WRR@LARGE

PART ONE

by Joy E. Stocke and Angie Brenner

Waiting for the Shaman
by Joy E. Stocke

"Did you know shamans live in Otavalo?" says Mohammed Baki, son of Ivonne Baki, President of the Andean Parliament, when we tell him we're staying in Ecuador a few extra days to visit the Northern Andes.

We are having dinner after one of Muhammad Yunus's talks about his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He had discussed how he had negotiated with the Imams of the local mosques.

"As leaders of the village," Yunus had said, "The Imams had control over how women lived their lives. And so I needed to gain their trust. This took time and patience."

We continued the discussion in relation to how micro-lending might work with the indigenous tribes of Ecuador, and how it might work in a Catholic society.

Ecuador is 95 percent Catholic. Indigenous people make up 25 percent of the population. Sixty-five percent of the population is mestizo, people of European and indigenous descent. And four percent, are Afro-Ecuadorian. Only six percent of the population is European.

On the drive to Otavalo, two hours north of Quito, we ask Victor, our taxi driver, if he knows any shamans.

He doesn't hesitate to say, "Yes, there is a shaman in nearby Cotacachi where my family lives. Would you like to go?"

Our search for the mystical has led us to Shiva Temples, dervish ceremonies, sweat lodges, churches, and mosques. But neither of us has visited a shaman.

And so we make arrangements to meet Victor's father (also a taxi driver) at his taxi stand in Cotacachi, then drive to see the shaman.

Victor brings us into the courtyard of a whitewashed, adobe house. Several people sit on a ledge against the wall, including a beautiful Afro-Ecuadorian girl about twelve years old, and a man who looks to be her father. The previous night, Barry Featherman, President and CEO of the Inter-American Economic Council, told Joy about the Esmeraldas, a region in Ecuador's northwest coast where many Afro-Ecuadorians live, and where their ancestors arrived in the 1600s on Spanish slave ships.

While we wait our turn with the shaman, Victor brings us into a small room in the back of the courtyard dedicated to the Virgins <em>del el Quinche and Rosario. There are several pictures of the saints and a large glass case housing an image of the Virgin del el Quinche. Several candles placed in sand burn on a metal table in front of her.

Shrine at Cotacachi
by Joy E. Stocke

The door to the shaman's room opens and another Afro-Ecuadorian man exits. Behind him, a short man appears with sparse, tangled, jet-black hair, wearing brown trousers, sweater, and a short necklace.

"That's Joaquin, the shaman," says Victor.

We had expected to see a medicine man smelling of sage and tobacco.

"Angie," says Joy. "I think this shaman practices Santeria."

Joaquin the shaman
by Joy E. Stocke