Tribal Adventures
With fall break approaching quickly the Hubs and I decided
that it was time for another “outside of Addis” adventure. We chose to travel
to the southern part of Ethiopia, The Omo Valley. The only thing that I really
knew about the south was that the people who wear the “lip plates” live there
and that I needed to get the family on malaria meds QUICK. I swiftly discovered
that there is MUCH much more to the southern people than lip plates! We visited
our favorite tour company and arranged for a 6 day driving tour that would take
us on an unforgettable, one of a kind adventure.
Sunday night we packed our bags and prepared as best we
could for our adventure. Of course Jacob was sick. He had a double ear
infection and was on antibiotics that, of course, had to be refrigerated! You
may be wondering, what is the big deal? You have to remember where we are.
Power is highly unreliable in Ethiopia but we decided to put the meds in a
cooler and hoped for the best. James and the Hubs were also not well so I
basically brought a pharmacy with me!
DAY 1 – Arbaminch – Visit the Dorze village and weekly
market on the way to Arbaminch.
Our driver, Girmachew, picked us up promptly at 7am. We quickly
realized that perhaps the tour company may not have been aware of how much
space 2 adults, 3 children and six days of luggage for 5 people occupy. There
was a spare tire in the back of the car where the back seats should have been.
When we removed the tire we discovered that the back folding seats had no seat
belts! Having lived in Ethiopia for six months we were annoyed by the lack of
vehicle safety but not entirely surprised. We loaded the luggage into the back
of the car and then we packed Brenden in the little seatbelt-less seat beside
the baggage. The TV’s were hooked up in the middle seats for Jake, James and
the Hubs, I folded myself into the front and we were on our way. Before you
start feeling too bad for Brenden being thrown into the trunk with the luggage
I want you to know that we believe in putting our children into uncomfortable
dangerous situations in equal parts so James and Brenden switched seats
everyday.
The big visit for day one was the Dorze Village and market.
We arrived at the market and our local guide met us at the car. The guide’s
name was something that I can’t remember and couldn’t pronounce but he told me
that I could call him Tim. Much better! He was a nice guy with the craziest
hair that I have ever seen. It was like one huge dreadlock sticking awkwardly
out to the side. He looked like a cartoon character. Like I said before he was
a nice enough guy. The Dorze Market was
not a large market but it was just as chaotic as all of the other markets that
we have visited in the past.
Tim told us that if we wanted to take pictures of the market
at large that it was ok but if we wanted to take pictures of individuals it
would cost us about 2 birr. We were warned that we would be paying for pictures
so I wasn’t too shocked by this piece of information. As we entered the market
a swarm of children surrounded us in an attempt to sell trinkets, gawk, laugh
or beg from “the Ferenjies”. It was challenging to hear all that the guide was
saying to us through the kids begging for stuff, the old ladies grabbing at
Jake and the general noise of the market. I did decide to take a picture of an
old woman selling paste that was scraped from a false banana tree (ensete), left to ferment in the ground for months and will be later baked into a flat bread. (We ate it and only the hubs thought it was weird) I felt so strange as I crouched to take her photo. The
crowed gathered more closely around me watching me with as much interest as I
watched the woman. We finished our tour
of the market and headed to the village. The houses of the Dorze people
represent elephants (they have elephants in Ethiopia!!!! I didn’t know that.)
The smoke vents were the eyes of the elephant. The houses are built tall and
every so often the houses are cut at the bottom to remove the portion of the
house that has been damaged by termites. Over the years the house is cut to a
very small size and is used as a shed or kitchen. I know that you all want to
see the pictures, so here they are.
We spent the night in a hotel called The Swaynes Hotel. This
hotel was…. adequate, it had beds and mosquito nets. I can’t say that I was
comfortable but it was a place to spend the night. Shortly before bed the Hubs
decided to tell me about the GIANT spider that he found in his room next door.
“It was as big as my palm!” WHY!!??? Why would you do that to someone? Needless
to say I dreamt all night about “arachnis - deathicus”. I woke tired and
entirely unrested. Luckily the shower was hot even if there was no shower
curtain and I got water all over the bathroom. We ate a quick breakfast and
loaded the luggage and James into the back of the car and headed out.
