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Travel Story
Subject: From Devil’s Lake to God’s Bridges at Arba Minch
Hi there Everyone
En route down south we visited Devil’s Lake, a beautiful azure blue in colour like Lake Louise in Canada without the snowy white mountains as it’s backdrop. Its hue is from algae and it’s known for its howling hyenas that appear at dusk. Because it has steep sides the elders have spun a story about a devil to keep the children away. Our journey took us through areas where we were on ‘the Ferngi Channel’ with every move curiously watched by observers. Stopping for morning coffee always draws a crowd.
The landscape, agriculture, villages and people are of great interest.
Two nights in Arba Minch we stayed in a hotel owned by a famous Ethiopian marathon runner Haile Gebreselassie that overlooked a mountain known as God’s Bridge. God’s Bridge is an isthmus that separates Lakes Abaya, a pinkish cappuccino colour and Lake Chamo, a bluish cappuccino colour forming the Nech Sar National Park. Sadly the park only hosts about 40 species that originally lived here when the park was declared in the 1960s and is no longer welcoming visitors other than a boat ride on Lake Chamo. We were fortunate to see hippos and crocs up close, flights of pelicans, African fish eagles, Goliath herons and lots of little birds.
We visited a Dorze Village in the mountains were their thatched homes are surprisingly high about 8 meters with an interesting nose shaped entrance and are made from bamboo and false banana. In fact this plant is fundamental to their lives. The stem flesh is pulped into a mash, buried for 3 months to ferment, kneaded into a dough, flattened, cooked on a clay dish and served as a flat bread with a firey, green chilli sauce. We were invited to share in this and their araky with many shots and toasts. Though the false banana doesn’t fruit it is a staple food, is used for thatching, as umbrellas and makes a strong rope. Animals share the space at night that follows their Orthodox beliefs that Jesus was born on a manger. Their warm breath is natural heating. Women the spin cotton and men weave in these villages.
Like everywhere here life is hard. Off further south for more adventures.
Love Pammie and Ross????????
$1· Subject: From the Bridge of God to the extraordinary living culture of the Omo Valley
Hi there Everyone,
What a feast for our eyes and more than we could have ever expected. Walking the market days in Dimeka, Turmi and Alduba and wandering the villages of Danesha, Dembagwo and Konso we’ve seen traditions embedded in cultural practices for centuries with tribal life of the Hamer, Danesha, Benna, Aari and Konso. Traditionally herders and farmers, men and boys wander with herds of goats and cattle and farm every arable stretch of land with maize and sorghum.
As luck would have it we were in Turmi for a Hamer bull jumping ceremony, a right of passage for young men and a proof of manhood before marriage. We walked with tribes people over the Kaskey River to the observe the stages of the ceremony. Women who are relatives of the young man wearing traditional beaded goat skin skirts with breasts covered and bells on their ankles danced and sung in his honour. Some men were painted with ochre and women invited men to whip them on their arms or sides with flexible sticks, a practice I couldn’t watch. Again to show their honour and excitement. After this we walked to the site of the bull jump.
The young man was blessed by elders and standing naked with the exception of a string that crossed his chest and back he waited patiently among the 10 big bulls and 3 smaller ones. Being uncooperative wandering off, bucking and swinging men off their feet, eventually three big bulls and one smaller one were held by their horns and tails ready for the jump to commence. With a run up like a spin bowler he jumped onto the first bull and was on his way running across their backs and leaping off to run and repeat his skill with 8 runs. Having prepared himself with a diet of cow’s blood, milk and meat for month before he’d succeed and was honoured again by the women in his family with more joyful singing and dancing.
Market days are a kaleidoscopic of colour and movement and an important time for community socialising with women selling and buying everything their family and home need. Ochre and butter is rolled into women’s hair, chickens, fruit, vegetables, honey, sniffing and chewing tobacco, beads, calabashes, rope, household items, clothes and shoes were on sale. Men sit around, chat and drink and appear to only be involved in the cattle market. When freshly made sorghum beer is available, a plastic cup or bucket is placed on a stick outside homes.
In back yards of Turmi local beer was sold and the cacophony of post market conversation allured passers by to share in beer from a calabash, tej, a honey wine or a commercially brewed beer. Along with our guide we joined locals for some honey wine and watched the late afternoon antics. The success of market days or sunset determines the length of stay before people start their walk home, women carrying their unsold produce or nee purchases on their backs. Men walk alongside with a stick and their pillow- cum-stool. Some walk as far as 10 kilometres each way on market days. It is no wonder Ethiopians are slim and lean.
Another wonderful Ethiopian experience.
Pammie and Ross
