Strange gift from an African man.

[snowbear]

My guess is that the elephant was actually made in China, as most things seem to be. He probably had a bag full of them and gave them away as samples. People are the same all over the world. Write the sickness off to bad pesto.

 

[Stradawhovious]

... Plus he was full blown African and with all of the stuff going on in the news right now I really didn't want to be around him(I know that's terrible, but I have a 2 yr old to come to, can't be more careful)...

... He is still normal and we had gotten check-ups promptly after arriving home to be on the safe side...

Here's what I find most intriguing...

You were terrified of catching Ebola from this guy... Your Husband showed flu like symptoms after contact with him (concurrent with Ebola) and YOU GOT ON AN AIRPLANE BEFORE GETTING HIM CHECKED OUT???

Um... Ok...

 

[407370]

Just wow!

I have been lucky enough to live and work all over this little planet. I have eaten pretty much everything that walks, swims or crawls and the only place I got food poisoning was in Dublin at a 5 star hotel.

I got blessed by a voodoo priest once for fixing his laptop.

If I ever get this paranoid I would never leave the house.

 

[gsgary]

He was a witch doctor and has put a curse on you not sure it's a bad one will have to do some more research

 

[gsgary]

Best thing to stop stomach upsets is to eat the local yoghurt, this is something I have done for years on my motorbike travels

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

wow you guys are such jerks! I was just wondering if anyone had any FOLK LORE to share. Do I really think this young man put a voodoo spell on us?? No. For pete's sake. The whole thing just gave me the heebie jeebies. As far as I knew elephants were meant to be good luck, so I was puzzled to receive one from someone we refused to buy something off of. And yes, for all you jerk offs making me look offensive, he WAS African. Not just a black guy, so please do not pull that garbage on me. He told us the village he was originally from and had an extremely thick accent. He said he was selling hand carved AFRICAN fruit bowls. And no, neither of us had Ebola or symptoms of Ebola you ass hats. If my husband experiencing ebola symptoms we would had looked for medical help. My husband had stomach cramps for 2 days. That's it. But again, this is an off topic chat where I simply wanted to know if anyone else had encountered gifts from shady strangers and if anyone has knowledge of African superstitions. But OF COURSE, this TPF so what else did I expect???

 

[gsgary]

wow you guys are such jerks! I was just wondering if anyone had any FOLK LORE to share. Do I really think this young man put a voodoo spell on us?? No. For pete's sake. The whole thing just gave me the heebie jeebies. As far as I knew elephants were meant to be good luck, so I was puzzled to receive one from someone we refused to buy something off of. And yes, for all you jerk offs making me look offensive, he WAS African. Not just a black guy, so please do not pull that garbage on me. He told us the village he was originally from and had an extremely thick accent. He said he was selling hand carved AFRICAN fruit bowls. And no, neither of us had Ebola or symptoms of Ebola you ass hats. If my husband experiencing ebola symptoms we would had looked for medical help. My husband had stomach cramps for 2 days. That's it. But again, this is an off topic chat where I simply wanted to know if anyone else had encountered gifts from shady strangers and if anyone has knowledge of African superstitions. But OF COURSE, this TPF so what else did I expect???

So every African has Ebola now ? Who's the jurk

 

[snerd]

 

[photoguy99]

It's like you can't read, gsgary. But I think you can, you just refuse to.

 

[Stradawhovious]

... jerks!... ... all you jerk offs... ... ass hats... .... But OF COURSE, this TPF so what else did I expect???

Keep up the name calling and I will ask my FULL BLOWN AFRICAN friend to send you a wooden squirrel. You though the Elephant was bad??

 

[Raj_55555]

wow you guys are such jerks!

You have every right to be mad, some of the posts do come off as offensive. But TBH, bar a few posts, most of them are just pulling your leg. TPFers do get carried away, but I really don't think most of the folks meant any disrespect!

 

[Stradawhovious]

You have every right to be mad,

I politely disagree. This is the internets. When certain doors are kicked open, people can't be surprised when folks flood through them. The simple fact is, you can't take anyone on the internetz too seriously, especially yourself, and ESPECIALLY when you toss out troll food like the OP.

To the OP. Laugh it off and move on. I'm glad your husband is feeling better.

 

[JacaRanda]

Sorry OP. We are messing with you a bit. Perhaps you added a little too much information if you were only inquiring about folklore.

You know who you are and what you meant and that is what matters. (again you added a bit too much imo)

Was it the fact that he actually gave you something for free that made him shady; compared to the other street peddlers or was it the cowboy thing?

 

[sm4him]

You know, I think most of those who posted were just having fun, because you have to admit, what you posted is just begging to have some fun poked at it.

But I went back and re-read your OP. Perhaps you should too--and try to look at it objectively, to see if you see WHY you got some of the answers you did.
YOU may know that you didn't really think the African guy had put a voodoo curse on your husband, or that he didn't give you Ebola or the Epizoodic--but try to re-read your post the way a complete stranger would, and you'll see, I think, that it's absolutely NOT CLEAR whether you believe those things were real possibilities or not.

In fact, you say, "Was this a bad omen or a "bad luck gift" given to us for refusing to buy anything from him? Or do you think this was sincere and my husband ate bad seafood and we misplaced the elephant?" which, to me, implies you believe that it was a very real possibility that your husband's illness was related to that elephant."

There are people out there in this big ole world who believe much, MUCH crazier things--I've met quite a few of them!--so I'm not sure how we were supposed to somehow inherently understand that you did not actually believe a voodoo curse might have been put on you.

 

[Derrel]

I'm thinking maybe hubs ate the tiny elephant carving, you know, in a fit of sleep-eating!!! Have you considered that possibility?