Omo Valley Villages (iii)

Pancakes and Toast for breakfast. Now you might not think that was a big deal, but believe me it was!!!!  Toast was heaven, warm, crunchy and came with peanut butter and jam!!! Oh my, oh my. Oh so good. The pancake that followed was pretty damn good too, as was another large cup of Ethiopian coffee. So sated and happy we set off towards the Ari village. The road was not passable with the van so we set off up a pretty steep road to the top. I struggled with the uphill climb but it was worth it. 

This village visit was nothing like yesterday’s. No kids running round us asking for money just a nicely organised visit. Firstly we got to watch an ironmonger making a tool. Heating the iron in the fire until it was red hot then beating it into shape with a mallet. 

The next thing was watching their form of injera being made, this time with the addition of something like cornflour. The mixture resembling pancake mix is poured onto the hotplate in a circular motion from the outside of the circle inwards and cooked on one side only. We were served the injera with something like a pesto made from chilli. To me it had a grassy taste and was very yum. I went back for more. And more. 

Our third experience was seeing the process for the making of arak. The local spirit. Pretty much a normal distilling process but a little bit more basic. Much much nicer than the equivalent that we had a few days ago and despite it being only about 9:00 am a few rounds of this could have gone down easily. 

Next we see a beautiful 12 year old girl making a pottery plate. Within about 15 minutes she had formed a blob of clay into the shape of a beautiful plate, kneading and pulling then flattening and smoothing with her hands. 

The young girl then attached herself to one of the guys in our group and held his hand all the way down the path. 

I spied beautiful a young girl who was a dark version of my gorgeous cousin Florence. Same bone structure and smile, with eyes of a different colour and as fair as Florence is, this beauty was as dark.  Together with a friend of hers we walked hand in hand down the track till theygot to their respective homesand we said goodbye. Along  the way they practiced their English which they are learning at school. This tribe place a strong emphasis on schooling, including the learning of English. 

This was my favourite village yet. No begging or annoying kids and somehow more progressive than the other tribes we have seen. It was sad to leave. 

Our next stop a small but very interesting Ethnographic  museum, where we saw artefacts from the different tribes. Although the tribes live relatively close they can be vastly different in their traditions. I will summarise them in a separate post later on. 

While at the museum we learned a bit about the process of ‘scarring’where women are physically beaten by husbands for various reasons. The scars they bear are considered a status symbol. 

We also watched a video about the tradition of cow jumping, where young men ready for marriage run along the backs of a line of cattle. The better they do the more eligible they are considered. More on that in the section about the tribes. 

Our drive back was pretty awful and very long. The roads have been washed out during recent rains do were full of huge pot holes. Where we weren’t dodging potholes we were dodging cattle, goats or sheep which were enjoying the warmth of the road and pretty hard to budge. 

We eventually arrive at Tursi Lodge, welcomed with a bottle of iced water. You have no idea how welcome a really cold drink is when most everywhere we have been getting drinks that are luke warm. We have water in the bus but that too is luke warm. 

Our rooms are basic but clean but most rooms have a problem of sorts. No water, no towels, in my case,  I discovered during the night, had lights that had a mind of their own and turned on and off at will. ha ha. 

With at last an opportunity to do a bit of writing I dragged a chair onto my ‘deck’ and made myself comfy ready to write. In the distance I hear ‘help, help’ and recognised the voice as coming from one of our group. I investigated and found that one of the girls was locked in her bathroom. I tried to open the door to no avail but managed to find the ‘manager’ who bought along a bunch of keys and let her out. A bit of drama for the day!!

The only choice for dinner was at the lodge so off we trudged. The only option was a buffet which I actually enjoyed. Eventually! an Ethiopian meat stew, which I had been hanging out for, and a delicious potato dish suited me just fine. But the best part of the meal was the superb local Cab. Sav. we enjoyed. The conversation flowed along with the wine and it was a happy bunch that made their way down the road back to the lodge. 

Another great day.