Morocco - Hammam

On our Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip there is a "Life in the Day of Morocco" and ours was in Tineghir.  The most spiritual part of my trip took place in the Hammam.  There are tourist Hammams however, OAT takes the participants to a local Hammam and not the tourist one.  They do this based on tour guides input, and their goal to get OAT travelers as close to the local life as possible.  We were split by gender and they had hired two women to wash us in the Hammam.  They also hired men to wash the men in their side of the Hammam.

We were told to bring dry underwear, shampoo or soap, a towel and 100 dirham (10 dollars).  Honestly we were all pretty nervous as we entered the dressing room.  These were church friends, and we had not seen each other almost naked (we were allowed to keep our underwear on).  The two women said "Take off your clothes!"  Some of us were not quick enough so they said "Bras too!" and in one case they helped the woman take her bra off.

We then entered the hot room, or steam room.  They put plastic for us to sit down.  The locals brings mats to sit on and a bucket with their cleaning stuff.  When we entered the next room, where the two women washed us, there was a mother washing her 8 year old daughter.  She proceeded to wash her for the nearly 45 minutes that we were there.  While she washed her she sang to her.  It was probably a bit overwhelming to have us arrive, 8 women who were chattering and nervous and speaking English.  Part way through this, one of the woman washing us sang a song from Titantic to us, I think to get us to sing.  None of us knew the words, so she said "Sing, sing."  We then did sing some songs we knew, as the two women washed, scrubbed and then rinsed us by pouring buckets of warm water over us.  We were warned that there was a cold room, and a cold bucket of water, but that did not happen.  In the middle part of the experience, the 2 women scrubbed, and I mean scrubbed us, all over pretty roughly.  It felt wonderful.

Moroccans go to their Hammam once a week, and get really clean and wash each other.  Two twenty year olds were there washing each other when we first arrived.  The ritual of washing another person, and the ritual of getting scrubbed, washed and rinsed really well once a week is very spiritual.  The ritual of singing while you wash each other is so tender and magical.

We all grew fairly comfortable with the experience.  Apparently the men all did not have the same experience.  They did not talk to each other and lay like stiff logs.  I wasn't there so I cannot say, this is just what some of them said.

Sunday in church I was describing why I gave a sweater away to my friend Amy.  "It did not fit right around my breasts",  I said.  One of the woman who was in the Hammam that day said "Yes, and we all know how big your breasts are now."  It was pretty funny, the remark that is.

The experience in the Hammam however is one I will never forget.  I am trying to find one around Boston.  It was not be such a good deal as we got in Morocco, in that it will be more like a spa experience, which is part of the reason I have not gone yet.  The local Hammam, where the local Moroccans go, and the mother singing to her daughter are images I will never forget.  It did get us involved in a day in the life of Moroccans.