Steamy!

Yesterday I was sitting at work thinking that it was about time I post again, but yet nothing blog worthy had happened. So, I was wracking my brain trying to think of something when my phone rang. A fellow teacher, Loni, who is a Native Alaskan called me and asked me and my roommate to come steam with her. I immediately accepted and came home to ask my roomie.

Let me explain what a steam is. In many villages here in bush Alaska, including Eek, msot of the village houses don't have indoor plumbing and running water. So, the villagers do what they've been doing for years and years- steam bathing. Outside of the house is a small building made of plywood with two rooms. The first room with the outer door is the "cool room". There is a door in the "cool room" that leads to the inner room or the "steam room". Inside the steam room, there's a cast iron stove on which you put rocks.

To start the steam, you light a fire in the stove. Then, you let the water in the basin attached to the stove boil. When the water is boiling, it's time to start the bath.

My roommate, Traci, and I walked over to Loni's house and stepped into the cool room. Loni was already in the steam room. Traci and I stripped down to nothing and joined Loni in the steam room. The room was pretty warm, but not too bad. That was about to change. Loni poured the water on top of the rocks and let the heat roll over us. It was easily the most intense heat I have ever experienced. In fact, I had to wet my hair because if it were dry it would get so hot that it would burn my scalp! Also, I had to breathe through my nose or else my gums burned. Traci and I found the yoga pose, child's pose, to be helpful For those of you who don't know yoga, child's pose is when you sit back on your knees and bend over with your forehead on the floor. When you're crouched over like that the heat goes on your back which is less sensitive than say a woman's bare chest.

After we poured the water on the stones a few times we went back to the cool room to cool off and drink water. We sat on towels in the cool room and talked. This is a traditional time for women to socialize without men being near. It is customary to only steam with people of the same gender.

Once we had repeated the process of steaming and cooling off a few times, we started the bath part. Each of us had a small basin of water. We took out shampoo, conditioner and soap into the steam room. We washed like normal by dipping wash cloths and our hair into the basin and rinsing. When you finish, you just dump your water near the edge of steam room and let it run outside. You finish the steam bath by sitting in the cool room and drying off.

After the steam bath, I was completely relaxed and my muscles felt like jelly. Traci has had neck surgery and said that it made her tense neck muscles feel amazing. It was time consuming, about two hours, but totally worth it. It was just one more experience that I will never forget.