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| Painted House |
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| Lady selling fermented paste from Ensete (false banana tree pulp) |
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| Dorze house (looks like an elephant) |
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| Making the Ensete pulp |
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| Ensete scraper |
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| Fermenting Ensete pulp |
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| Dorze Warriors |
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| Weaver's loom |
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| Traditional Dorze colors and pattern |
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| Arbaminch rush hour |
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| Human Scarecrows |
Day 2 Turmi – Visit Hamar and Benna tribes weekly market. PM
visit to Hamar villages.
Our first stop was in Turmi. We ate some lunch at a local
restaurant where Jake was once again the main attraction. People LOVE him. He
ignores them. After lunch our next guide met us (I can not remember his name).
This guide didn’t really do much. I seriously wondered what exactly he was
getting paid for. We walked to the market, which was a joke. Most of the
products being sold were not being sold to the local people but were marketed
to us tourists! …figurines, jewelry stuff like that. I paid a few of the
more outlandish looking people for pictures but we didn’t stay long. We headed
back to the car as it began to rain. We checked in at the hotel, The Buska
Lodge. We found out that there was to be a Hamar Tribe bull jumping ceremony in
about an hour. As the rain poured around us we decided that we couldn’t miss
the opportunity to attend this very interesting ceremony. We unloaded the car
and headed back into town to pick up another guide and headed out into the
wilderness where the ceremony was to be held. We drove FOR-EV-ER! Our driver
was getting upset, we were behind schedule, and the place was further than the
local guide had said. Eventually we made
it. We had to walk the last half-mile or so to the ceremony site. Oh My Goodness!
I have never in my life seen anything like this before!
The ceremony is held when a man wants to take his first wife
(yes, they have more than one). In order to show his MANLY-ness the groom must
run across the backs of many (about 10-20) cows that are lined up side by side.
Oh and he runs over the cows naked! The craziest part of this ceremony is not
what the man does but what the women do.
For hours before the man runs over the cows, the women are whipped. The
women aren’t sad and crying they are happy and allow themselves to be hit with
thin switches by the men of the village. They do this to show their support to
the groom in his quest for MANLY-ness. It was loud and crazy and tribal, it is
the sort of thing that I NEVER EVER thought that I would see outside of the
National Geographic Channel. Jake was, of course, a sensation and many people
wanted to touch and kiss him. We stayed for hours waiting for the main event.
When the man did eventually run on the cows, he was laughed at by the women who had spent the
last several hours being whipped because he fell off so many times! After the ceremony was over our driver rounded
us up and quickly steered us away from the ceremony site. He was almost running
and kept looking over his shoulder and pushing us along. I seriously felt like
we were running away! Maybe the next part of the ceremony involved ferenjie
sacrifice.
The lodge was nice, nicer than the last place. The food was
good and hot and the bed was soft enough! I passed out cold along with my roommates,
Brenden and Jake.
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| Termite Mound |
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| Hamer Market |
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| Hamer woman |
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| Hamer Man (see the seat in his left hand) |
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| OUCH!!! |
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| Cow Runner on top of the cows |
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| Termite Mound |
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| Termite eating bird |
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| Hamer beauty queen |
Day 3 - Jinka
We spent most of the day in the car driving. We visited a
museum where we learned some interesting facts about life in the various
tribes. For instance when you beat one wife more than the other wife the men in
the village will beat you. So the take home massage is “beat your wives
equally.” WOW!
The Hotel (I use this word loosely) was called the Eco Omo
Lodge. This place looked like a summer camp. We stayed in tents! Very expensive tents. The tents had
running water and wood floors but it was still a tent! The food was ok but TOO
expensive! The food was a buffet and it was alright but not worth 20 bucks a
person! They had Ethiopian food and pasta with sauce, some rice and meat and
vegetables. I decided that I was going to have some pasta. I took some
spaghetti and put it on my plate. Next to the pasta was a jar of green pesto.
