(SOME) DREAMS COME TRUE

Just before Covid hit, in January 2020, we visited Africa. What originally started as a Habitat for Humanity volunteer trip for me with my husband Pavel alongside, extended beyond the volunteering into exploration of the beautiful country of Ethiopia, taking part in festivities around annual Timket festival and catching a few more sights of Africa before boarding the plane back to US.

Before Pavel and I made it to the Omo Valley - the southernmost remote part of Ethiopia, I spent a week in the capital city of Addis Abeba working with the most impoverished population. We then explored the stunning ancient cities in the north of Gondar and Lalibela, danced and sang at the Timket festival and flew several local planes. Omo Valley was truly my long time dream destination in Ethiopia. Placed in a picturesque valley of a powerful river it is dotted with some of the oldest native tribes of Africa, each with its own colorful culture, language, traditions and beliefs. It was the Africa I always imagined and to be honest, never believed I would have the privilege to experience.

As it turns out, dreams do come true (or at least some of them!).

With a limited timeline and desire to see and experience as much as possible, our trip to Omo began with getting stuck at the Addis Abeba airport realizing we missed our connecting flight to Jinka - our Omo Valley destination. This was the only flight to the region during the day and we had no choice but to wait until the following day which meant cutting into an already short 7-day visit through Omo. Our pre-booked guide from Jinka became highly anxious on the phone, demanding exact time of arrival the following day which was a bit complicated as we could not buy a ticket (planes for the following day were fully booked) and couldn’t be sure what our route will look like. I only knew we had to do whatever it takes to make it there.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

The following day we were at the airport bright and early running between ticket kiosk, customer service and check-in, then customer service again to negotiate two seats for a flight to Jinka that was completely full. After an hour I overheard that the plane to Jinka actually has a stop in Arba Minch - another town in the area, a grueling 8 hour drive from Jinka. We were permitted to book seats to Arba Minch (not to Jinka as it was supposed to get full) and with big hopes for some luck boarded Ethiopian Airways with our two medium backpacks containing all we needed for our 5 week travel.

One our later, the plane landed in Arba Minch. About half the people left and only a few new passengers boarded the plane… we had to do some explaining how we really need to get to Jinka (pretty please with a cherry on top). The flight attendant lady had us collect our bags, walked us out of the plane to the small building nearby (aka the airport), positioned herself behind the counter and then… sold us tickets to Jinka! She even walked us back to our seats!!! It was only 10am and we were on our way to the destination, the luck (and kindness of Ethiopians) was definitely on our side and we couldn’t be happier (and some fellow travelers who occupied seats behind us share with us some of their freshly purchased mango in Arba Minch - known for its mangos. We didn’t eat them on the plane but when we finally got to them they were heavenly.)

OUR GUIDE - GIRMA

In Jinka we met our guide - a man called Girma (I believe in his 60s), tall, polite and very organized. Girma was the one who in the next 4 days showed us highlights of the Omo Valley, became our fried we now regularly stay in touch with and had us befriend the men from Mursi tribe despite having a return of Malaria that day (unfortunately once you have Malaria it comes back periodically, acting like a kickass but noncontagious flu). Despite getting sick on the last day of our trip, Girma was fantastic (and he had a 4 wheel drive with a shovel and a spare tire - both came in handy).

As a side note - I have done tons of research on travel to Omo Valley without a guide and it is not only for the most part illegal, but also makes absolutely no sense (i.e. not recommended). The villages are few are hours apart in a remote country with super rough roads. Many villages won’t let you in without a guide who negotiates rates with the elderly and terms of your visit (including photo taking). I haven’t heard anyone speaking English in the villages so I can’t imagine making it without a guide. Also, a good guide will fight for you so you don’t have to ;). Girma, of course, was all that.

LODGING

We settled for the cheapest housing options. The “high price” lodging in such remote country won’t have any “star ratings”, it may still have creepy crawlies on the floor that walk from the outside under huge gap underneath the door and every westerner complains about them. So we decided to get our own travel linens (completely unnecessary, our cheapest hotel had freshly washed sheets that dried in the sun and smelled like home - dead serious!), and our own mosquito nets (those are always a good idea and I particularly hate bugs especially during my sleep - a high price hotel we tried had holes in theirs. Also, they must always be tucked under the mattress, otherwise they are useless). We even had a shower in our room (most of them are cold, a welcome change after a hot day) for which the water was brought to us by donkeys :). Here I am doing laundry (pardon my non makeup face haha):

Full disclosure - more out of curiosity than need we did pay a little extra for a ‘nice’ hotel on the last day in Jinka and other than having our own bathroom it was more less the same. Sure it seemed to look better, but it really wasn’t cleaner or more luxurious (unless you consider tiled floor a luxury - I could care less since you wouldn’t find me bare feet on it anyway).

THE HAMAR VILLAGE

Our by far the best night in Ethiopia, however, wasn’t even in the hotel. Girma had planned us a night in the village of Hamar people. That’s right! We spent a full night camping at a tribal village among people we could not communicate with, who looked and did everything completely differently than we did, who lived in mud huts and treated us a bit as if we lived with them all along (i.e. ignored us for most of the time unless we approached them:). Girma drove us to the village, introduced us to a young boy who was our guide for the night (he spoke some English), and we parted for the time being.

This time having those travel linens came in VERY handy - we were provided a tent and a couple of mattresses that were clearly sitting on dirt at least once before. Our sleeping quarters were east of the hut and north of the sheep and goats - the most valuable assets for the Hamar after cattle:

Our guide slept on the ground, we are in the tent and next door is the family hut.

