The obligation to serve is inherited, specific and expensive, and the economics of it are the hardest thing about the religion. A lwa rasin comes down the family line; the person responsible may not have chosen it, may not attend ceremonies, may identify as Catholic or Protestant; the obligation stands. Meeting it properly means holding a service, which means feeding a large number of people, paying drummers, buying the correct foods and animals, and hiring a priest — sums that are significant in Haiti and substantial even in the diaspora. Families defer, and the deferral accumulates. Illness, accidents, business failures and family conflict are then interpreted as the consequence, which produces the characteristic Haitian situation of a household under material pressure that also believes the pressure is itself evidence of a debt they cannot afford to discharge.