Have you ever heard the phrase “sweat it out”? Maybe a friend told you when you had a cold that it’d be a good idea to go work out? I believe in the “sweat it out” principle of curing a common cold, and sometimes I’ve gone to what I felt were significant lengths: full sweatsuits, saunas, etc. None compare to my experience in a Russian banya, in a small town in Siberia, only a mile or so away from the shore of Lake Baikal.
For this cultural excursion our program was divided up according to gender, with male-identifying persons in one banya and female-identifying persons in another. It is not uncommon for people to use the banya while nude given how unforgivably hot it can get. The hostess with whom the men in our group were living with gave us a tutorial on how to navigate this longstanding institution of Russian culture. Upon entering the banya house in the backyard there is an antechamber with a Russian pechka (stove) and a couch. This would be our link to the outside world; the next door led to the interior of the banya. Once inside, the heat is sourced from a burning pechka and the steam comes from hot coals upon which you pour water, with other liquids or oils as one pleases. The slightest bit of water generates a disproportionate amount of steam and generates an unprecedented degree of heat. And the longer we stayed in there, the hotter the coals burned. To cool off we were given buckets of cold water which, when I poured it on myself, produced such a feeling of relief from the intense heat of this small wooden chamber.
The experience of the banya proved greatly relaxing when it was all said and done. I didn’t have anything wrong health-wise when I went in, but I came out feeling healed. Emerging from the banya at night after almost two hours, clean and dry, I was ready to collapse into a deep sleep. Traveling through Siberia in a small bus on rocky roads, and knowing that a lot more of this would be coming, it was a much-needed experience which I’m glad to have shared with some of my friends on the trip.
