Every Friday evening Ekhaya leaves her work at Community Links in Brooklyn and takes a four-hour bus ride to Baltimore where she is continuing her training to become a Sangoma (healer) in the South African tradition. We followed her as she rushed to catch the 5 PM bus in Lower Manhattan and arrived in Baltimore just in time for the beginning of the evening’s initiation ceremonies which lasted until three in the morning.
Over the weekend she was constantly busy with prayers at the river, a sweat lodge and ceremonies at the shrine house. It is an exhausting schedule that Ekhaya has committed herself to. But as you will see in the video it has rewarded her many times over. Ekhaya told us the Peer Support she received at Baltic Street contributed greatly to her healing process, however, it was the Sangoma Initiation and spiritual training that took her healing to a whole new level.
