Tuesday, January 31. Visit to a Banna farm.

On our way to a Banna farm the next morning, we saw these young boys filling up their water cans at a well. Wells such as these had been provided mostly by Norway.




Their little sister was there with them...




A Banna farmer met us along the road, and we proceeded to follow him through the fields to his farm...(not a great photo, and I should work on cropping it, but wanted you to get the feeling of the countryside :-)...




He was extremely friendly (note his unique hair style, pulled forward and held with an ornament down his forehead...the headband and band around his neck also denote his tribe as Banna)...




...he wanted us to meet his family, including his two wives (note that these women have braided hair, but it is not shiny with clay and butter, as is used by the Hamar women)...








...we also met some of his 18 children (we asked if any of his children go to school, and he said no, that he needed them to help tend to the cattle and the fields)...








In addition to protecting his farm from predators with his rifle....




...he also showed us how he uses a bow and arrow to scare away animals such as baboons...




He explained that the bow and arrow is much cheaper, as each bullet costs him 50 birr (this is equivalent to about $3.00, which is a lot of money in southern Ethiopia). The belt he is wearing was a belt for ammunition, but he also said it is now used as a money belt.

He showed us his family compound. For the Banna tribe, the farms are separate family compounds, rather than the village being all together in one location...




So each wife had a hut...




...and they also had storage facilities for their crops and other items...












...they even stored some things up in the trees, as we've seen with other tribes...












Two of his sisters showed up from a nearby farm to check out the American visitors...




Even the rooster was curious...




He was very proud of his family and his land holdings. He hoped we would share our photos with others in America so they could know his family.

As we left the farm, this boy wanted us to see his prowess with stilts...




We then headed to Jinka, where we would be spending the next two nights, but first we stopped at the South Omo Research Center, which has a museum with an overview of the cultures of the various ethnic groups living in South Omo. Objects exhibited ranged from clothing and adornment, to household items, ritual paraphernalia, musical instruments and more. Some of the "more" included descriptions of some of the disturbing rituals that are still performed on women in this region. There were comments posted on the exhibits from some of the women indicating that these rituals, which include "cutting," show their courage, and so they could not refrain from participating; otherwise, they would be looked upon as cowards. It was quite an eye opener.

Another ritual that we had heard about and that we learned more about at the museum, was bull jumping, which is done by several tribes, most notably, the Hamar tribe. The bull-jumping ceremony is performed by young men as a "coming of age" ritual. The ceremony involves the young man leaping onto and running rapidly over a series of cattle held by other men. He runs back and forth four times. Once the jumping is successfully completed, without falling, the bull-jumper is a man in the eyes of the tribe, and is then allowed to take on a wife and have children. One of the parts of the ceremony which is not as widely known is ritualistic whipping of the bull jumper's sisters. The women look upon it as a sign of strength, loyalty and obligation to their brother. If the future brings hardship to the women, they hope that he’ll remember them because of the pain they went through for him. The scars are worn as a badge of honor by the women. Also, if a boy fails to complete his four runs, he will be publicly humiliated. He will be whipped by his female relatives, and for the rest of his life, he will be teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women. (the whole thing was quite disturbing to learn the whole story regarding this tribe ritual)!!

The museum also had a library of videos that had been recorded, some by the founder of the center, Professor Strecker from Germany, who lived among the tribes with his family, including a young daughter and son. There was a documentary filmmaker also visiting the museum when we were there who was also staying at our hotel. She was planning to be there for several months to consult with them to hopefully put together some kind of documentary from these videos.

Tomorrow we will visit the Mursi tribe...

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Omo Valley, Ethiopia

Monday, January 30. Visits with more tribes

As we headed up the road this morning, we encountered some of the wildlife of Africa, including the dik-diks.....




....the guinea hens...




...the jackal...




...the olive baboons...




...and of course you can't go to any country in Africa without seeing the huge termite high-rise condos....




As we arrived at the Omo River, our dugout canoes awaited us...




...for the ride across the river...




....to visit the Dasenach tribe...




This tribe used to be more nomadic, and their smaller, more squat huts still reflect that (I.e, they were easier to break down and carry from place to place). They also withstand the winds which are stronger here in this part of the valley. We had a local guide who was a part of the tribe, but had gone away to school....but he came back, working for an NGO, to try to encourage his tribespeople to embrace education. There was a school adjacent to the village, but he said it was very difficult to get the children to consistently attend classes. But I think he underestimated his influence, as I had a young man who walked with me (so that he could help me up and down the banks of the river for some birr....birr is their money of course)....anyway, this young man was repeating, under his breath, everything the guide was saying to us. I asked him if he was practicing his English, and he said, yes, he wanted to go off to university some day. I asked why he wasn't in school now and he shared that he attends the 6-10am session at the school. So the guide is making an impact on at least that one life, and I am sure others.
The tribespeople, just like the others we had visited, wanted birr to have their photo taken...I was starting to accept this, although I still don't like it...it felt quite exploitative (is that how you spell that?)...it wasn't the price, as they usually wanted 2-3 birr which is equivalent to about six cents per birr. But I was starting to give in to the process, so I could get photos of people such as this.....




