filha de Ogum e Oxalá

Well, I'm back from a long but very fascinating weekend in Cachoeira. The girls stayed at the Irmadade de Boa Morte, which is one of the oldest black sisterhoods in the world. It started as a means of survival for free black women during slavery and they practiced Candomblé under the guise of Catholocism. We learned a lot about sincretism which is the practice that many black people took up, finding the similarities between African gods and Catholic saints and then using this to appear Catholic while holding on to their own religious traditions.

At night we went to a carnival in the next town over and rode on the sketchiest ferris wheel ever, it was fun though. The next day we went to a Terreiro de Candomblé, which is like a church or a temple. The pai-de-Santo (high priest) told everyone who their orixás were and he was pretty right on about everyone. My orixás are Oxalá and Ogum, I'll post more about what that means later, I don't have much time right now.

We went to this village of ceramic makers and learned about their craft, they make some really beautiful pieces. There's so much more to tell but I have to go to class. I'll finish updating tomorrow...