. But come on, who's seriously going to listen when there are witches involved?? Especially after loving "The Witches" and "A Wrinkle in Time" as a kid? So after some googling ("best witch in siquijor" doesn't yield much, it turns out) and some advice from my hostel, I took my trusty red scooter and headed into the mountains to go get bewitched. Or, something like that.
I guess I was expecting the surroundings to be filled with gnarly vines, ominous looking trees, maybe some crazy birds of prey stalking around. Nope, it looked pretty much like everywhere else on the island, if not a little better maintained.
These witches have a great eye for landscaping, I thought.
I didn't take a picture of the healer's house because a bunch of family members in wife beaters were just sort of sitting around outside looking decidedly un-magical, but there was literally a sign out front that said "faith healer," along with a bunch of the ailments they could cure listed in misspelled English. I had just assumed that I would be beckoned into the right house by a toothless, old hunchback stroking a blind cat, but this was way easier.
Since I wasn't sick, didn't need a love potion, and didn't want to be "smoked" (the preferred treatment for skin ailments), my healing options were pretty limited.
So I decided to buy a protection amulet, which she is imbuing with extra protection in this picture since she didn't have change for the 500P note I gave her and is thus making an extra 150P from my visit. Clearly I had to ask for some extra joojoo - capitalism spares no one, not even witches.
Moral of the story: witches are really nice! They also have adorable grandchildren, like this kid, who was hanging around the whole time and getting scolded for letting his duck kick at the Virgin Mary statuette.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I guess I was expecting the surroundings to be filled with gnarly vines, ominous looking trees, maybe some crazy birds of prey stalking around. Nope, it looked pretty much like everywhere else on the island, if not a little better maintained.
These witches have a great eye for landscaping, I thought.
I didn't take a picture of the healer's house because a bunch of family members in wife beaters were just sort of sitting around outside looking decidedly un-magical, but there was literally a sign out front that said "faith healer," along with a bunch of the ailments they could cure listed in misspelled English. I had just assumed that I would be beckoned into the right house by a toothless, old hunchback stroking a blind cat, but this was way easier.
Since I wasn't sick, didn't need a love potion, and didn't want to be "smoked" (the preferred treatment for skin ailments), my healing options were pretty limited.
So I decided to buy a protection amulet, which she is imbuing with extra protection in this picture since she didn't have change for the 500P note I gave her and is thus making an extra 150P from my visit. Clearly I had to ask for some extra joojoo - capitalism spares no one, not even witches.
Moral of the story: witches are really nice! They also have adorable grandchildren, like this kid, who was hanging around the whole time and getting scolded for letting his duck kick at the Virgin Mary statuette.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:My first witch!
No comments:
Post a Comment