Welcome to Miami, Bienvenidos a Miami.

I love that Will Smith song, and that song takes me back to when we first got off the boat and into the paradise called AMERICA. Well it wasn't quite like this.

My family and I came to the US in a plane (no we did not swim from Bolivia to the US). My Dad wanted to live my brothers and I do have a good future here. When we first got to Miami, my father had one friend who rented an apartment for us and was waiting for us when we arrived.

My Dad's friend rented an apartment in the famous area called Little Havana in Miami. We lived in the middle of it, on 8th street (those not familiar there is a huge festival every year there and it's crazy).

We lived half a block from this monument (is that you Conneticut Brown Sugar?).

When we first got there, my dad's friend gave my brothers and I three warnings:

1. Don't talk to strangers

2. Don't go wondering around, because you'll get lost

3. Be careful of voodoo rituals in the neighborhood

The third warning is the reason for the post.

Right in front of our window there was a huge tree. If you haven't noticed some trees have markings on then and some are in the shape of an eye. The tree in front of our apartment had this marking in the shape of an eye, so the local voodoo doctor drew another eye next to the one that was already there. People made several offerings, and buried them at the foot of the tree. People would bury money and jewelry and part of the sacrifice is that they would kill chickens.

The people had a name for the tree, I don't remember the name they had but we'll call him JOBU (This is from the movie Major League, Cerrano's god. Freakinrican knows what I'm talking about, this is one of his favorite movies.)

Sometimes after someone made an offering (these were done in the middle of the night) they would yell "Don't take from Jobu or you will die," or something to that effect.

Here's the crazy part. One day our neighbor knocked on our door asking to borrow some money. We didn't give him any because first, we didn't have extra money laying around, and second, he was a drugie so even if we had money we wouldn't have given it to him. That same day, it was around Midnight I saw him walk in front of the tree. He was talking to the tree, I couldn't hear what he was saying but I could tell he was talking to it. I was 10 at the time and I didn't want to see the ritual, because I thought he was going to sacrifice something.

I later found out that someone else saw him there and he didn't make a sacrifice to Jobu, he stole from Jobu. Someone saw him run away with jewelry and money.

The next morning someone knocked on his door, and he didn't answer. Then the manager of the building opened his door and he wasn't there. I don't know why he did that but that's what happened.

I didn't think too much about it until I heard the manager talking to people about this guy. I overheard him say "he's gone and I don't think he's ever coming back. He stole from Jobu and who know what happened to him."

A month later the manager went into his apartment. Everything was still there, all his clothes, furniture, even all the stuff he had in storage in the basement. A lot of things could've happened; 1. He could've been deported (he was Cuban and many times this is what happened).

2. He took the money and ran like nobody's business

3. He got could've gotten arrested for stealing

4. The local voodoo doctor punished him somehow

5. The one everyone believed to be the answer was that Jobu made him disappear.

I don't know what happened because two days later after no one knew what happened to him my dad found a better place and we moved.

I'm a religious person, and I know not to mess with this stuff. It's real and if you mess with it you could get hurt.

I really don't doubt that something bad happened to him for stealing. I don't think the tree did anything to him but maybe the voodoo doctor did something to him.

The Goldnugget of the day is: if you play with fire, you're gonna get burned. If you mess with this YOU could end up like the neighbor we never saw again. YOU can be the next victim of JOBU.