Berber Yoga

The days here have been relatively pleasant, provided the sun is shining, but once the daylight is gone, especially when the afternoons have grown windy (which is most afternoons), the air becomes miserably cold. There is little reprieve indoors, unless you are willing and able to practically sit on top of a woodstove or gas heater all night. I don’t yet have the latter, and can only take so much from the former – particularly on nights when I want a little break from family time! So, I’ve had little trouble finding the motivation to do a lot more toning, stretching, and yoga exercises in my room just to stay warm.

My host families both in Ait Hamza and now here in Assoul, of course, have found this highly entertaining (see my posting from back in October for the scoop for my host parents’ acrobatics back in Ait Hamza!). My host siblings now often join me (at least for the things they like) in various yoga poses, or simply fooling around with my exercise bands. My host cousin Najat, who is actually much closer to my age, has on occasion come into my room hurling herself into somersaults or extremely precarious headstands in the middle of the floor. The kids love to get me to do various arm balances (which I’m not all that good at) and headstands on command. That command often comes dangerously soon after a meal or snack for some reason, so sooner or later I fear that’s going to end disastrously!

One of my colleagues – a health volunteer in a neighboring village about 10k down the main road – comes to my village sometimes for tutoring and meetings. On occasion, she’d give exercise classes to one of the groups of women at our local nedi. Unfortunately, she can’t always make it on a regular basis, and as I have already gotten a reputation in town for doing lots of rriyada (exercise), that group asked if I would also teach them yoga once a week (of course, I then also offered the other group of women, who alternate on other days of the week). My colleague had warned me that this wasn’t the most coordinated group of women, and I’d even participated in one of her lessons, so I was definitely prepared to take it slowly. Indeed, one can only go so fast when the only relevant vocabulary that comes to mind quickly tends to be “right,” “left,” “hand,” “leg,” and “look.” Thankfully, there are a few women who have the same limited French skills that I do and who are able to rescue me in moments of greater frustration. In both groups of women, our first class went slowly, with lots of stretching, basic exercises, and simple yoga poses. The group of women who’d already had a few classes with my colleague is a slightly younger group – eager to try things, but also somewhat giggly and ready to play, which I don’t mind, since I think part of the benefit of this is that they get a chance to relax and have fun a bit (that’s certainly one of the reasons I do it!). By our second session, a few of the boisterous ones had no trouble asking me to give them more challenging (and fun!) activities. For example, after trying to correct them two classes straight by showing them the wrong way to do push-ups (sticking my butt up in the air, or smacking down the rear ends of any offending women, brings nothing but laughter), they asked to go one at a time so they could correct each other – it was great (more butt-slapping and laughter)! Later, one woman began hopping around in a squat position, making me and my old woman knees cringe, although I joined her and the rest of the group bopping around the tiny, crowded space where we all try to cram in and minimize hitting or kicking each other. Then, after the same woman began flinging herself up against the wall in a headstand, we went ahead and began to work on how to do them a little more safely! One at a time, I showed them the correct arm position, lined them up by the wall, and helped them get up. Surprisingly, all of them gave it a try, and a few did an amazing job (including one who did one out in the middle of the floor while I was helping someone else!).

Never mind I am supposed to be helping them organize their group and market their products… As an out-of-town visitor to the nedi (who speaks fairly good English) observed, it seems to boost their morale, so for me I suppose it’s just one small thing at a time!