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Nidia llegó a Haití, junto a su familia, con su padre que era un diplomático que iba a hacer unos negocios, inherentes a su país, cuestiones políticas y de Estado. Llegaron ella, su madre y padre a la parte mas bonita y cómoda de aquel exótico lugar, se podía ver la pobreza reinante en casi toda la ciudad, iban por unos pocos meses, así que se lo tomaría como unas vacaciones.
Le agradaba el clima cálido y lo pintoresco de las personas y de todos los lugares. Junto que llegaron, empezaron a darse cuenta, de que habían muchas costumbres dentro de sus pobladores y una de ellas, era no andar por sus calles después de ciertas horas, aparte de que no se prestaba tampoco hacerlo, por la falta de iluminación, en las noches por las calles no había electricidad y las que tenían algo de ella, era por generadores eléctricos.
Como hoteles, bares y ese tipo de locales, que a pesar de la oscuridad reinante en sus inmediaciones, siempre estaban activos. Nidia tenia 17 años y su curiosidad era mucha, pronto se hizo amiga de una muchacha del lugar, que era recepcionista del hotel en el cual se hospedaban. Una noche ella quiso salir a tomar aire fresco, mas sin embargo su amiga le dijo que podían mejor hacerlo en las terrazas del hotel, porque salir de noche era peligroso...No le dijo mucho de cuales peligros hablaba. Era mejor así.
Entonces Nidia accedió de mala ganas y se quedo con ella hasta como las 12 de la noche, cerca del hotel, quedaba un bar donde se veía cierto movimiento en horas tempranas, pero luego, ya no había mucho que ver, ya estaban por retirarse a dormir cuando empezaron a oír como cantos de niños pequeños, como en una procesión. Nidia se quedó pendiente de ver quienes eran esos niños que cantaban a esas horas y en esa oscuridad.
La amiga de Nidia, le dijo que mejor se metieran dentro, pero ya era muy tarde, pronto empezaron a ver, quienes venían cantando cosas ininteligibles, que ni siquiera la propia chica del lugar lograba entender lo que decían, lo único que atino hacer, fue tumbar a Nidia al piso, para esperar a que estos "niños" pasaran, pero Nidia estaba estupefacta al ver que esos presuntos "niños", no eran tales, si no animales que venían brincando, como personas, eran unas horribles cabras.
Pero estas venían parados en sus dos patas hablando y cantando como niños, Nidia al observar ese espectáculo tan inusual, tan terrorífico, quiso gritar pero su amiga previendo aquello, le tapo la boca, ahogándole el grito, afortunadamente. Al terminar de pasar aquella tenebrosa caravana, Nidia se fue casi que corriendo a su habitación sin decirle nada a su madre o padre.
Pero al otro día, tanto ella como la muchacha de la recepción amanecieron con unas fiebres muy fuertes, con delirios y terribles pesadillas. Los padres no sabían que hacer, el medico del hotel la revisó pero no consiguió nada aparente, para que fuese motivo de aquellos malestares. Hasta que Nidia en medio de sus pesadillas, les contó lo que les había acontecido.
Entonces ellos buscaron a la chica de la recepción a ver si sabia algo para todo aquello o que podía ser, entonces los padres de esta le recomendaron llevar a Nidia con un conocedor, brujo, chaman, para quitar estos espantos. Llevaron a Nidia y le mandaron unos baños con ciertas plantas para curarla del susto y le dijeron, que en ese lugar no se podía andar curioseando sin conocer.
Los dias que se sucedieron, Nidia temía hasta de salir en pleno día, sentía que estos extraños animales-niños la seguían a todos lados, quería irse pronto, el resto de los dias se quedó siempre en las inmediaciones de su hotel, hasta que se fueron por temor a toparse con cualquier cosa extraña o terrorífica.
Desde ese momento, le quedó claro que cuando uno es forastero en algún lugar, país, pueblo uno debe de tomar en cuenta, las prevenciones que tratan de darle a uno los que son del lugar, pues uno no sabe, con lo que se pueda topar, se pueden prevenir muchos malos momentos. Gracias a esta recepcionista, ella no se hizo visible para estos seres, porque si no hubiesen sido peores las consecuencias. Nidia no quiso imaginar.
English
Nidia arrived in Haiti, along with her family, with her father who was a diplomat who was going to do some business, inherent to his country, political and state matters. She, her mother and father arrived to the most beautiful and comfortable part of that exotic place, you could see the poverty prevailing in almost all the city, they were going for a few months, so she would take it as a vacation.
He liked the warm weather and the picturesque people and all the places. Once they arrived, they began to realize that there were many customs within its inhabitants and one of them was not to walk the streets after certain hours, besides that it was not suitable to do so, due to the lack of lighting, at night there was no electricity in the streets and those that had some, it was by electric generators.
The streets had no electricity at night and the ones that had some were powered by electric generators, such as hotels, bars and that kind of places that, despite the darkness, were always active. Nidia was 17 years old and her curiosity was great, she soon became friends with a local girl, who was the receptionist of the hotel where they were staying. One night she wanted to go out to get some fresh air, but her friend told her that it would be better to go out on the hotel terraces, because going out at night was dangerous... She didn't tell her much about the dangers. It was better that way.
So Nidia agreed reluctantly and stayed with her until about 12 o'clock at night, near the hotel, there was a bar where there was some movement in the early hours, but then, there was not much to see, they were about to retire to sleep when they began to hear the singing of small children, as in a procession. Nidia kept her ears open to see who those children were singing at that hour and in that darkness.
Nidia's friend told her that they better go inside, but it was too late, soon they began to see who came singing unintelligible things, that not even the girl herself could understand what they were saying, the only thing she could do was to lay Nidia on the floor, to wait for these "children" to pass, but Nidia was stupefied to see that these alleged "children" were not such, but animals that came jumping, like people, they were horrible goats.
But these came standing on their two legs talking and singing like children, Nidia to observe this spectacle so unusual, so terrifying, wanted to scream but her friend foreseeing that, covered her mouth, drowning her scream, fortunately. At the end of that dark caravan, Nidia went almost running to her room without saying anything to her mother or father.
But the next day, both she and the girl at the reception woke up with very strong fevers, delirium and terrible nightmares. The parents did not know what to do, the hotel doctor checked her but could not find anything apparent to be the cause of those discomforts. Until Nidia, in the middle of her nightmares, told them what had happened to them.
Then they looked for the girl at the reception to see if she knew anything about it or what it could be, then her parents recommended to take Nidia to a connoisseur, witchdoctor, shaman, to remove these scares. They took Nidia and sent her some baths with certain plants to cure her of the fright and they told her that in that place she could not go around curious without knowing.
The days that followed, Nidia was afraid even to go out in the middle of the day, she felt that these strange animal-children followed her everywhere, she wanted to leave soon, the rest of the days she always stayed in the vicinity of her hotel, until they left for fear of running into anything strange or terrifying.
From that moment on, it became clear to her that when one is a stranger in some place, country or town, one must take into account the precautions that the locals try to give one, because one does not know what one might run into, and many bad moments can be prevented. Thanks to this receptionist, she did not become visible to these beings, otherwise the consequences would have been worse. Nidia did not want to imagine.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)