Trip to the Omo Valley

My time in Ethiopia has been going by so fast! This past week me and the other volunteers took a road trip to southern Ethiopia to the Omo Valley. We spent 6 days driving through the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. There are mountains for miles and beautiful greenery all over, which was a surprise to me. I expected it to be more dry dirt and less trees but instead it looked like a jungle! We saw baboons and amazing birds of all sorts. Some of the views were so breathtaking I spent most of the ride just staring out the window and enjoying the ride.

            Our first night we spent at the very top of a mountain near a city called Arba Minch. The Dorze tribe live there and own a lodge for tourists.  We arrived and met some of the family. This tribe wasn’t very traditional and wore normal clothing, but the way they live was still quite old fashioned. They live in big hand made huts with all their family and even their animals. The cook using fire and do almost everything by hand. This tribe is famous for their weaving. They collect the cotton from cotton trees, the women spin it, and the men do the fancy weaving and make beautiful and detailed scarves and blankets. Depending on the detail, one scarf can take from 1-6 months to make. We arrived in the evening at the Dorze tribe and they welcomed us with hand made blankets to keep us warm from the cool high-altitude temperatures. The family made us a huge meal of injera, tons of different watts (sauces), bread, spaghetti and sauce! It was really delicious. The men of the tribe were all hanging out with us and drinking their “shnapps”. It is a very strong alcohol made from some unknown ingredients and it has a very high alcohol percentage. None of us could be convinced to try it because of how strong and unknown it was. It is mainly used to drink after a meal of raw meat, which is a delicacy in Ethiopia. It kills any parasites you might get from eating the raw meat. Watching people eat the raw meat makes me want to throw up! It is gross, but everyone here loves it almost as much as they love their injera.

            After dinner we all gathered around a campfire for some traditional music and dancing. The men were dressed in leopard skins and traditional scarves. Some were playing drums while other chanted. They kept pulling us up to dance, it was so much fun! We pretty much danced all night with the family. Everyone in the family has their turn to dance. It started off with the men dancing around the fire, then the younger girls had a turn. The older women and the children also had their turn to dance. It was an amazing experience and I will never forget it! After sleeping the night in our adorable little huts, we were given a tour of the family’s home and the scarf factory. I bought one scarf because I was so amazed by the way they hand make them.

          On our second day we spent most of the time driving through the mountains to another place called Tourmis.  We stopped on our way at the Arbore Tribe. This tribe is famous for painting themselves and wearing interesting beading and jewelry. When we pulled up they all surrounded our car. It was a bit shocking to see our first real tribe! They were already asking for candy and “photo, photo”. They were all fighting for our attention because when you take a photo of someone there you must pay them 2 birr. It is a bit sad to have to choose who you want in your photos and who you don’t. It is somewhat like a zoo, but unfortunately they have caused it to be that way themselves. As we walked around the village, two adorable little toddlers grabbed my hands, and walked with me the whole time. They kept just looking up at me and smiling. They were just touching my arms and looking at my hair. Some of the younger kids have never seen a white person before. The kids were all so adorable. We took a few pictures, although it still felt weird to me to be selecting people to take a picture with. One mother kept looking at me and holding out her baby saying “photo, photo” as if she were trying to use her cute baby to get our attention and pay her for a photo. It took some getting used to but by our last tribe we were used to it. 

            We stayed in a small hotel in the middle of nowhere in Tourmis. Had a somewhat warm outdoor shower so we were pretty happy with that! Our room was about 100 degrees so I didn’t get much sleep. The next day we continued driving to the Hamar tribe. This tribe is famous for the women’s unique hairstyles and their beading, bronze jewelry and animal skin clothing. The women use clay and butter mixed together to make their hair a unique texture and look. This tribe was a lot more relaxed and friendly and they weren’t all asking us to take their picture. They have beautiful huts and they have some very interesting cultural traditions. In this village there is the leader, who has a first, second and a third wife. The first wife isn’t required to do much at all. The second and third must raise the children, do the cooking and most of the work.  In order for a boy to become a man and soon get married, he must perform in a bull jumping ceremony. It is a big celebration where a young male runs across ten bulls or so to prove he is a man. It also includes traditional dancing and singing. Another important part of the ceremony is the beating of his sisters. A sister is beaten by her brother to show her honour and pride for her brother and family. It is a very unusual and sad tradition that they still do today. All the women we met had huge scars on their backs from when their brothers became men. To them, the more scars you have, the stronger you are, and it shows you have a lot of pride for your family.

