neighbours had sent spirits against her to kill her children”, said Loulou. “The lady lost two children that way and another was getting sick and skinny. I gave the child exactly what he needed. I bathed him and broke the bad magic, then I gave him leaves to make his blood bitter, so it would taste and smell bad to the spirits, and they would go away. After that, the child got better; he got fat and he grew. That boy is a young man now. He lives near me and he calls me ‘Papa Loulou’ because he remembers what I did for him.”
Loulou also works with people who have chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension, and AIDS. While he is realistic and honest enough to admit that he cannot always cure these diseases, there is much that he can do to help the sufferer live a longer, healthier life.
“If a person has diabetes, there are leaves I boil and give him to drink. The same for high blood pressure. Sometimes he will go back to the doctor, and the doctor asks, ‘What have you been doing? Your blood pressure has fallen.’ But the doctors never come talk with me because they don’t want to admit that they don’t know everything and they don’t want to lose any chance to make money from their patients.
”If a person has AIDS, there are leaves for that too. They are not always going to save that person’s life, but my aim is to make that life as pain-free and tolerable as I can, so they are not held back by the disease and can enjoy the life that is left to them. I stop their diarrhoea, for example or, if they have sores in their mouth, I can make them better. If the person has become skinny, if their blood is very poor, I make a tonic for them, with herbs in red wine. They drink a few spoonfuls