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Published: October 21st 2008
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Students
Showing off his clean mouth So what does one say about today? Well today we went back out to Hanaboo Kasbah and mom worked with Hadisha and I went out to the high school to hand out 200 more toothbrushes. Yet again, we did not have enough, we were 34 short and I will have get more and go back tomorrow. Going to the school was much more organized than when we went to the other Kasbah, Aziz says that the kids are afraid of the director, but it seemed to work in my favor!
Being in the school was difficult for me because I got to see more needs that I didn't come prepared for. Some of the children come from 6 or 7km away and have no form of transport, so they walk. The kids who attend afternoon classes have it a little tougher because they get out classes when the sun is already setting. It is dangerous here at night if you are a pedestrian, especially because these kids are dressed in dark clothing and are difficult for vehicles to see. The needs are even greater for the girls attending high school as their brothers will get bicycles before them. This means
Wedad and Mohammad
Our two faithful helpers and new friends that they will either have to walk the 7kms to school or they will drop out because the distance to walk is too great and they are needed at home.
Well, we tried out the Hammam (like the roman baths) and I think that it streched mom WAY out her comfort zone! She is aways saying "no touchie" and has a hard time even letting Jackie giver her a message. In fact, mom says "it would be like me gathering all of my girlfriends and saying, lets go sit in steam and scrub each other, everywhere." Forget about Starbucks.
I found the experience quite refreshing. There is nothing "bath" like about it at all. I think that my nursing has me completely numbed me to nudity (including my own) and the whole thing didn't even phase me.
Basically, there are three rooms(men and woman are completely separate):
In the first, you go and sit on the floor while the steam from the hot tap water fills the room. It is a modified steam room. You sit there for about ten or fifteen minutes just hanging out in the steam with many other woman in nothing other
Me and the kids
yes, I found them! Or they found me. One of the two than their panties... sometimes nothing at all. We all greet and talk to each other like we would over tea except we are mostly nude. Mom was completely on stimulation overload (don't take this too literally).
You should have seen her when she found out that one of the ladies would be washing us from head to toe, nix that. SCRUBBING us from head to toe. And yes, I do mean from HEAD to TOE! I was killing myself laughing the whole time, Mom was totally a deer in the headlights! I had on my bathing suit (one piece) and mom had a t-shirt and underwear... That didn't last long. When mom was asked to take of her shirt all she could say was "Oh yi yi!" They got us to lay down while they scrubbed our backs. Mom just kept saying "this is like using 80 grit sandpaper!" As always she went first and I had no idea what she was talking about, I found it to be exactly what the doctor ordered.
I think that she had a mental block happening when Karen was describing all of this to us. She clearly had this all romanced
Aziz and Mom
Sitting outside the Dadani Cafe in her mind.
After the body scrub, we moved into a slightly cooler room. After we finished up the scrub, washed the front bits and washed our hair we tried to chat with the children who stared at our blindingly white skin in a sea of brown.
Then we steped into the third room. Only two or three women fit comfortably in it and you get a final rinse down.
A few things struck me here
1. Woman are the same everywhere, no matter where you are, or what color their skin is. What matters is underneath all of our flesh.
2. How happy they are. It must be so freeing for them to not worry about covering themselves up so completely that they no longer have an identity. I could walk into someone I have met at the Kasbah and just keep on walking because all I can see is her eyes. This is so different from Canada where we are so consumed by individuality.
3. Woman like to have time together, laughing visiting and relaxing. (they happen to do this naked!)
We are unable to post pic's of this, obviously, so I hope the images are clear enough. I don't think that I will be talking mom into going tomorrow...
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Karyn Guy
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One Day Left
Nicole you look like you fit right in with the children at school. It is a great picture. I just can't get the image of you and your Mom at the hammam...it's the look on your Mom's face that makes me chuckle.