October 11, 2001
Really the subject line of this email is probably the most interesting part. It's funny how quickly your life becomes routine, and seemingly boring, which is really just a way of saying that I don't have much to tell this time around.
So, everyone should at some point have a hammam experience. A hammam is the equivalent of a Turkish bath; it's basically a steam room (like a sauna, I assume) where people go to get clean. The hammam is seperated by sex, because of course the possiblity for hshooma (shame) in a Muslim society is great and the female form is just too tempting for men (hence the veil). The hammam is linked to religious beliefs of cleanliness, and people who go to the hammam (its more important in the bled where water and private bathrooms are much more scarce) go once a week. I haven't actually been to a hammam, so I don't know what the steam room is like, but I have had the scrub.
The scrubbing is really important because it is how people get really clean. Everyone, or every family, has this cloth thing, that fits over the hand (sort of like a sock) and feels like an S.O.S. pad: it hurts. My host mom stripped me down to my underwear (which you leave on), poured hot water over my head (heated in a kettle over the stove) and then scrubbed away. I found it somewhat embarrassing and amusing. I was embarassed because I'm such a prude at home, anyway, but I also found it ironic because any bare female skin in Islam is such a shameful thing, but not between women. In the home, actually, women wear what I think of as nightgowns, but frequently have the hems tucked up at the waist into a belt so they can move more easily. In the home, really, anything goes. Which brings up another point. The word harem, actually means forbidden, and was the name given to the interior of the house, presumably because it was the space forbidden to men who were not related to the family. I felt the epitome of the Western stereotype of a harem occupant on Sunday when I got henna done.
Henna is a natural dye used in many countries as a form of "makeup." It can be, and is, put in the hair, but mostly it is put on the hands and feet of women in very intricate patterns. It can be an "everyday" thing, but it;s especially important during a wedding, and the ceremony surrounding the bride is supposed to be important. To make the henna last longer (it starts to fade the second day and is generally gone after a week) some people, including the young woman who did mine, put paint thinner in it. It is not the most pleasant experience I've had; it hurts, a lot. You also have to leave it on until it's completely dry, which is about 5 hours, so many women have it done before bed and the wrap newspaper around their feet and hands and sleep with it on. I had mine done at about 8:30 in the morning, which was not the best choice because it meant I had to sit and couldn't move (I couldn't even read!). Also, I had a "lunch date" with one of the other host families, so by noon, when it still wasn't dry and I was late, my host mom went out and filled up their brazier with charcoal so that I had to stick my hands and feet over it to make it dry more quickly. That hurt, too. Fortunately everything turned out really well, and it looks nice, but I don't know that I'll have it done again, or at least not with paint thinner in it.
We leave tomorrow for our site visits, so I'm off to Akermoud for 5 days and then we all get back together in Ourzazate for the last administration stuff and swear-in. Because of the attacks, and the subsequent military action by the U.S., poor Rachid and Mostafa had to change everything about our sites, including which ones they used. In addition, most of us have actually been paired up, so we won't be by ourselves (which is not what I thought Peace Corps would be like). My site mate is Margie (she's in the picture I forwarded), who is 66, a retired psychologist, and very nice. We don't plan on living together (although it is, apparently, an option), but it will certainly be nice to have someone to go to when no one else understands what I'm saying and the cultural differences just become too much.
Now for everyone's favorite subject: the weather. It has turned quite cold in Azilal, although Bzou is still far too hot. I'm currently wearing the thinner of my two fleeces, inside, and am still somewhat chilled. Today was especially intersting because we had a wind storm. The storm itself probably wouldn't have been too bad, but because Azilal is high desert, and there aren't a lot of buildings around to act as "breaks" it also creates intense dust, so that the whole world looks reddish. That was kind of fun, but the windows of our hotel aren't fitted exceptionally well, so we now have a layer of dust over everything. It didn't help that I was repacking all of my stuff at the time, so now most of my belongings are also dust covered, but it was still fun to watch.
Okay, I've probably babbled more than you want. I don't have email access until at least next Wed., if not later, but then I can tell you all about Akermoud, or at least all that I saw in five days.
