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Old Hut and Valley
Mama stopped and looked down the V of the valley to the north. He took a deep breath "Breath in the air of this sacred mountain" and exhaled", breathe out the bad energy. He turned to the East "Think only good thoughts, let your heart become pure." I followed his example in all four directions until he told me to stop. I was wearing one silver ring on my finger, which he asked me for. I gave him the ring and he started to pray. He told me again to think pure, and to be pure, I was a good girl. He told me to sit outside of the hut for a while and then it would be finished and he would go and arrange a mule to take me down the mountain the next day.
I weakly nodded in exhausted gratitude and slouched against the hut in a daze, unmindful of the scorpions I knew to live there. Someone brought me some water and told me to drink it. I drank the water and once again crawled into the hut and fell into a deep sleep next to the fire.
It must have been about three hours or so later when I woke up. I sat up and realised I was able to move and breathe more freely. I noticed a pot near the fire that I didn’t recognise to be mine, I opened the lid to steamy hot plantain soup. I hadn’t eaten much for two days and my appetite suddenly returned in full force, I hungrily ate the soup and in my mind thanked God and Mama Santos. I listened to the drums from the Men’s hut and watched the fire until I fell into a peaceful sleep. I felt everything was going to be OK.
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