YUM! I love pesto! So I plopped a large amount onto my pasta and walked back to
the table to eat. I excitedly stirred the pesto into the pasta then swirled a large
amount of pasta onto my fork and took a big delicious bite! As I chewed, I began
to feel my mouth and throat burn. Then my lips started burning, oh my! I
swallowed the pesto pasta and took a large drink. I then looked at the Hubs and
said “Wow, this Pesto is SO spicy!” He began laughing at me, then he said
between gasps of laughter (and comments about blondes) that there was no pesto at the buffet and that what I ate was
Ethiopian chili sauce! No wonder my mouth on fire! The kids and the Hubs are
still laughing about my pesto!
All in all not my favorite hotel stay. The beds were tiny
little cots and there wasn’t enough of them for everyone so Jake was in bed
with me and at one point he fell out of bed and crashed onto the floor! I got
NO sleep that night and 6:30am came entirely too early!
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| Fanta Lushes |
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| Desert Flower (before) |
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| Desert Bloom (after) |
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| Beehive |
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| Guinea Fowl |
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| Beyantu (fasting lunch) |
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| Summer Camp |
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| Bananas |
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| Bird of Prey |
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| Guinea Fowl |
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| Beyantu (fasting lunch) |
Day 4 – Mago National park – Konso
This was the part of the trip that I was both excited and
nervous about. We were off to visit the Mursi Tribe. The lip plate people. The
women of this tribe stretch their lips over very large plates. They have to
pull out the four lower front teeth to accomplish this. I have heard that these
people are aggressive and so I was apprehensive about our visit. Our drive
through the national park was filled with wild life. We saw many beautiful
birds and animals. We saw some crazy people too. One guy that served as a game and culture scout was walking down the
road in some impressive underpants, turban type headgear and an AK-47. We arrived at the Mursi Tribe and were
immediately greeted by our guide who quickly explained the rules of the game.
5 birr for any photographs of anyone, Pricey! We headed into the village and the
people rushed at me. They saw my camera and immediately wanted me to take their
picture for 5 birr. I had to be very stern about who got into the pictures
because if you weren’t they would all jump in and then they would all want
money! Jake was not comfortable with this at all. I held him for much of our
visit and he hid away from people anytime they tried to talk to him. One woman
tried to trade me her baby for James. I had to tell her no, I would keep my own
kids.
The next stop was the Mursi – Benna – Tsemai market. This
market was pretty big and there were interesting people everywhere. They still
wanted money for photos so I just held my camera and snapped photos with out
looking in the view finder. I actually got some good shots. The Hubs entered
into the age old past time of haggling with a local merchant who was selling a
statue of a Hamar "first wife." I couldn’t stand around and watch so I walked
through the market with Jake. It wasn’t long before we had our usual escort of
begging children. I took Jake to look at a baby sheep and a boy quickly
snatched the sheep by the leg and held the poor thing down for Jake to pet.
Then they asked me if I wanted to buy it!
The Hubs was eventually successful at purchasing his statue,
two calabash (dried and hollowed gourds used for holding milk or beer) a
traditional seat and a mask all for the original price of the statue! Way
to go Hubs!! We headed out of the market and back to the car and on to the next
hotel.
On the way to the hotel we visited the village of the Konso
people. They are an interesting culture with a very structured village. The
Konso was the most organized village of all of the villages that we visited. The village is surrounded by concentric stone walls for organization and defense. The village boys (12-18) are organized into security, fire and first aid groups and spend the night in the communal hut. Some other interesting items include the generation trees (erected every 18 years), the victory stones (to mark victories over their enemies) and the wakas (carvings to mark the graves of heroes, tribal chiefs and their wives--by the way, you get to be a hero by killing a large beast like a lion or an enemy and bringing his genitalia back as proof!!)
The best part of this visit was Jacob. He ran all around the village and all of
the children in the village ran with him. It was like a swarm of kids running
at full speed all through the many twists and turns of the town. I wasn’t able
to listen to the guide tell us about his culture do to my constant chasing of
Jacob but what I did hear was very interesting! You can read about the Konso
here.
