museum

i went to the afro-brasilian museum today. very simple. very nice. very well put together. basically a local university designed a relationship with governments on a local, state, and national level in brazil with national governments in several african countries such as benin, angola, and etc. the result of this relationship is an abundance of information and a decent bit of artifacts. in typical fashion (of myself) i purchased the entire english version of the museum information. i am my mother´s child.

i learned so much today.

prior to the transatlantic slave trade (where africans were brought to the americas), slave trade was abundant within africa and to other parts of the world mainly the persia and such. trading humans has been around since like the beginning of human life!!! i guess i knew this but solidified it in my head today. by the time i got through the history of trading slaves and to the part about blacks in brasil, my brain was exhausted. the museum did a great job of explaining how everything was made jewelry, masks, weapons, fabric, ceremonial stuff. They also had the most amazing exhibit of wood carvings of the orixas (gods). so freaking beautiful!!!! they were carved into these door sized pieces of wood. the details were, again, AMAZING. i have to call to see if i can come back and take pictures. it only costs $.60 to get into the museum. nice!

ok. time to rest. tomorrow i will be meeting the american girl. we´re supposed to go to a forro. i thought it was a town meeting. but apparently it is a public dance. lol.