"El duende"

“El duende” … the elf.

I helped a new colleague of ours get started on her first day on the job. She came all the way from our Colombia office and it’s also her first time to visit, and work in Sweden. While installing her in-house systems account, I asked her to think of an 8-letter word for a password and type it in. She tried. It didn’t work. She tried it the second time. Nix. Still it didn’t work. On her third try, the system asked her to contact the IT administrator. So, we called and requested for assistance online through a NetMeeting. To ensure that things would go a bit quicker, I volunteered to initiate the opening of her account, so I asked her which password she wanted to use, “el duende”, she said. I smiled …

I have a lot of memorable encounters with people who have seen, and have even been friends with “duendes”. I am not sure if they exist in Sweden, but I’m rather certain they exist, and existed during my growing up years in the Philippines.

My younger brother alone has had a “duende” friend. I remember how my mother freaked out when she realised he’d been friends with one (or maybe more) and that these “duendes” has asked my brother to come and join them. He started telling us stories about the “duende world”, glittery and all fun. He talked to them. He described how they looked like and how they lived. My brother’s stay in the province was cut short – he was shipped back home to my parents. We are not sure if his “duende”-friend stayed in contact over the years.

As my brother grew up, he became friends with a guy who has a “duende” for a friend. For some reason, they found kinship – they have/had something in common! Now, his friend’s “duende”-friend was rather generous … the “duende” makes sure he doesn’t run out of money. He’s always loaded with cash, able to buy things he fancies. However, his “duende”-friend is said to be the jealous type and has a “temper” and doesn’t approve of him having a girlfriend. Believe it or not, my brother’s friend was torn between his “duende”-friend and his girlfriend. There were a lot of “incidents” from the time he started dating his girlfriend until he got married … I’m not so sure how things had been afterwards. Would you have chosen your “duende”-friend over your girlfriend? Somehow I still wonder if his “duende”-friend continued to be generous to him to this day, monetarily, you know.

I knew of someone who had a “family duende”. The “duende” got so attached to her family that it followed them when they migrated to Australia. Creepy, eh?

According to those in the know, there are two kinds of elves in the elf world – the white elves or the good ones and the black elves, the bad ones. I would very much love to get acquainted with the white elves. Would you know of one?

By the way, my Colombian colleague’s account is now working. Her “el duende” password is also working.