WEDNESDAY MAY 2, 2012 TURMI TO MURULLE & OMORATE ( OMO river)
KARO people, HAMMER people, & DASSENACH people
(6 to 8 hours of very hot 35 degrees Celcius driving!)
What a day this has been - from the friendly HAMMER group of folks we ran into on the dirt road, to the KARO people who fight with the BUME people across the river with automatic rifles (Kalishnikov AK47) because they both claim the shoreline next to the Omo River for grazing their animals! - to the Dassenech who live further down on the OMO River who still continue circumcision (mutilation) of both boys and girls.
Yes - it was a very hot, dusty day with unbelievable interactions with these three tribes of people. The temperatures reach 40 degrees Celcius here, and it was at least 35 while we were there - smelly and sweaty. I was awake at 4 am (Terry slept until 6) and when Terry woke up he had about 50 bites all down his side presumably from a bed bug in his bed - the office said they would change the mattress today. After breakfast (French Toast, Spanish Omelette and coffee) we headed out at 7:30am with Bale and Malcolm for the drive to the OMO river and the home of the KARO people - maximum 1200 people left in the world (KOROCHO Village - means sand, DUSS village - means Dust, LABUK village means soil, I’m sure you get my drift?) - the KARO split from the HAMMER people but are still friendly with each other, KARO means fish eater and sure enough they fish from the huge brown sandy OMO river for fish. When we arrived after close to two hours after crossing hot dry savannah (very much like Samburu in Kenya just a few KM South) there were KARO people crossing the very wide fast flowing OMO in traditional dug out canoes to fish from the bank on the other side - they looked very unstable to me!
Along the way as always we passed a huge number of birds including: African weaver, buffalo weaver, steel blue wydar (with long tail), guinea fowl (helmeted and vultarine), Rupell’s vulture, carmine bee eater (fabulous red breast), goshawk and many others. The most wonderful experience, and this turned out to be our highlight of the day, was when we drove around a corner on the sandy track and there were maybe 12 girls, women and babies in a line across the track blocking our way - singing and clapping for us - they had heard our truck coming - the only one of the day! These were Hammer people, beautiful women with red hair - they grease all their curls with butter (they have lots of goats and cows) then dye it red with the dirt from the area. They are stunningly beautiful with their goat skin skirts and necklaces of hide decorated with shells from Lake Turkana South of here on the Kenya border. They were smiling, singing and clapping and so happy that we stopped to take photos of them. The men were close by with some digging and construction project and soon also came over to join the group. Terry went to shake hands with the eldest one - remember how you shake left hands and then touch first right shoulder, then left shoulder and then right shoulder again while still holding hands? Well, this chap was holding a shovel over his right shoulder and when they shook hands and went to touch right shoulders the shovel shifted and hit Terry on the head! That definitely made him the centre of attention as all the men wanted to make sure his head was ok! No damage done, thankfully. We paid them 100 brr $6) and they were all smiles - we hated to leave them, but we did, and carried on with smiles on our faces too and some excellent video of their singing and dancing (even if Jan did miss the men doing the shovel welcome).
We arrived at the OMO river high bank at 9:45am (after several deep water puddles and dry river beds - thank goodness for 4 wheel drive) at the KARO people and were welcomed by their guide. You have to pay to visit any of the villages and you also have to pay per person per photo to take pictures - Malcolm agreed to pay 3brr per person per photo but believe me taking photos and paying the bill is not simple! Because the tourists in the past paid the people, give teeshirts , candy and whatever else to the individuals this has caused problems in every village that we visited. Now it is a competition between individuals to get you to take “their” photo and pay them instead of one of their fellow villagers. every lady and child saying “photo” ,“Photo” the whole time you are there.
