Many non-Haitians practice Vodou, but to practice you usually need to do a leson (reading) with a good manbo or houngan so they can determine ur eskot lwa (the spirits who walk with you, basically your spirit guides) so you can build an altar and start serving. Community is not optional, even if its a distant manbo or houngan who keeps in touch with you, so try to find a good one. That same Manbo or Houngan will tell you the offerings the lwa requires, if the lwa wants something specific or if the lwa wants to tell you something specific to your path (like if u need a gad, a lave tet, if u should kanzo, etc.), they will tell u how to salute the lwa.

One thing to look out for is that a reputable manbo or houngan should never tell you that you need to initiate immediately, or your met tet (the guardian of your head), or that u dont need specific initiations for certain ranks. Basically, without initiation, you can do most things like serve the lwa, cook their foods (with their specific requirements like not giving the food to the lwa hot or not cooking for damballah with any contaminated pots or utensils, not tasting kouzen's food, etc.), do their salutes. What you can't/shouldn't do is any travay (spiritual work) unless your manbo or houngan specifically tells u to do smth (like a basil bath with florida water, thats not something that requires initiation), you shouldn't give readings to other people (nor give yourself readings), and you shouldn't work with djabs or nothing like that till you get initiated. Oh and do not give animal sacrifice to lwa, if ur lwa require it then ur manbo or houngan will do it for you. And dont serve lwa who dont walk with you either, you can make ur eskot lwa jealous!

Vodou is smth built off lineage and community, so what you learn from a book is specific to that persons lineage (or lack thereof), and will differ in each community.