During the winter, I only bathe at the hamam because look, it is cold enough in my apartment that I'm writing this from inside a blanket fort so kudos to volunteers who are brave enough to strip for more than the five seconds it takes to get dressed, but I am not one of them, especially when once a week I can go to a bathhouse and have unlimited hot water and warmth and offers from strangers to scrub my back. And sometimes oranges. I love the hamam!
So, the water at my hamam is heated by a massive wood fire under the building. (The fire also heats the public oven, so there's always the smell of fresh bread wafting out from under the hamam.) Inside the hamam, there is a hot and cold tap in each room. The cold water tap is hooked up to the town's water supply and the hot water is hooked up to the boiler under the building, with the pipe running along the outside of the wall.
Wood for the fire piled in front of my local hamam.
So, on Tuesday, I was at the hamam, waiting in line to fill my buckets. The area next to the taps was really crowded and in a shuffled attempt to get out of the way so someone could get to her bucket, I accidentally leaned against the hot water pipe. TURNS OUT, metal with near boiling water running through it is VERY VERY hot. I only touched the pipe for a second or two before the SEARING PAIN IN MY ARM caused me to jerk away, but that was long enough to do some damage. I poured cold water on it immediately and avoided washing the entire area, but by the time I was done, there was a decent sized blistered burn on my upper arm.
So yeah, that's the story of the time I injured myself BATHING.
Anyways, I've been really careful to not touch the burn and rubbing argon oil on it (at least that's plentiful here) and the blister had started to go down, and then last night I was flopping around in my sleep, as I am wont to do, and apparently I rolled onto my burnt arm and popped the blister and when I woke up, my entire upper arm hurt and the burn is red and angry looking.
So that's the story of the time I further injured myself sleeping.
So yeah, I don't even know. It looks not great and it's partially an open wound at this point and I'm leaving town tomorrow and going to the desert and there's going to be sand everywhere and yeah. Who injures themselves bathing?
So, the water at my hamam is heated by a massive wood fire under the building. (The fire also heats the public oven, so there's always the smell of fresh bread wafting out from under the hamam.) Inside the hamam, there is a hot and cold tap in each room. The cold water tap is hooked up to the town's water supply and the hot water is hooked up to the boiler under the building, with the pipe running along the outside of the wall.
Wood for the fire piled in front of my local hamam.
So, on Tuesday, I was at the hamam, waiting in line to fill my buckets. The area next to the taps was really crowded and in a shuffled attempt to get out of the way so someone could get to her bucket, I accidentally leaned against the hot water pipe. TURNS OUT, metal with near boiling water running through it is VERY VERY hot. I only touched the pipe for a second or two before the SEARING PAIN IN MY ARM caused me to jerk away, but that was long enough to do some damage. I poured cold water on it immediately and avoided washing the entire area, but by the time I was done, there was a decent sized blistered burn on my upper arm.
So yeah, that's the story of the time I injured myself BATHING.
Anyways, I've been really careful to not touch the burn and rubbing argon oil on it (at least that's plentiful here) and the blister had started to go down, and then last night I was flopping around in my sleep, as I am wont to do, and apparently I rolled onto my burnt arm and popped the blister and when I woke up, my entire upper arm hurt and the burn is red and angry looking.
So that's the story of the time I further injured myself sleeping.
So yeah, I don't even know. It looks not great and it's partially an open wound at this point and I'm leaving town tomorrow and going to the desert and there's going to be sand everywhere and yeah. Who injures themselves bathing?
