Sacred Crossroads

At the intersection of Rue Victor Hugo and Rue Sainte-Catherine in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, the spiritual complexity of the French Caribbean reveals itself in a single block. A Catholic church faces shops selling candles for Vodou ceremonies, while Hindu prayer flags flutter from a nearby balcony, and the call to prayer echoes from a mosque two streets away. An elderly woman leaving Mass stops to buy herbs from a quimboiseur (traditional healer), seeing no contradiction in seeking healing from multiple sources.

"God is too big for one religion to hold," she explains simply, capturing centuries of Caribbean spiritual wisdom.