Home-Stay Day 2 - The Hammam and more

Home-Stay Day 2 - The Hammam and More

A full day with my host family. So so much food and wonderful cultural experiences.

Morning

The day starts later than our typical day in the US. Though, I must admit, it probably fits most college students better. Breakfast was served between 9 and 10 AM. Per usual, this was the traditional bread and baguettes served with an assortment of jams, butter, and olives.

The Hammam

After breakfast, I took a visit to the local hammam with my host mother and her youngest daughter. The hammam is the public bath house. Locals go to the hammam typically once per week and spend two to three hours (sometimes more) washing and socializing. During my home-stay was the perfect time to go to the hammam, since I had the host mother to go along with and show me the hammam she uses instead of ending up at one of the many touristy hammams that do not give you the true hammam. Arriving at the hammam, I did not even recognize it. It looked like any other door in the long buildings were people live in more apartment type living spaces within a larger building. The first room you walk into, after paying approximately 1 US dollar to enter, has spaces to leave your belongings - considering this is the last time you will see any clothing on bodies in the hammam. Though, many women in this particular village did leave underwear on - as I chose to follow after! From there you proceed through the cool room into the hot room. The rooms are steamy with water in the air and women lounge around on the floor on mats and stools. We filled our buckets with water from the taps and found a place along the wall to sit. We began to wash and I took in the images of the hammam, being discrete of course. Women sat and caught up on their lives, often while helping to scrub each other's backs and arms. The women here bring soap and a scrubby type glove to scrub down with and typically a black type soap. They spend much time scrubbing old skin off, which starts coming off fairly easily in the hot steam room, all while socializing. The hammam is just as much about socialization as it is hygiene. Soon, we became too hot for the hot room and moved to the cool room to finish bathing. The hammam was an amazing cultural experience - it was a great opportunity to see an aspect of Moroccan life that is central to their unique culture. I was surprised how acceptable it was for all of the women to bathe together, naked, when out in public they are covered from head to toe. Another surprise? How okay I was with being in a public bath for almost two hours! This was something I never thought I would get myself to do - but I am so glad that I did!

Lunch, Kaskrot, and Dinner 

Yes, that's right. There were still three more opportunities to eat with this family during the rest of the day on top of breakfast! You will never go hungry staying with a Moroccan family. As soon as we got back from the hammam, lunch was served. Again, a traditional chicken tajine - delicious as always. After, the family went to take a nap as the heat of the day at this time (around 2PM - "old time") can be exhausting on the body. It did not seem like long after the nap that we were soon summoned for Kaskrot, the "afternoon" snack served around 6PM. This again was bread with the assortment of jams, olives, and butter. After kaskrot, I took a walk around the village, most of which you can read about in my next post under the  section labeled community and family observations. Dinner, around 10 PM old time (the village does not observe day-light savings time, their time is referred to as old time, which is never changing and at this time of year an hour off of those in larger cities), was a special meal. The closest thing I can relate it to is a quiche; eggs, vegetables, and chicken were cooked together and cut into squares to be served with, as always, bread. Also, roasted peppers and the traditional Moroccan salad were served. The Moroccan salad is another one of my favorites here; it is in fact more of a pico de gallo than a salad. Consisting of finely diced tomatoes and onions (and in this case also some peppers), it is eaten with a spoon or bread and sometimes served with an olive oil. To drink, was the traditional mint tea, which I can never get enough of! So delicious! 

I learned may things about village life during this day, but will combine it to the next post on my final day with my host family. Stay tuned for more!