Banya, a Soul Cleansing

So i think i told many of you before I left that I had heard a once a week bathing was standard here. Many of you also know that this fact did not scare me, but rather I found it quite appealing. Well it turns out that everyone does shower once a week and honestly I couldn't be happier bc when it is shower time, it is quite an event. The Kyrgyz "shower" is called a banya. The banya is literally a one or two room shack next to the house that operates as a kind of steam room. In my banya there are two rooms, in the first room there is a mirror for shaving and hangers for your clothes. Then you pass into the second room where there are stacked wooden benches and a large container of rocks just like you would see in a western steam room. Before you go in you heat up a large container of water and also light a fire under the rocks so that when you throw water on the rocks they steam. The banya also has a drainage system so that you can feel free to splash water around as you please. It is really fun. So there you are in the banya with a big container of hot water, a container of cold water, shampoo, soap, and a raizor if you feel like shaving (which you probably do since its the only time you have acess to hot water). So as the banya itself is called a banya, to banya can be used as a verb.
It is customary for most Kyrgyzstani to banya for two to three hours. I could only handle the intense, but beautiful heat for about 45 minutes before i thought i would pass out. But i am just a beginner. Husbands and wives often banya together and it is also normal for someone to come into the banya with you and slap you on the back repeatedly with a kind of broom/brush. I'm not sure exactly how that works because i was allowed a solo banya without the luxury of a broom beating. In my family banya occurs on saturday for everyone and we are all assigned times of the day and it definitely took all day for everyone in the house to banya, especially since my oldest sister and her three little boys all banyad at my house for about three hours straight. Also my host mother (oppam) shaved all of the little boys' heads so now they look exactly like those children in the Free Tibet pictures. Classic.
Anyway, i'm sorry most of you at home will never experience the banya and all that Asian cleanliness has to offer. It is truly wonderful and i will look forward to Saturdays always.
Also, to any of you who have left me comments on the web site, I haven't read them bc for some reason i can't ever open up my own blog, even though I can sign in to blogger and update. Whatever.