....I thought she also warranted a closeup for the ornament she wore across her forehead (yes, that's a beer opener!)...




Then I took a few others....








....including this one of the old chief...




....and who could resist the little girl holding the lamb (note her bottlecap headdress)..




We then headed to a market where members primarily of the Hamer tribe come to sell their goods. We watched this man negotiate to buy these goats. We thought he was just buying one, but he walked away with the whole lot of about ten of them....




These folks under the tree were selling khat, the narcotic plant...




...and the gourds and jewelry were displayed for purchase, mostly by the tourists...




I think these two youngsters were actually from the Benna tribe, based on their headbands...




Note the multiple bracelets this woman is wearing....the number of bracelets a woman wears indicates how many cattle her husband owns and therefore is a measure of his wealth and prestige within the tribe...




From the market, we headed to a Hamer village. Each family's compound was separated by having a fence such as this one, which was unique to this tribe...




This woman was pressing sorghum, another crop grown in southern Ethiopia...




There are several distinguishing features with regard to this woman. First, the hair....this is unique to the Hamer tribe and they use clay and butter to keep the braids in place. Also note the necklace with the round protrusion...this signifies she is a first wife. The silver necklaces below it indicate she is an only wife....when her husband takes his second wife, these would be removed, and the second wife would then wear one of the plain necklaces...




A couple of the younger girls with the clay/butter hairdos and full tribal garb...




Tomorrow, we will visit a Benna farm...
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Omo Valley, Ethiopia

Sunday, January 29. The crocs.

As we prepared to leave our hotel, this wart hog stopped by to wish us well.....


....this hotel had some cool paintings in the lobby...


So then we were off to Lake Chamo for some wild life viewing. We all laughed when they gave us the life vests, as we knew if we ended up in the water, the vests wouldn't help us any against the real threat....crocodiles.....


First, we saw more bird life, including these pelicans....


...not sure what this yellow beaked bird is...


...then our first croc sighting as they skimmed the water looking for something good to eat....


This fish eagle was eyeing us, as well as the crocs...


...herons are plentiful in this area....


...and hippos were also around...


And then, we found the favorite rest spot for the huge crocs....


Ethiopia claims that the world's largest crocs live in this lake....but in my prior travels, both Uganda and Australia have made similar claims. Although I never saw any close up in Australia (only in the water), I do recall that the one that was sunbathing along a river in Uganda was at least bigger than the ones we saw here...


After our croc viewing, we headed back towards shore, when we saw that this fish eagle managed to sneak down amongst the crocs and grab himself a fish....


....when he saw us clicking with our cameras, he became threatened that we wanted his breakfast, so he picked up his catch and headed for the treetops...


This local was also trying to do some fishing amongst the crocs.....yikes, it doesn't look like that boat offers him much protection!!


Phew, back to the safety of the boat dock :-).


Then back on the road to visit more of the Omo Valley. What would you guess these are in the trees?.....


You would be right if you guessed beehives! These beehive baskets were hanging in the acacia trees, all along the road. Honey is a big crop here, and is the main ingredient in that local liquor that we tried yesterday.

We stopped for lunch at a beautiful newer resort property....


....with phenomenal views..


The hotel rooms, as well as the restaurant were built in a similar fashion to the local huts (Jim, maybe you can see the construction better in this shot)...


Unfortunately, the service was extremely slow, and it used up a good chunk of our afternoon....so when we were finally served, we ate and ran, so we could see at least one of the tribes this afternoon.

Our next stop was at an Arbore village, a tribe of only about 5,000.. Their huts are a bit more air conditioned, and the goats live right inside with them (this was true in most of the villages)...





A unique feature of this tribe is the shaved heads of their young women..


Once married, they can grow their hair (hmm,photo a bit fuzzy...I thought I got a good one of this mother)...


The young boys like to paint their faces and have their photos taken (again, as before, for money :-(.





Hey, are those "crocs" on his feet?...


Because of our late lunch, the day was coming to an end (as noted by the shadows in these photos,), and so we headed to our new home for the evening, the Buska Lodge. We will be here for two nights, which seems like a luxury with so much moving around!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lake Chamo, Ethiopia.