The KARO people wear very little - they have beads around their necks, the boys and men and women wear skins (or cotton sarongs) over their genitals, and some paint their faces and bodies. One small girl, may be 5 years old, was carrying a small baby on her back in a goat skin - the baby hated being in the sun and getting hot, and cried every time until he was put back into the shade. Some also paint their bodies and faces - one girl had a pink fresh flower in her ears and through a hole in her lip, others painted white dots over their faces and bodies using the head of a nail . One older gentleman was painted in white stripes from the tip of his head to his ankles - he enjoyed his photo with Terry and fingered Terry’s beard asking if he had soap or a razor he could leave with him! The tiniest babies have strings of beads around their waists. Everyone wanted their photos taken (so they could earn brr). We learned that it costs 120 sheep (100-250brr to buy a sheep in the market) for a dowry to buy a wife - yes, their sheep, goat and cattle herds are very large - most families own 400 to 500 sheep. Each year there is the “bull jumping” contest where the older boys, in order to prove they are now men, jump up onto the back of the bulls and run across their backs! If they are successful they are men, if unsuccessful they have to wait another year to try again.
Their village is small round huts, one for each wife if the man has multiple wives, and another hut for living in during the day - it’s so hot (up to 45C) they try to stay cool in a hut out of the sun. They grow sorghum and fish in the river - everyone can swim, but they lose a villager now and then to the crocodiles in the river. They like coffee (which they buy with the money they earn from photos, in the town of Turmi where our hotel is, a 2 hour drive away and who knows how long to walk there), but they brew the coffee shells whereas all of us in the Western world brew the coffee beans after the shells have been discarded. The local village guide was taught English in the school by someone from the USA (he didn’t know where this teacher came from) but for us to listen to the American accent of a local villager was amazing!
Malcolm paid for the photos we had taken (you have to be careful, someone is always trying to also get into the photo you have already agreed to take with others!) and away we went - this is the smallest tribe of people left in Ethiopia - wearing almost no clothes but carrying Karishnikovs to fight with their neighbours over grazing rights for their cattle and possibly protect themselves from hyenas. The history behind this is that at the end of the Dark Period (or military regime) in 1991 - those who were soldiers in the regime needed to look like farmers to be safe ( and not be killed for what the military regime had done during their 17 years in power) - so they sold their rifles to these very primitive peoples so that they could then look like farmers and agriculturalists themselves, earn some cash, and not be arrested or killed as part of the military regime that was falling.
After visiting Koroch village and the KARO people we returned back to BUSKA Lodge for lunch (excellent fresh tomato soup and fresh bread). We had preordered to save time but still had to wait. Bird spotting is a wonderful thing to do as we drive because there are so many birds here - no wonder there are passionate bird watchers who come to spot the birds, many of which cannot be found elsewhere. We saw helmeted guinea fowl, somalia bee eaters,and of course all the varieties we saw on the way out. There are huge termite mounds in this area which is close to the Kenyan and Sudanese borders, and looks a lot like Samburu in Kenya. The termite mounds here tend to be very tall and slim like pillars - and much taller than we are - so maybe the highest were 10 to 15 feet tall. There was also a beautiful cactus in flower (karaluma) - which at first we thought had large round black flowers, but further inspection showed them to be deep magenta purple with yellow centres - just beautiful.
WE left BUSKA Lodge after lunch at 1:30 and drove about 2 hours to the OMO river (south west this time rather than northwest) to visit the DASSENACH people. It was so hot (35 C) the ride was quite difficult - of course it’s very rough since you are on dirt or sand tracks the entire way so you bump along with jerks and swift moves left and right. There are lots of the tiny dik dik’s here (small antelope) and they stay close to the tracks so that they can watch for predators (mostly jackal here) and a huge number of birds including osprey, fischer’s starlings, sacred ibis, egyptian geese, superb starling, carmine bee eater (my favourite!), white and black bellied bustards, cory bustard, and yellow necked francolin. We even saw dung beetles pushing along balls of cattle dung - one beetle clinging on while the other rolled the ball of dung over and over. A large mongoose ran across the trail, but disappeared into the bush really quickly.
We were directed off the trail at one point by the military in camouflage uniforms - apparently the Chinese are looking for oil in this area and there were several Chinese and military waiting for a plane to arrive. More than 2 hours later on our return they were still there, still waiting for the plane! As I mentioned this is very close to the Kenya and Sudanese borders (in fact the DASSENACH village is 28 km from both borders) and we had to check in at a fairly large Customs and Immigration office when we arrived at the town of OMORATE and show our passports. Even though this is inside Ethiopia they check everyone coming and going to ensure they catch anyone trying to leave or enter with forged or no documents. While waiting for our passports to be checked, we watched as about 20 uniformed military guards lined up to start their shift, doing drill.