            There was the cutest, squishiest baby I have ever seen living at this tribe. I snuggled him for about an hour and couldn’t give him back! He kept smiling and giggling at me. His Mother got paid for many pictures since we all had to get a snuggle with this baby! I will never forget his chubby legs and face. The children in this village all go to school and some of them are quite good English speakers. After visiting one of the tribes we went to the Hamar Market. They have quite a large city center with many shops and stands. The village was full of children and families, some of whom were traditional Hamar people and others who were normally clothed. Some kids quickly latched onto us and stayed with us the whole time. Two little girls walked with me holding my hands for our entire stay at the market. They kept pinching my white skin and looking at all my jewelry. I gave them some of the string bracelets I had made and they loved them. The girls couldn’t stop touching my hair! As I walked they trailed behind me braiding it and holding onto my long pony-tail. I bought some of the traditional bronze Hamar bracelets from a guy at the market. They are very attracted to anyone white and would not stop putting necklaces, bracelets on me and holding souvenirs up to my face!

            We drove the rest of the day and arrived in a town called Jinka. It was the largest town we had seen in days and it was nice to see some real buildings and modern civilization. We finally had some time to relax and walk around instead of sitting in a car. The next morning we drove off to the most unique tribe of all - the Mursi Tribe. This tribe is known all around the world for their strange sense of beauty. Women in this tribe pierce their lips at a young age and stretch it out with different sized clay plates. By the time they are married, their bottom lip is sometimes stretched out to be 4 inches in diameter. In this tribe, the larger your lip, the more beautiful you are. We arrived at this tribe and decided to walk around first without our cameras and get a chance to explore the village and meet the people. When I stepped out of the car all the women came up and shook our hands, I couldn’t stop staring at the lips as it is quite interesting but a bit scary at the same time. They weren’t wearing the plates so it just looked like their bottom lip was separated from their skin and hanging down below their chin. They can’t really speak properly without their lip in it’s proper place. After only a few minutes they began yelling at our guide and getting upset that we weren’t taking pictures. This tribe can be quite aggressive and we didn’t want to cause more trouble so we just got our cameras and started with the pictures. Women were surrounding me from every side pulling on me trying to get me to take their picture. To be honest I was a little scared and stayed close to the guides most of the time! They began yelling at us every couple seconds for different reasons; not paying enough birr, taking two pictures at a time etc. They didn’t speak English so we really had no clue what was going on. They seemed more interested in posing for photos, getting paid and having us leave as quickly as possible then taking the time to show us around their village.

            On our way back to Jinka we drove through Mago National Park, where there is supposed to be many types of wildlife. We didn’t have any luck seeing elephants or buffalo, however we did see some antelope and some dick-dicks (that look like part deer part rabbit!). The next day we started our venture back to Arba Minch, and stopped at the Conso tribe on the way. This tribe is more like a whole city of people with similar cultures and traditions. They wear interesting skirts and live in really nice huts, but many of the members also dress in regular clothing. They took us up in the mountain where the main tribe is to see their small section of the village. We also were able to see a beautiful view that looked like a large canyon. The children living here seemed extremely poor and not as well educated as some of the other children we had come across. As we walked around the village about 40 children were following us and asking for pictures and candy. It is sad to see so many children in need and not be able to do much about it. 

            I noticed some interesting things as we drove through the mountains and visited tribes. One thing is that women do all the work. For miles and miles women as young as 10 will walk to get water, building supplies, tree branches etc. We would see women working all day long, while the men were either drinking or sleeping. Every so often we would see a man helping his family out or walking cattle, although it was pretty rare. It is heartbreaking to see the women walking up the mountains with a huge load on their back while the men sit at a bar. Women in this country are not treated very fairly and it definitely shows more in the country than in the city. In the city it is still visible, but people here have evolved to a more modern society and all men work to support their families. I have still seen men push women out of the way to get on a mini bus, or push past them on the street. It is a very different society from where I come from, and as a woman I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to choose what I do in life and not be treated badly by men. I hope as the people in the countryside are more exposed to modern life the men begin to treat women with more respect and help out with day to day chores.

            Overall the road trip down south was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. Even after seeing it, I still have a hard time believing that people continue to live in such an old fashion manner. Some tribes are already beginning to become more modern and remove themselves from old traditions, so who knows what they will be like in the next 50 to 100 years!