MEETING THE MURSI, BANNA AND HAMER PEOPLE

WEATHER: Cooler and 29C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Visiting the Mursi people for the second time

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Crap showers at the camp

BUYS OF THE DAY: 30 minutes of internet for 2AUD

WORD OF THE DAY:

So this morning I wake to the sound of the same cow bells that put me to sleep last night.  It was weird being in a tent on my own – I miss my Tentie. The weather  hasn’t improved that much, but I don’t think it rained overnight, so instead of wet mud it is now a little drier and now not sticking to our shoes as much.  Breakfast was a miracle prepared by our cook for the next 4 days of scrambled eggs, bread and spreads.  There is also peanut butter especially for our American friend Bobby, who is stoked about that!

This morning we headed back to the village at 7.15am, and this time armed with our camera’s and to be honest I was a little apprehensive about just how much hassle we would be given after yesterday’s meeting with them when we didn’t have cameras.  We were also accompanied by the ranger and also a guard of some sort, which was no=ice to know when the kids got too pushy they were told to back off.  Remembering that no-one spoke English except the word photo (of course)There is nothing worse than getting hassled by anyone, the last time that I got really cranky was when we were in the Nairobbery Markets and I didn’t think that could get any worse, well the Mursi come in a close second if not first.  It’s awful.  So as a group we set off, with small notes to pay for our photos as we saw fit to take and prepared for the onslaught.  As soon as we stepped out of the main gates we were swamped more by children than adult to start with, lots of pushing and touching and asking for photos.  The average price you pay for a photo in Ethiopia is 2 birr (around .11c) but the cheeky Mursi were asking for 4-5 birr, which is still peanuts in the scheme of things and the main problem is firstly getting the money out when there are 10 people milling around and making sure you have the smaller notes to be able to give them.  You knew today was photo day as everyone looked like they had out a little more effort in to what they were wearing than yesterday.  There were more painted faces, more ladies with headdresses and the boys and men had their fighting sticks with them.  Don’t get me wrong it is still their natural dress, but not every day, more for ceremonies etc……  Minaloo had mentioned that instead of us all trying to pay small notes and all vying for pictures and the tribal people fighting, to try and strike a deal with the village to pay one lump sum payment and then we could take all the photos we wanted.  That sounded like a far better plan, in the long run probably costing us more, but totally worth it to not have the hassle.  Well after a few discussions and going back and forth the tribe agreed on 1000 birr (58AUD) total for the 12 of us, which I might point out is a lot of money for them and we were now able to take what we wanted.  The downside of this system was that they them all stood in a large circle all next to each other while we walked around the inside of the circle and snapped away.  I felt bad now that it was done this way and now that I was allowed to take the pictures I didn’t take as many as I probably wanted to.  It was too weird.  Not to say I didn’t get photos, these people look amazing and they really are oblivious to the outside world and they are the people you see in the National Geographic magazines when you read about tribes.  It is amazing that these people still are around in today’s world.  Western people have a lot to learn about culture sometimes, as we go around our modern, high tech world we now live in.  No electricity out here, no mobile phones, no internet, no gadgets.  They literally live off what the earth provides them.     

So after 1.5 hours in the village, some of the woman had figured we had got our value for money and started to refuse getting their pictures taken, I guess there has to be a line drawn somewhere and I totally understand that, so as they followed us back to the medical compound and watched the last of the camping equipment packed up, we were back on the road again.  I was in car 3 today and our man Johnny was the driver.  I have to say that experience has left a lasting impression on me and something I do rate up there with my San Bushman experience in Namibia and know I will never see anything like that again.  It was AMAZING. 

We arrived back into Jinka at 10.30am for a short stop to restock the food supplies.  So I got dropped off at the internet café for 30 minutes with a promise that Johnny would be back for me which he was right on time for the collection.  John walked down and he had to walk back, now who was his driver for the day?  We were kind enough to offer him a lift back to the hotel in our car.  The internet speed is surprisingly fast, so I got to send off a few emails, internet banking and of course Facebook. 

We drove again for another 1.5 hours to a town called Key Afar.  You can really tell the difference in the tribes as you move around the country.  The hair is different, the clothes are different, and their facial features are different.  One thing that is constant between the tribes is their physical makeup.  The tribal people are generally tall, slim and they are so muscly and fit looking.  Which when your only mode of transport are your feet, you are going to be muscly walking up and down the mountainsides carrying what you need at your side.  I have also noticed that the woman don’t carry much on their heads here like in East Africa, it is all on their backs tied or strapped on.  As we drove, there were a lot of the Banna people walking to town with their goods on the backs to sell their wares.  Today is the once weekly market in Key Afar which we were going to visit after we had our lunch.  We ate a tuna pasta salad that had been prepared by cook, a coke to wash it all down with and then we had a guide that was to take us around the market of the Banna people.