We stayed at the Konso Kanta Lodge. By far this was the best
hotel we stayed in! It was beautiful and comfortable and the shower was warm
and the food was good. After Jacob fell out of bed in the Eco Omo I was
paranoid. Even though this bed was bigger I still woke up all night long
worried that he’d roll out onto the floor.
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| Baboon (Badballoon as Jake says) |
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| Mursi Woman |
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| Food Storage |
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| Game Scout |
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| Mursi woman with baby and lip plate |
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| Jake lifting the marriage stone |
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| Coffee berries |
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| Konso Waka (placed on graves of heros and tribal chiefs and their wives) |
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| Konso Waka |
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| Mursi Girl |
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| Mursi girl with head dress |
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| People of Konso watching Jake lift the marriage stone |
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| Jake petting captured baby sheep |
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| Traditional seats and crafts |
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| Calabash water bowls |
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| Coffee pots |
Day 5 – Arbaminch
This day was mostly driving. We did stop at a museum that helped
to fill me in about the Konso tribe. Since I didn’t learn anything at the
village except how fast Jacob can run in a heard of children. We arrived at
Arbaminch in the afternoon and checked back into the Swaynes Hotel. The rooms
were marginally better this time. After we unloaded the car we had a lunch of
injera and Wot. After lunch we traveled to lake Chamo. Lake Chamo is a
beautiful lake that is home to crocodiles and hippos. We saw hippos when we
went to Lake Tana but I didn’t see any crocodiles. I was very excited to go out
on the boat and see some wild crocs! We picked up our guide and headed to the
water. When we got to the lake we put on some life jackets that have seen
better days and we made our way the water. In order to get out to the boat we had
to walk across a makeshift bridge. There was no dock just some junk lined up
out to the boat. Some wood, some metal, some old pieces of boat. Surprisingly
no one fell in. We piled into the boat and headed out. There were some
beautiful birds on the water but I was not there to see birds! We traveled
across the lake and the driver turned the engine off. He used a huge stick to
quietly push us into the crocodile corner of Chamo. There were crocs
EVERYWHERE! So scary! We got fairly close to these monsters and I realized that
they are much bigger in real life!!! Next we headed over to see the hippos. We
saw a good number of hippos but the annoying thing about hippos is that you
don’t get to see too much of them since they stay under the water. Hippos
can be very dangerous so we kept a pretty good distance from them.
We got back to Swaynes in the evening and relaxed a bit
before heading to the restaurant for dinner. We had fish in honor of our lake
excursion and it wasn’t bad. After everyone was settled into their rooms I
snuck back to the lodge to put Jakes meds in the fridge, leaving Jacob with Brenden, and I also wanted to
use my iPhone for the first time in months. So fun to get on Facebook and check
my email! Oh the luxury! My 20 minutes of freedom did not go unpunished. As
soon as I walked into the room BANG! I heard this loud smacking noise followed
by loud wailing! Jake fell off the bed and hit his head on the tile floor! It
was the loudest head crack I’ve heard in a long while. I ran to him and quickly
scooped him up. No sooner had I picked him up then the Hubs walked in. He heard
the loud crash from his room and ran over. We checked him out and determined
that he had a very thick skull and that it sounded worse than it was. He calmed down pretty quickly when we mentioned cookies. After cookies, we settled in for the
night!
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| Nile Crocodile |
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| Hippo |
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| Fisherman |
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| Hippo Fly |
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| Girmachew |
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| Terrifying Bridge |
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| Jen and Hippo Fly |
Day 6 – Addis Ababa
DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!!!! We drove all day long! We did stop to
see some water birds at a lake. The birds were the coolest, ugliest birds that
I’ve ever seen! We arrived home at 6pm, tired and stiff from sitting but more
enlightened than we were a week ago! Until next time friends and family!
Take your malaria pills
Don’t get too close to hippos
Make sure you have enough beds for all kids
Bring lots of single birr notes for pictures
While driving keep your camera set for action shots
Bring bug spray!
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| Feeding the birds |
