African Traditional Spa

   I thought about writing this post because I recently watched on a TV show a scene that reminded me of some childhood memories and precisely the spa concept. In that show two men were getting a traditional spa from I think a Pacific island's culture. The spa looked so much as the one "we", in my country (Gabon) has: The two men were taking a bath in the warm water and another man was pouring some water with a wreath of leaves on their heads and backs. This scene took me back to my childhood. My grand mother used to give me some traditional African spa to make me feel good and strengthen me because children could easily catch some germs in public places and so forth. Some little germs that could make them sick for few days. In order to create this strong organism and to make me recover of any tiredness of the week she would simply give me this nice spa some days in the month. This spa had two parts which were the bath and the massage. The massage session was a good physical and natural therapy.  

   Nowadays, the spa concept seems to be like something new that we discover on TV or magazines. Some of us experience it when we go on vacations or when we want to have fun! For others they take it because they can afford it and it is good business with all the marketing and advertisement around. For people who have a culture like mine, it is simply something that we used to do on a daily basis to invigorate children, women who just gave birth (this is another specific traditional spa) or adults in general.
      

     After watching this scene on TV, I suddenly realized that people have been doing some same rituals for years around some part of the world especially when it comes about health and beauty. Some cultures would simply have some similarities in the way they do things. For instance, when my sister went to Brunei, she told me that the way people welcome their guests was almost like "we" do in my cultural background. She quickly felt like being "at home" which was fascinating because we are from different continents. 
Back to the two guys who were taking the traditional spa: I was impressed because they were doing something that is related to my roots, the "who I am" and I felt so touched right away. When you live abroad and you see people doing something that reminds you of a cultural ritual or ceremony it simply moves you. My parent used to tell me that "we" used to give spa to children since the old days in my native culture. That is the reason why children were healthy and could do a lot of physical and domestic activities. At that times "modern medicine" was not a part of the culture. The mothers or grand mothers were doing this work to raise and give natural healthy cares to children. When thinking about these old days compared to nowadays, I feel like my people lost a lot by embracing and kind of putting on the side (even forgetting) our own culture, we tend to be medically weaker. Our life span in my country has literally reduced and it raises many concerns. I strongly believe that we should bring back some of our natural knowledge paired with modern medicine then, this condition will certainly be improved. It will probably be a challenge but still I think it worths the idea.

 Back to the traditional spa given by my grandmother, she would basically boil some water in a large cauldron with some special plants and barks of trees which had some natural virtues for human bodies . The water had a smell of this infusion of these natural elements. Then, after waiting for few hours so that this water would not be too hot, she bathes me with all of it and she also used a wreath of plants and leaves the same way the man was doing on TV pouring water on my face, my head and my back. She was gently singing children traditional songs in our native language to me and I liked it so much  you could tell how happy it made me feel! This warm water  (Not too warm) felt so good on my skin. I felt so refreshed after all that ritual. I understand today how important it was because it was not only a simple ritual to make me feel good but it was for my health in general. I do not recall being a person who easily got sick even today I can see the results.

   Then, once the bath was done, she would give me good and warm massage all over my body with a natural almond oil hand made in a traditional way. She would be massaging my entire body while she sings some nice songs to me again. It made me feel relaxed and invigorated. I wish I could go back to  these times because I realize today how important it is now. My mum used to say that massage gives nice body and a good skin. That always made me smile but now I understand that it was a whole concept behind this short statement. I also remember the story she told me about the lady who was scrubbing her daughter's skin with the sand and mud deposited on the river 'shore. It was not that common but it shows how people already knew a lot of beauty ideas. For instance, everywhere you will find the mud treatment in spa institutes and it is used the way the lady was doing to her daughter. Therefore I totally agree with the fact that nothing is new the only difference is the improved way of doing things.

 After reading this post do you think that there is a huge difference between the old traditional spa and the one that we see in hotels or resorts or the one shown on TV today? From my perspective, I do not see any huge differences only the fact that the environment and the place where it is done is more modernized. My grand mother was singing to me some songs while she was giving me the treatment. I notice that people listen to music to feel relaxed during spa session. I don't know a lot about the natural elements they use in the spa institutes however, I know that my grand mother was taking natural plants and barks of trees which had all the sap with all the virtues in. I believe that the results are the same in both cases maybe with some little differences. At least my grand mother 'spa was free! (smiling) It was just something that I wanted to share with you.
If you have any comments feel free to drop them below I will be glad to read them. Thank you! Videos of what we use for a traditional spa