Each market that we visit has been a little different, but it is an amazing place to walk around.  There is a lot of colour, talking, noise and of course we get our own fair share of stares being the ‘farangee’ (white people) walking around.  There were a few more ‘farangees’ at this market than we have seen anywhere else to date.  Josephine, Massimo and I lost the group at one stage, to give you an idea on just how busy and bustley it is, so we did our own self tour knowing we had to be back at the restaurant for our departure at 1.45pm. Massimo played a little football (soccer) with some of the local kids on the way down the road and I had some older teenage boys come up and ask me questions to practice their English.

So another 2.5 hours on the road got us into Turmi and into Hamar Tribal territory at 4pm.  This tribe again is very different from the other 2 tribes we have seen today.  To be able to say we saw three tribal groups in one day is pretty cool in itself, I don’t know anywhere else in the world that you would get this diverse cultural experience in one day.  AMAZING.  We are staying in Turmi for 3 nights, which will be great to be in one place.  We got dropped off into town, using this word loosely, it is pretty much a one main street kind of place, with a few shops and bars lining the main thorough affair.  There was a small woman’s market that we took a walk around, as the cars headed to camp and set up for us (I could get used to this) and we got to mingle with the local Hamar people.  The children like anywhere were friendly and the Hamar are also over the photo game and we had to pay for any shots that we wanted to take.  Seize the opportunity while you can, who can blame them.  They certainly aren’t anywhere as pushy as the Mursi though.  The Hamar people have distinctive hair, dreadlocked and coloured with the red mud of the area and the woman also wear neck bangles for the want of a better word.  If you are married there are 2 bangles around your neck and if you are a first wife, you get the privilege of wearing an additional neck bangle.  I guess when you know no better and this is tradition, what can we say?

We were collected after an hour in the town.  We had created quite a stir and people were all milling around as the boys were talking to the local women and children.  Josephine and I decided to take some time out and sat out the front of what was the local corner store and talked with our new friends of 4 children, whose English was quite good as they attend the local school in Turmi.  There was one memorable moment when one of the children, who would have been around 4 years old, came over and without sounding mean, he had ears bigger then Prince Charles and when he had his back to us, we couldn’t help but laugh as the sun shone through them and made them pink.  Josephine and I ended up calling him Goddam from Lord of the Rings, it was hilarious, but he was cute as a button, so hopefully that will save him when he gets older.  He was such a cutie and Josephine and I referenced him for the rest of the trip.

Camp was only a 10 minute drive away and when we got there our tents were all set up and raring to go under massive mango trees.  The shade from the trees was welcomed as it was pretty hot out today.  It was only 29C but it felt a lot hotter than that.  All we had to do was get our bags from the car and dump them off.  We were all keen for a shower as there were no showers the previous night at the Mursi Village.  They had 2 blocks of showers so Bobby and I thought we would be smart and walk to the furthest ones, but the water pressure was terrible and Bobs had to turn his off for me to be able to get enough pressure for a dribble to come out.  After not having a shower for nearly 36 hours, I would take a dribble any day but plans of me washing my filthy hair was going to have to wait till tomorrow when I changed shower blocks.  No hot water, but with the temps outside of 30C, this was okay.

The camp had an open communal building where they sold beer and soft drinks and had a long table with camp chairs where we were going to have our meals for the next 3 days.  It was a pretty cool set up.  The toilets were surprisingly okay as well.  They had proper toilets, but instead of flushing, they had a massive barrel of water in the cubicle that you would splash a few cup full’s of water in the bowl and it was just as good as a flush!  They didn’t really smell too much either which is always a bonus.  I think I am starting to get a little soft on that department and just a whisp of a feral faeces smell and I am dry retching.  The camp site is located on the banks of the river which like all the rivers we have driven through was dry as a bone.  So before dinner some of the group went for a walk on the dry river bed and saw some Columbus monkeys and some birdlife before coming back just before sunset. 

We had a pretty BIG day today and had been on the road for a large part of that. So after our briefing with Minaloo for tomorrow we all pretty much retired to bed for the night with lightening streaking across the sky, we looked like we were going to be in for some rain, and just as I dropped off into my dreamland the first drops of rain hit the tent.  I love sleeping in a tent when it is raining.