Hammam Take 2

I finally went back to the Hammam again. This time I went with my host mom and there were significantly less people in the Hammam. The room that we were in was covered in white tile with an arching roof. There was a grey tile floor (probably so that you couldn’t see all the dead skin.) There were two water pipes / spouts that lined the room. One pipe carried scalding hot water and the other cold water.

My host mom and I both paid (under $5) to have someone scrub us with the infamous, black, sandpaper mitt. The woman that took on the job was probably in her late 60s , wore a maroon bandana and a yin yang ring on her ring finger.  She started out scrubbing the dead skin off of one arm and my back, which wasn’t too bad.  Then she made me lay back with my head on her thigh while she scrubbed my chest, under my arms and on my sides (OOUCH!)  She proceeded to reach across my body and scrub my other arm and sides which was not without the slapping of the face by breasts and stomach roles.  If this wasn’t traumatizing enough she made me role over on my stomach and scrubbed my butt cheeks. 

There were some positive outcomes from all of this. First of all, I don’t think I had showered for a week or so and the combination of sweating the grossness out, getting all of the dry, dead skin off and then actually washing my hair and body was surprisingly refreshing. It was also a chance to just sit and enjoy the quiet without having to really talk to anyone, a nice break. While I sat there I stared at the floor and thought, Ah man, I could be at home right now, in a coffee shop, reading or just hanging out…OR I could be in Morocco, getting scrubbed down in a slightly awkward bathhouse by an odd little old lady who has probably scrubbed down 1000s of women and thinks nothing of it.  Besides in all actuality I can probably find a café and some friends to sit with, if I really need to.

Update from the Field

salaam all,

I'm sorry these updates have been sparse. I am counting on more internet when I finally settle in in a few months. Tons is going on and I wish I had words to describe all of it. I am in a little mountain town for training. It is chilly during the morning and significantly warmer come 3:00-4:00pm. There are afternoon thunderstorms but it all passes through pretty quickly (Sound Familiar?) 

I got to go on a hike the other day with several PCVs. It was a pretty easy trail with a little stream running next to the path. About half way through it started pouring rain, conveniently, right when we arrived at the top of a big hill where there happened to be an abandoned shack. We waited there for about 10 minutes for it to clear up. We could see the whole town which was sparkling form the reflection from all the water. As we started to hike down there was a double rainbow over the trail and over the town. That night we made spaghetti and real garlic bread! mmmm. There has since been a rule put in place that we aren't allowed to interact with PCVs until after we are sworn in as pcvs, so that they don't interrupt our training. Its too bad because they are such a wealth of knowledge but so it goes.

My family has been nice despite a few recent developments.The family is made up of a dad who is a principal at a school, the mom is the president of a co-op and they have three daughters. The oldest daughter, SouHaila is 15 and we have really hit it off. She is really patient with me and is pretty good about only speaking darija to me most of the time. The middle daughter is Oumaima and she is 10. She is a little shyer around me but equally as nice. The youngest daughter is DoHa and she is one year old.  With SouHaila and Oumaima we put on music or wedding videos and dance every time the parents leave. They always give me a scarf to tie around my waste and try and teach me how to shake my hips…It may just be a lost cause. I have been spending lots of time in the kitchen with SouHaila learning to cook and more so learning all of the names of different foods and cooking utensils.

My house has three floors and we live in the middle floor. On the top floor is where my language teacher lives and where I have classes during the day.  We have four hours of language classes in the morning then lunch and after that we have four hours of cultural training. Starting after Ramadan we will have a cook cooking for us and will be allowed a coffee/ tea break half way through each session. 

In the afternoons after the break we now go to the Dar Chebab (youth center) to get to know some of the youth in the area. Many parents don't like to let their children go to the dar chebab because they think it is just a place for boys and girls to go to hang out with one another which is unacceptable. It will be interesting to see how many people actually start showing up. On friday there is going to be "Peace Day." we are going to get together with another organization and some musicians to celebrate Peace. It will be the first time that we really get to interact with kids and we are all looking forward to it. 

Ramadan came to an end about a weak ago, but during Ramadan our schedule was a little off.I will explain more about Ramadan next year when it comes around but it is the 9^th month on the Islamic calendar and the most holy of months because it is when the Koran was revealed to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. One of the 5 pillars of Islam is to fast from food and water, from sun up to sun down, during this month. I decided not to fast because of adjustment purposes and because of the current workload that we have. I am almost fasting by default because there is not anywhere open to buy food during the day. At sun down we have lFtour (breakfast) or in other words, the breaking of the fast. When we break fast we would eat a tomato-based soup with noodles and vegetables called Harira,  tmar (dates), Shbekia (a fried pastry drizzled with honey,) lzitune (olives,) and then we usually eat some kind of larger meal shortly after.

We also went to the Hammam recently. The Hammam - take one, Probably deserves an entry all of its own.  Hammams are public bathhouses.  You walk in, strip down to your underwear, and go sit in hot sauna like rooms.  All around the room are waterspouts with hot water. You bring your own bucket, stool to sit on, and special concoctions of soaps and creams. I don’t know if it was just because of Ramadan or what but the place was packed. I could hardly move around without stepping on someone.  There were tons of little kids accompanying their mom’s and I’m not sure how they didn’t just pass out from the heat. We started in a hot room and my host sister gave me a black, sandpaper like glove to scrub my skin. I scrubbed my arms, legs and chest for at least 20 minutes and it didn’t seem like much was happening. Then my host sister took the glove from me and started scrubbing my arms and back and huge rolls of gray, dead skin, began peeling off of my body. Apparently I wasn’t doing it hard enough. After that we went to a little cooler room to wash off. While we were there a couple of my host sister’s friends were there and kept trying to talk to me. My host sister got really defensive and told me not to talk to them. Apparently one of them is in love wither her “love” and so obviously I shouldn’t be taking to her. I think I will have to wait until Hammam – take two, before I know what I really think of it.

I think that is mostly what I have for an update this far. Tomorrow we get to meet up with all the other trainees. We haven't seen them in a couple weeks and it is always fun to get together and exchange stories and experiences. Other than that I think we have about five weeks left before we swear in and become official Peace Corps Volunteers. It is all very exciting. I hope you are all well back home. I'm thinking about you!