A few years ago I went to Lome’ for work. I was there, or rather I was supposed to be there, for 3 days. I arrived on a Thursday and I was expected to fly out on Saturday evening. I spent Saturday morning reading, while one of my colleagues decided to explore Lome’ and to visit the famous fetish market.

My colleague visited a voodoo priest and at the end of their meeting, he refused to pay for the services of the voodoo priest.

He jumped in the cab and made his way back to the hotel, but, unexpectedly, his cab broke down in the middle of the road. He stopped a cab, asked to be driven to the hotel, and after a mile or so, the cab broke down as well. My colleague decided to walk back to the hotel.

In the evening, we took a cab, we went to the airport, we met a Nun who was telling us about the wonderful work that Comboni missions are doing in the country and then there was a power outage. When the light was brought back and we were allowed to enter the airport, do the check in and get ready to fly home, we were told that our airplane was broken, that it needed to be repaired, and that the spare parts required to fix would only arrive the day after from Paris.

We took a cab, returned to our hotel begged to be given a room, and went for dinner. At dinner my colleague told me about his adventures in the Fetish market and with the cabs. I told to finish his dinner, go to bed and rest. I also told him to go back to the voodoo priest and to pay him his due.

My colleague did as instructed and in the evening we were able to fly back home.

This story is, incredibly, true and teaches a basic lesson: always pay your dues and do not upset a voodoo priest.