Also at this point is a huge metal bridge section sticking up in the air (balanced on one pillar! It was built and then collapsed when the other pillar was eroded by the river. So it is now just massive pieces of metal stuck in the river! Just a short distance on we stopped and had to cross the river to visit the Dassenach people - the locals were crossing the wide river in dug out canoes (truly a long tree trunk that was dug out and looked very unstable!) . The OMO is about 200 yards wide, fast flowing and very brown (as is every river and stream in Southern Ethiopia) coloured by the sand and dirt that runs off into the river. It seemed a good reason to have a bridge! Too bad about the collapsed one.
We arrived (very hot and sweaty) around 3:30pm, met up with a local guide, Solomon, and were fortunate enough to cross the OMO in an old and rusty motor boat where the Captain had trouble starting the motor and was visibly upset talking to Malcolm and the local guide - apparently he was angry because there is almost no gas available in the local village. This was somewhat disturbing as we started to drift down the river! Eventually the motor kicked in and we were on the other bank in a couple of minutes. The banks are hard orange dirt and very tricky to negotiate up and down - the local boys help out, ever ready to earn a couple of birr.
The DASSENACH people were waiting for us on the other bank and this was quite busy - many of them crowded around touching and begging to have their photo taken so they could earn birr. We walked slowly to their village which looks just like Samburu in Kenya. Large round low huts built of wood and straw with any materials they can lay their hands on to add to the roof structure - so cardboard, iron sheeting, plastic etc.
They again are extremely dark skinned and love to decorate themselves, the novel approach here being to use bottle tops which they have wound all through their hair and especially braided into the bangs over their faces so as they talk there are bottle tops bouncing along their foreheads! Malcolm arranged for us to pay 3birr per person per photo. We took several photos (I started with 3 very old ladies) and Solomon pulled out a young girl and very old lady (at least she looked very old but that could simply be a result of the very harsh conditions that they live in) and Solomon told me they were representative of the Dassenach culture. The young girl had rows of scarring along her shoulders and over her back which is what the Dassenach are known for, There were small children carrying kid goats - I think maybe because they look cute when they do this so more chance to get their photo taken! I was sad to see a monkey tied on a piece of rope, at times running free but at times held like a dog.
The Dassenach elect their own chief and he is allowed to have 6 wives, every other man can only have 5 wives. They still continue the tradition of male and female circumcision (for females we all now know this mutilation) which was very disturbing to hear. Malcolm pointed out two “nurses” that the government has sent out to try to train the people and discourage FGM (which is illegal in Ethiopia) but they seemed more interested in just lying under the shade of the trees. The Dassenach used to be known as GELAB - they hate this name and it is no longer used since the meaning is “slave”.
Solomon told us that 6 years ago the OMO had a big flood and 600 people died in the OMO delta where it reaches Lake Turkana. The village here was not impacted - the banks are probably 60 feet from the river to the top - and in fact after the wet season they use the river banks to grow their crops. We crossed back over the OMO just under 1 hour later, and after a warm bottle of pepsi at the “cafe” on the other side, we were soon driving back (no need to stop at Customs and Immigration on the return). We saw an unbelievable number of dik dik pairs on the return and lots of birds - the highlight for me being the red and yellow barbet sitting on top of a termite mound, and also an eastern paradise wyda.
Back at BUSKA LODGE by 5:45pm - the shower was so welcome! After sundowners Malcolm and Bale had still not arrived so we ordered dinner (excellent pepper steak) and Malcolm arrived hot and glowing (sweaty) around 8pm. The chief cook and massage lady were not well and they had taken them into Turmi to the medical clinic to be looked at. One was anaemic and not sure about the other. This Lodge is owned by DINKNESH Tours (who we are travelling with) so I think Malcolm ( as a senior employee of Dinknesh) gives assistance when needed while he is here. Malcolm confirmed what we all know - these employees are from the city of Addis Ababa and so living in the bush here is as hard on them (different food, water, climate, customs) as it can be on tourists. After a very interesting, hot and tiring day, we headed to bed shortly after 8:30 and had about one hour on our travel diary before the generator was shut off at 10pm - waiting until 6 am the next morning to continue our diary and adventures here in Southern Ethiopia!
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