And on the other side - the very important and very vocal other neighbors - sheep and goats. Baby goats sang us to sleep and woke us at the crack of dawn.

As we woke up, surprisingly energized (we are not early risers and it was around 5am) we stretched, welcomed our 2nd set of neighbors (goats) and took a stroll through the village. Even though it was super early, many of the village women already left to attend their gardens and collect food for breakfast. And so, the young boys who rose with their mothers were left behind slowly waking up cuddling their blankets and shivering slightly in the morning sun.

The kids definitely showed some interest seeing us in the village this early but only for a few minutes. Pretty soon they got out their set of rags rolled into a ball and tied together and began their morning soccer match. Believe it or not, they let us join and it was incredibly fun!!

I imagine they were wondering “what should we do? Maybe play ball?” (in the background our guide who woke up with us and was always nearby)

After the game (or at least when we were a bit worn out) we watched the kids play some more and explored more of the village. The huts were incredible and very well built:

Some had a mosquito net inside to separate the sleeping section from the rest of the hut; many had a yellow jerry can to carry water and sometimes other container / bucket. Animal skins were spread on the ground and served as a bed. It would definitely take some getting used to sleeping on a bare ground…. The interiors were extremely basic.

This is a kitchen inside one of the huts. Leather skins are used as sitting pads as well.

Eventually women returned carrying water in the jerry cans or greens from the garden for breakfast and the day began in the village

The Hamar people speak Hamar language and make up roughly .1% of Ethiopian population. That’s not that little considering Ethiopia being the most populated country in Africa with over 115 million people. They mostly live from raising cattle. The Hamar dress in goat leather which is traditional among many tribes. The leather is tanned by hand which takes a long time to make it soft and more durable. It often has decorative elements on the edges that I imagine protect it from tearing. Hamar people are easily recognizable by their hair which is curled with a mixture of butter and ochre clay. Traditionally, this hair style is indicative or women’s marital status, wealth and as with any other women in the world - it is an element of beauty. For men however, it can be an indication of killing an enemy or dangerous animal. Sometimes it takes a few days to create the more complicated hairstyle variations, especially for men. Women also often wear a heavy metal neckless (such as the one of the photo below) that is permanently on her neck. Another big item to get used to as a Hamar woman…

This baby goat is not a pet…. it will feed the family and friends tonight. Such is life in the rough terrains of Omo Valley.

Kids can wear their hair however they like but many have braids just like their parents.

The Hamar are famous for their coming of age tradition for young boys. Once a year, several bulls are lined up side to side next to each other, with men holding their horns and their bums so they don’t escape or move. A boy then, must run (more like hop) from one bull to another without falling to successfully become a man. Should he fall, he must wait another year for his initiation.

“Our girls know how to work so when they move to their husbands they know everything” (Kerri, Hamar Tribe). Hamar girls help their mothers and are proud of it. They are observed by others from the village and a ‘lazy’ girl is considered unfit for marriage.

A world of violence…

But Hamar, as many other tribes, also practice scarification. There is no ‘prison’ in the bush and instead, bad acts are punished by whipping. Every village has elder brothers that administer the whipping by what is called a ‘mincere’. It is also part of the initiation. Before bull jumping, girls get their initiation by getting whipped by boys that have already been initiated, called ‘maz’. Part of the tradition is… well, the girls ask for being whipped. The more they get whipped the louder they ask to be whipped again, and the more scars they end up with the more proud they can be in the future, they say.

Tribal world is a world of violence. Women get beaten but so do men, bodies are mutilated (those or women more frequently than those of men) and many rituals involve dangerous acts that not uncommonly can lead to death or permanent disablement. To survive, tribes hunt for food and fight enemies with hand made weapons. It is difficult to understand and accept and there are continues attempts to alter many of such traditions. Unfortunately, governmental influence from the past only proved that what is forbidden will be done twofold in secrecy. Those traditions are centuries old and are imbedded into every member of each tribe. They are ‘sacred’. Forbidding those practices is complicated and unwelcome by men and women alike. It seems that the best way to bring small waves of positive change is to bring tourism and show alternative ways of living. This has been the most successful route thus far although the process of change is slow and not without pain. Often members who break out of traditions are no longer accepted in their tribes or stigmatized within one. Still, more and more tribes begin to flex some of those strict rules as they observe western traditions in their literal backyard.

On one hand it’s incredible to imagine that there are so many people that live such lifestyles in the 21st century. On the other, without modern technology (and I mean basics, such as a radio or newspaper) or education that goes beyond 2nd grade (elementary school), most of the tribal people can’t read or write their own language (let alone Amharic or English) and so it isn’t all that surprising that not much have changed. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa, and one of a handful in the world that has never been colonized and the result is an astounding diversity of a different world that stopped in time as everything around it run towards civilization.

It is a curse and a blessing. Ethiopia is struggling with its diversity and newly birthed peace and democracy. That country has a lot to gain and everything to loose. It’s easy to judge and difficult to watch standards that don’t meet our western values or allow them to continue without an intervention. At the same time, change by force is always wrong and we have many bloody stains on our history of humanity in the name of ‘progress’. It is also absolutely amazing that those cultures survived the changes happening around them and we can observe them today as they were hundreds of years ago.

Visiting Omo Valley taught us more than any school or any book ever would. I would hope most of the tribes will never change their ways of living, and only alter them to minimize or eliminate harm to its members but it is easy to say, when the task is a complex one, as each culture functions as a whole. Taking a few pieces out and leaving everything in place would never truly work and eventually those cultures would vanish like many others did in the modern societies.

The next village we visited was that of Karo tribe.

To be continued…

ETHIOPIA and its OMO VALLEY - Part I