The Hammam Experience

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO - March 29-31, 2006

I am making my best attempts to adjust to local life, although jet lag was nothing compared to the adjustment to the timetable by which things work around here. It seems that the hotter the sun, the slower everything and everyone operates. The bus leaves the station when it's full. "Just 2 minutes" easily stretches into 20... or 30... or more. I had an understanding with Monir that this morning I would accompany his mother to the hammam for one of the shouldn't-be-missed social-cultural experiences available in Morocco. His family would wake around 10:00 AM, then eat, and then off we would go to bathe, scrub, loofah, steam, and preen our dust-laden bodies.

I tried to contain my frustration, but by 4:00 PM, I was growing agitated. This was my first day in Marrakech, and I had yet to see anything outside of this family's house. I think out of concern for me, because there are many touts, beggars, and local who approach tourists with a friendly front who are really only out for money. They want to spare me the hassle, but in doing so, they keep me a well-treated prisoner in their home. Prisoner... that's too strong a word. Still, I am finding it difficult to willingly relenquish my independence.


Finally, at 4:30 PM we depart for the hammam. Preparing to leave is quite a process. You need a fresh change of clothes, a mat or stool to sit on, a small bucket for rinsing, soap, pumice, shampoo, a comb or brush, and a bag to carry it all in.We are both wrapped from head to toe in clothing, a long, flowing jellabah over a pair of pants, and a scarf covering our heads. We shuffle through the stone-floored alley, so narrow in places that we have to walk single-file when a moped or local boy on a bicycle speeds the opposite direction. Regardless of this, you would be amazed at the size of the vehicles that people are willing to brave down such narrow passageways. Donkeys pulling carts stacked with fresh produce are a common sight as well.

Ten minutes later we arrive at the entrance to the hammam. As soon as I walk through the doors, I can feel the thickness in the air from hot steam. We proceed to the changing room, and undress completely, except for underwear to cover our lower extremities. I am somewhat surprised that in a culture which teaches the absolute importance of covering the body, here in the hammam, almost everything goes.

A visit to the hammam is as much a part of the health and beauty regimen for girls and women as it is a place for social interaction. Friends congregate together in the steaming room, washing one another's backs or rinsing those hard-to-reach places. A firm hand massages a tired shoulder here, and there a hand suds the ebony mane of her female counterpart. There is talking, laughing, catching up on local gossip, not a word of which I understand, but it is the spirit of the hammam that is alive, well, and happy.

The process from start to finish of cleaning the body in the hammam is much more complicated than I imagined. Toureiya fills three large tubs with water from a communal spigot. One tub is warm, another hot, and the third much hotter. You must be careful not to contaminate the water in these tubs with the dirt you are washing off your body; hence, the small bucket you use to dip into the tub must first be pre-rinsed with a few splashes of water.

First, the pre-rinse. I get off to a good start when I manage to work a good amount of soap into both of my eyes. Eyes burning, I strain to feel my way to the small bucket. I hear the chuckle of two voices, Toureiya's and another woman, a friend of hers. They exchange some words between laughs and pour several bucketfuls of water over my head until I can see again.

Then begins the scrubbing. There are two steps to this process. You begin by rubbing a coarse mitt over your arms, legs, chest, shoulders, and feet, and watch in disgust at the amount of grime and old skin being lifted away. This is followed by a profuse amount of rinsing. Then a finer loofah is used to scrub the same areas again, and more delicate areas, such as your face. After every step, bucketfuls of water are dumped over one body part after another. We soap, lather, wash and comb hair, scrub feet, and exhaust ourselves in the steam of the hammam.

Two hours later, I am literally a new woman as we leave for the short walk home.Women and men visit the hammam separately, one or several times a week. Some hammams are open only certain hours a day for men, and certain hours a day for women. Others offer separate bathing areas for each.

~Melanie