My First Maqii and a very special gift.

I was really lucky and got invited by one of my kid's grandmas (Nellie) to go to her house to maqii. A maqii is Yupik and otherwise known as a steam bath. I've posted some pictures that I was able to take but it gets WAY too hot and it's pretty impossible to take pictures while it's happening. A lot of times this maqii is used instead of a shower. LeEsia and I went down and met Nellie in the maqii. She had already lit the steam and it was getting hot. You go into the "cool down" room and undress. Yes, you do this naked - which for me was probably the part I was most nervous about. I'm not one that is usually up for just hanging out naked in front of others but this is a native thing and I know no one really cares at all so I sucked it up and you know, it turned out to be not too big of a deal. I can't say that I was completely comfortable the whole time doing it but after a few hours - you kind of just get over it. :) Anyways, you go into the cool down room and undress - kicking off the boots and the snow gear from the 4 wheeler ride down there and get ready to go into the room where the stove is. It's a wood burning stove with rocks on top of it.  Generally, you sit on a hand towl when you go into the room with the stove. The whole building is just basically ply wood and it's very small. There were three of us and it was pretty cozy. We took our hand towl in and laid it down on the wood floor that was raised a little ways off the ground and sat there in front of the stove. As soon as the door is opened to the stove room, you can feel the heat coming out and it's overwhelming. It took my breath away - hard to describe almost. Nellie said it was probably about 300 degrees. As soon as we got in there, we each had a large (what looked like a salad bowl) infront of us and we had our wash clothes. Instantly I felt the need to take my washcloth and cover myself in the cool water that was in a big tub next to the stove. Nellie filled that big tub with water before we came in by using individual buckets because there's no running water in this little building. I was so thankful for that water! Right away you wet yourself off and get your hair wet! Then you sit..... and sweat. My kids had told me that I was probably going to burn and they were right. The under side of my nose is super red and burnt, it was a sharp pain feeling as soon as I hit the heat. My skin and body is not used to it, clearly! I didn't last too long before I had to crawl (yes, crawl on my hands and knees because she told me not to stand up since I'd been sitting in the heat) back out to the cool off room. We did this over a few series until it was time to wash. Keep in mind, this process took a little over 3 hours. Sometimes it doesn't take that long - I guess it just depends on how much you just enjoy the steam and how many times you rinse off. We took our shampoo, conditiioner and body wash in and used our bowl of water to wash our hair and our body. Washing of my hair proved to be challenging because those of you that know me, know I have a lot of hair and right now it's pretty long so washing it in a bowl of water wasn't easy but I tried! We washed and rinsed and then it was time to go cool off again. Then we went to rinse again and etc. Almost every time that we went to cool off, we propted open the outside door to get the breeze coming in. It was pretty neat when it started to rain.... you could hear the rain coming down and it was hitting off of the roof and it was one of those moments that I was like wow! I'm sitting in a maqii in Alaska listening to the rain! Who would have thought? We left then and took our four wheel ride back home. My skin was bright red and almost looked like it had scales.... it was really creepy looking! My kids did warn me about that but I didn't realize how intense it would be! After our 3+ hour maqii, I was exhausted. Everyone told me I'd sleep well and I did. My arms were a bit achy but I think that's because I was crawling around on the ground and I'm out of shape, haha! 

The maqii from the back.... up there is where you walk into the main door for the cool down room. 

The tub of water and the "pourers" that we used that were made out of tin cans screwed onto poles! A splash of that water on the hot rocks really makes the room hotter. Nellie was doing that right before she came out to cool down so that the whole stove would cool down quicker. It was around 200 degrees I believe when we started to wash. It made a big difference but it was still really hot.  

The stove is where the rocks are. The three of us sat on our hand towls right there on the wooden floor. This is taken from the cool down room looking through the door when we were all done. That silver bowl there by the stove is filled with water and a certain type of tundra flower that is used to make it smell really well and it's used as a medicine! A splash of that on the stove really gets the steam smelling awesome. 

This is how we drove home..... I did not wear my towel home because I had a hat on, haha. We, or she, got some stares, I'm sure. : )

I'm really thankful for Nellie inviting me down to steam with her! Another Alaska experience crossed off my list!!

I'm sure there's stuff I left out about my experience with the maqii but I can't remember right now.

Celebrating Easter today with my kids and then it's NYO (native youth olympics) here in Manokotak this weekend so I'm very excited for that! Pictures to come...... : )

PS. Today during school I had a parent visitor. Wasn't completely random today because since we're having a party and celebrating Easter, some of the kids had their parents bring up some food for them! But this parent visit wasn't for food for the party! One of my kid's moms brought me one of the best gifts I've ever gotten that brought tears to my eyes. 

An ivory ring with a butterfly on one side and a heart on the other side and then an ivory bracelet. The ivory bracelet has animals like polar bears, walrus - tusks and all (you can see them in the picture), seals and whales! To my surprise, the brown squares are not wood, they're fossilized ivory! Amazing! I'm one lucky teacher and I'll say it again, I'm beyond thankful for this experience & these people.