As I sit here breastfeeding at 3:17 in the morning, (trust me you get used to waking every hour and a half to nurse--nope I'm lying) I am typing with one hand and cradling Lil' D with the other. See as a Mommy multi-tasking is one of your new middle names.
Anyway I took a mental inventory of my bedroom (having a yard sale and need to sell some things) and my eyes rested on a wooden statue I was given in undergrad from a Ghanian girl as a gift. She told me back then it was called Akua'Ba. I collect dolls and decided this strange looking statue was nice, I even placed a gye nyame necklace around her neck. Now my Jamaican mother would think I was crazy for taking a wooden statue and amulet from a person. LOL . . . the conversation would have gone like this if she had know I accepted the gift:
Me: Mommy my friend at school gave me this wooden statue as a gift.
Mommy: And you take it? Wey yu a say? Didn't you tell mi she was fenkay, fenkay?
Me: But itt was a gift. I like it. And you know I collect dolls. She's alright sometimes.
Mommy: Wha sweet nanny goat a go run him belly. Pickney who cyan hear will feel.
Me: It's not too much and she is gifting me for helping her out.
Mommy: Fool-fool.
For those of you with Jamaican parents you know how superstitious some can be. Taking something like a statue or jewelry from someone is comparable to taking drugs from a dealer. It's bad and everybody is out to harm you . . . covertly of course in the way of objects. As a result my Akua'ba remained in a box for several years, then to my attic with my other dolls.
I mentioned in a previous post D and I were trying to get pregnant for a while and in an attempted to have our room more feng shui I moved furniture and brought my Akua'Ba down from the attic to rest on my reading table in the corner of the bedroom. I figured, "hey ovulation sticks ain't working so let's bring in the spiritual elements". Short of having my friend perform a Santaria ritual on my ass I was desperately (no too strong a word) decisively thinking of all options. I was tired of people telling me it takes time. I had all kinds of negative thoughts on why we weren't procreating successfully.
Now I'm not one to totally accept the dogma of all Jamaican superstition, so I spoke to the doll one day. I said, "I hope you're not some wooden vessel for evil. I need to get pregnant and that's what you are suppose to facilitate." You laugh but growing up in a West Indian household you are leery of a lot of things. A short time passed and sure nuff we got pregnant.
P.S.
Yeah you're wondering, "Is she serious?" I did bring the statue to my bedroom and within a month we were pregnant, but I also had an HSG procedure during the same time. So was it magic or science?
